North West Archives - Page 82 of 128

The Osmonds: A New Musical – Liverpool Empire

7Sep

By Anne PritchardNo Comments

North West

The Osmonds: A New Musical – Liverpool Empire

Love them or loathe them, The Osmonds were a tour de force in the musical showground in the 1960’s and 1970’s and the brothers attracted massive adulation from female fans, particularly Donny; together the group lived an incredible life producing chart-topping albums, selling out huge arena concerts and creating record-breaking TV shows. This production is based on Jay Osmond’s personal experiences charting the story of an extraordinary family and their rise to superstardom. Alex Lodge as Jay acts as Narrator; he managed a heavy script containing facts and figures about the Osmond family detailing their highs and lows; he did it extremely well with exuberance and panache. The Osmond brothers and sister, Marie were born in Utah, USA to parents George and Olive; brothers Alan, Wayne...

Venus Rising – Liverpool Theatre Festival

6Sep

By Ezzy LaBelleNo Comments

North West

Venus Rising – Liverpool Theatre Festival

Pulsing with energy and sprinkled with laughs, Venus Rising takes you on a trolley ride of emotion through the life of an accidental erotic writer. Performed as a monologue, it has you perched with anticipation. Meet James Wilkinson. All he had ever wanted to do was write, but not like this. Having made a drunken bet with a friend, James finds success carving out his own greasy niche in the market. Life should be brilliant, shouldn't it? It is clear from the staging - a messy room with several wine bottles - that life is perhaps not as brilliant as you'd expect for a writer supposedly living the dream everyone else has. But that's the problem; he's not the one living the dream. He’s the most successful person you’ll ever meet, and you’d never know it. He hates his job, hates his l...

6Sep

By Max EdenNo Comments

North West

We Will Rock You – Palace Theatre

‘We Will Rock You’ is one of those musicals where you know exactly what you’re going to get; a musical with a set list jam-packed with singalong mega hits and bags of energy and fun, it’s a real crowd pleaser! Launched back in 2002; it has become the eleventh longest running musical of the West End and credited as one of the original ‘jukebox’ musicals, it’s popularity and longevity can be acknowledged in part by the back catalogue of Rock Legends; Queen - which make up its score; featuring a whooping 25 songs from Freddie Mercury and the band. The script although quite far-fetched and silly at times is perfectly tailored to our British humour, and writer Ben Elton has revamped and refreshed the script over the years to keep the production relevant, including a rather amusing Covid t...

David Essex ‘I’ll Be Missing You’ Tour – Liverpool Philharmonic

6Sep

By Jenn McKeanNo Comments

North West

David Essex ‘I’ll Be Missing You’ Tour – Liverpool Philharmonic

How do you scare a man in his mid-70s from East London? Lock him in a room with hundreds of scouse women screaming for him. Some people might think that David Essex is well past his prime, still going on tour into his 70s, but being on stage at the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, it seemed as though he was still in his prime. Still sounding almost exactly the same as he did on his records and still able to fully captivate an audience. As someone who grew up, only knowing his biggest hits and learnt more of his back catalogue through his musical ‘All the Fun of the Fair’, it was a thoroughly enjoyable evening. We were treated to a fabulous set from Tim Newman, as Essex’s support act and he definitely got the crowd warmed up and ready for the main event. He sang some of his own tracks, in...

Fear and Misery of the Third Reich – Liverpool Theatre Festival

5Sep

By Ezzy LaBelleNo Comments

North West

Fear and Misery of the Third Reich – Liverpool Theatre Festival

With no ticket left unsold, Fear and Misery of The Third Reich transports the audience to a time the history books say will never happen again. Written by Bertolt Brecht in 1938, viewers witness events that took place in ordinary German households through a series of twenty-four interconnected playlets. This version is dedicated in solidarity with the people of Ukraine. Produced by Theatre Right Now and directed by Anthony Proctor, Fear and Misery of The Third Reich, the performance provides an intimate, moving evening. They have made use of the actors’ skillsets and focused on the storytelling of Brecht's work. The script is powerful. With only four people in the cast - Liam Powell-Berry, Reginald Edwards, Megan Thorne, Mary Savage and Samantha Alton - a multitude of characters a...

A Night at the Musicals – Buxton Opera House

4Sep

By Angela KellyNo Comments

North West

A Night at the Musicals – Buxton Opera House

The stunning Buxton Opera House hosted ‘A night at The Musicals’, an Icy Shark production with an array of well-known scores from some of the world’s most popular musicals. Directed by Chris Ellis and Des McGill and produced by Dennis Kay this is a must for any lover of musical theatre. Including music from Moulin Rouge, Phantom of the Opera, Les Misérables and Jesus Christ Superstar, and accompanied on stage by keyboards, drums and percussion and guitar, this non-profit making company had put on quite a show, considering that their first rehearsal was only in September 2021 following many delays related to Covid 19 prior to this. Before discussing the entire performance, it would be remiss not to mention the one major issue with the entire production and it was sadly the poor qualit...

2Sep

By Louise KershawNo Comments

North West

Twenty Today – King’s Arms, Salford

For some reason, in the mid Eighties, my Dad started collecting plates. The sorts of plates that were regularly advertised in the back of glossy Sunday magazines. They were hideous. Many of them were wall mounted around the house and when family parties or sisters pretending to be The Nolans got a bit boisterous, my mother could be heard crying “Watch the plates!” I was reminded of this in the opening scene of Peripeteia Theatre’s Twenty Today in which we meet 19-year-old Peter Clapton (Joseph Harding) and his Aunt Holly ‘Dave’ Clapton (Solaya Sang) on the eve of his 20th birthday. He is preparing for his house party, she has a date. There is immediate warmth and connection between Harding and Sang as the orphaned boy-about-to-be-man and the sister of his dead mother, who has now...

Little Shop of Horrors – Liverpool Empire

27Aug

By Lou SteggalsNo Comments

North West

Little Shop of Horrors – Liverpool Empire

Brimming with camp, B-Movie schtick, damsels in distress and botany with a bite, Little Shop of Horrors has long been a cult favourite. Liverpool Empire’s Youth Theatre group has done itself proud in bringing this quirky and energetic musical to the stage. If you’re not familiar with the story, it follows the nerdishly charming Seymour Krelborn, a flower shop boy who comes into the possession of a strange, exotic-looking plant during a solar eclipse. Seymour wants nothing more than to win the heart of his fellow shop assistant, Audrey, but the plant’s unusual feeding regime soon gives him something far more gruesome to focus on. Surrounded by an excellent set, with spot-on costumes, and supported by a superb band under the ever-reliable baton of Musical Director Paul Lawton, direc...

25Aug

By Brian MaddenNo Comments

North West

Family Tree – Kings Arms, Salford

Peripeteia Theatre Company have created a show with a worthy cause at its heart - a same sex couple wanting to bring a baby into already overpopulated and polluted world. This is a strait-laced two-hander play which is inspired by Lungs written by Duncan Macmillan. When I arrived at the Kings Arms and was greeted to individual tables with fairy lights and a good soundtrack, I had high expectations. However, when the baby-faced actors (Layla Hopps and Rebecca Gray) stepped on stage there was just no energy and sadly it never really picked up. Perhaps it was a case of first night nerves? While the plot is good and writer (Adam Cachia) gave the team lots to work with, sadly a lot of this potential was not realised. The synopsis in the program included words like ‘political unrest’, ...

24Aug

By Scot CunninghamNo Comments

North West

Identical – The Lowry

This musical adaptation of Erich Kästner’s novel ‘Lottie and Lisa’- more commonly known as ‘The Parent Trap’- will have you seeing double in a tale of two ever so similarly different sisters. When Lottie (Kyla Fox) and Lisa (Nicole Fox) meet at summer camp, they go from being enemies to best friends after discovering they’re long-lost twins separated at birth. Both are curious to meet the parent who didn’t raise them, and so they decide to swap lives. The story stays loyal to the original novel’s plot, but this omits a lot of humour from the Disney film adaptations that made ‘The Parent Trap’ such a hit. Tonally, ‘Identical’ is serious and schmaltzy, with family-friendly comedy scattered throughout. While some of Anthony Drewe’s lyrics are inventive, the score by composer George S...