Paula Tappenden Archives - North West End UK

Calendar Girls The Musical – Hull New Theatre

29Nov

By Jackie FoottitNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Calendar Girls The Musical – Hull New Theatre

I remember buying the original Women’s Institute nude calendar way back in 1999. It might be worth something now - but, alas, it probably went to the great recycler in the sky. Calendar Girls The Musical brought the story of the calendar’s inception to the Hull New Theatre on Tuesday evening. All the action takes place in the village hall of the small Yorkshire village of Cracoe. Under a fabulous vaulted ceiling (a remarkable stage design) we witnessed seven local ladies attending their usual WI meeting. Some took the proceedings seriously, others found them a bit mundane. This motley tight-knit group - Annie Clarke (Tanya Franks), Ruth (Maureen Nolan), Jessie (Lyn Paul), Chris (Amy Robbins), Marie (Paula Tappenden), Celia (Marti Webb) and Cora (Honeysuckle Weeks) - are thro...

16Feb

By Luke StephensonNo Comments

North West

Blood Brothers – Palace Theatre

Before coming to the theatre, I was told by email that due to restrictions and guidelines there were a couple of cast changes to the evenings show. Once again understudies coming to the rescue so that shows can continue to bring joy, laughter and musical theatre to those who wish to seek it. It’s an incredible thing to see and witness before me on stage. The show in question was Willy Russell’s Blood Brothers. A story about The Johnstone twins, like each other as two new pins, of one womb born on self same day. How one was kept and one given away. Mrs Johnstone (Niki Evans) was excited to start her new job as she was living hand to mouth with endless catalogue purchases and 7 hungry mouths to feed with one on the way. Or so she thought. It came to pass that she was expecting twins an...

9Feb

By Carole GordonNo Comments

London

Blood Brothers – New Wimbledon Theatre

Willy Russell's Blood Brothers is back and it's back with a bang. In the 40 years since the show was first performed in Liverpool, Blood Brothers has garnered global acclaim and success. The themes are broad - the class divide, nature versus nurture, poverty, friendship, sibling rivalry, family relationships. Twins Mickey and Eddie are born to working class mother Mrs Johnstone, already a mother of five, who is struggling to feed and clothe them all. Living on the "never-never", she has bailiffs at the door, so in the depths of her despair, she agrees to give up one of the new-borns to the wealthy Mrs Lyons who has been unable to have children. Mrs Lyons has one major condition in this arrangement; the boys must never find out that they are brothers. As the tale unfolds of the ...

3Nov

By Peter KinnockNo Comments

West Midlands

Blood Brothers – Birmingham Hippodrome

Wagner’s “Das Rheingold” famously opens with one long, droning tone from the orchestra which engages, entrances and thrills in equal measure. “Blood Brothers” employs the same technique and hits exactly the same, as it were, note. We are drawn into a dark and tragic world where the outcome of the plot is set out as clearly as the two dead two bodies laying before us. This is the plot spoiler of all plot spoilers but, oddly, though we know the end we want to know why it happened. Not a whodunnit, but a whydunnit? And so, the drone draws us in… My first Mrs. Johnston was Kiki Dee, which for all you BB buddies out there, means I saw it quite early on in its humungous run. Barbara Dickson did it first, of course, in a version that didn’t take off. Bill Kenwright sprinkled his Liverpudlian m...