Tricia Paolucci and Steven Webb star in Here We Come Again.
HERE YOU COME AGAIN
November 27, 2024
Grand Theatre, Blackpool, until Saturday, November 30, 2o24
Sometimes West End musicals go out on the road after they’ve played in town, often with smaller casts, sets and budgets, and ‘the provinces’ are given the chance to get a flavour of what was hailed by the critics and audiences in that Big London. But sometimes the regional restrictions mean the show can come across as a bit of a letdown.
Here You Come Again is doing the exact opposite: it’s currently on a UK tour before heading to London – and that means audiences are getting the opportunity to witness the birth of a top-rate show, featuring world-class performers, with all the excitement, freshness and talent of what I confidently predict will be a West End hit.
It has a genuine Broadway leading lady in the shape of Tricia Paoluccio, whose Dolly Parton impersonation is pitch-perfect both vocally and visually, and one of our own outstanding stars, Steven Webb, leaving behind a long-running role in The Book of Mormon to play off her superbly in this new musical featuring the hits of the Queen of Country.
Don’t be misled: this is not a biopic of the Jolene songstress, nor a jukebox musical in the style of 9 to 5. Co-written and directed by Paolucci’s husband Gabriel Barre, Here You Come Again is an original story in which middle-aged Kevin finds himself living back in his parents’ attic during the Covid pandemic, dumped by his boyfriend, furloughed from his job and just about hitting rockbottom with his reliance on pills and booze to get by. Enter his iconic heroine Dolly Parton to give him a good talking to and help him see the wonder in life that he has allowed to become stifled.
Essentially a two-hander, Barre and Paolucci brought in US veteran Bruce Vilanch to co-create the original American version of the show, and now Corrie and Beautiful Thing writer Jonathan Harvey has been co-opted to redraft it for a British audience. The result is a brilliantly crafted script of gags and poignancy very much in the Harvey mould, interspersed with a dozen or more of Dolly’s biggest hits.
Musically, it’s stunning. A tight and gifted four-piece band plus two vocalists dot in and out of the action, sometimes seen and sometimes hidden, to provide some effervescent numbers and the odd off-stage character, while Paolucci’s Dolly and Webb’s delightfully nerdy Kevin work together impeccably to pull off their theatrical feat of uninhibited joyousness.
Designer Paul Wills skewers Kevin’s childhood attic room and Dolly’s outfits perfectly, and some clever stage illusions (Richard Pinner) add real wow-factor moments, but it’s the two central performances that make this show such an undoubted winner.
It’s only on in Blackpool until Saturday (November 30): if you don’t catch it here and end up paying a small fortune to see it in the West End because of all the hype it’s inevitably going to attract, then you’ve only got yourself to blame.
November 27, 2024
Grand Theatre, Blackpool, until Saturday, November 30, 2o24
Sometimes West End musicals go out on the road after they’ve played in town, often with smaller casts, sets and budgets, and ‘the provinces’ are given the chance to get a flavour of what was hailed by the critics and audiences in that Big London. But sometimes the regional restrictions mean the show can come across as a bit of a letdown.
Here You Come Again is doing the exact opposite: it’s currently on a UK tour before heading to London – and that means audiences are getting the opportunity to witness the birth of a top-rate show, featuring world-class performers, with all the excitement, freshness and talent of what I confidently predict will be a West End hit.
It has a genuine Broadway leading lady in the shape of Tricia Paoluccio, whose Dolly Parton impersonation is pitch-perfect both vocally and visually, and one of our own outstanding stars, Steven Webb, leaving behind a long-running role in The Book of Mormon to play off her superbly in this new musical featuring the hits of the Queen of Country.
Don’t be misled: this is not a biopic of the Jolene songstress, nor a jukebox musical in the style of 9 to 5. Co-written and directed by Paolucci’s husband Gabriel Barre, Here You Come Again is an original story in which middle-aged Kevin finds himself living back in his parents’ attic during the Covid pandemic, dumped by his boyfriend, furloughed from his job and just about hitting rockbottom with his reliance on pills and booze to get by. Enter his iconic heroine Dolly Parton to give him a good talking to and help him see the wonder in life that he has allowed to become stifled.
Essentially a two-hander, Barre and Paolucci brought in US veteran Bruce Vilanch to co-create the original American version of the show, and now Corrie and Beautiful Thing writer Jonathan Harvey has been co-opted to redraft it for a British audience. The result is a brilliantly crafted script of gags and poignancy very much in the Harvey mould, interspersed with a dozen or more of Dolly’s biggest hits.
Musically, it’s stunning. A tight and gifted four-piece band plus two vocalists dot in and out of the action, sometimes seen and sometimes hidden, to provide some effervescent numbers and the odd off-stage character, while Paolucci’s Dolly and Webb’s delightfully nerdy Kevin work together impeccably to pull off their theatrical feat of uninhibited joyousness.
Designer Paul Wills skewers Kevin’s childhood attic room and Dolly’s outfits perfectly, and some clever stage illusions (Richard Pinner) add real wow-factor moments, but it’s the two central performances that make this show such an undoubted winner.
It’s only on in Blackpool until Saturday (November 30): if you don’t catch it here and end up paying a small fortune to see it in the West End because of all the hype it’s inevitably going to attract, then you’ve only got yourself to blame.
The cast of Dracula in Black-eyed Theatre's new touring adaptation.
DRACULA
November 7, 2024
Grand Theatre, Blackpool
Blackeyed Theatre have an enviable record in touring compact but ambitious versions of classic yarns. Particularly memorable was their Sherlock Holmes adaptation The Valley of Fear, which thrilled Blackpool audiences a couple of years ago with its atmosphere and theatricality.
Less successful on both counts – pun intended – is their new adaptation of Bram Stoker’s iconic Gothic chiller Dracula. Returning to the original novel, rather than the many bastardised cinematic interpretations from the 120 years since it was written, writer-director Nick Lane attempts to use the book’s fundamental structure for his stage version.
Unfortunately, six actors essentially reading out letters, newspaper cuttings and other written material is not particularly dramatic, even when interspersed with played-out scenes that often feel forced in rather than unfolding the narrative organically. The result is that much of the theatricality is lost, while the tension of Stoker’s terrifying creation dissipates among overlong blackouts and occasionally hammy staging.
Among the cast, David Chafer offers a serious and authoritative Van Helsing, the vampire expert who advises on the hunt to track down the bloodsucking count, with Richard Keightley nicely conflicted in the role of Dr Seward between protecting a human and saving humanity. Maya-Nika Bewley’s troubled Mina Harker provides the focus for the storytelling, while the whole team take on a multitude of parts across the sweeping narrative – including three of them as Dracula himself.
Victoria Spearing’s set design allows for the easy and effective creation of everything from a storm-tossed ship to a lunatic asylum and there are lighting effects galore from Oliver Welsh. Which makes it all the stranger that this chiller never quite freezes the blood or takes flight like the demonic bat at its heart.
November 7, 2024
Grand Theatre, Blackpool
Blackeyed Theatre have an enviable record in touring compact but ambitious versions of classic yarns. Particularly memorable was their Sherlock Holmes adaptation The Valley of Fear, which thrilled Blackpool audiences a couple of years ago with its atmosphere and theatricality.
Less successful on both counts – pun intended – is their new adaptation of Bram Stoker’s iconic Gothic chiller Dracula. Returning to the original novel, rather than the many bastardised cinematic interpretations from the 120 years since it was written, writer-director Nick Lane attempts to use the book’s fundamental structure for his stage version.
Unfortunately, six actors essentially reading out letters, newspaper cuttings and other written material is not particularly dramatic, even when interspersed with played-out scenes that often feel forced in rather than unfolding the narrative organically. The result is that much of the theatricality is lost, while the tension of Stoker’s terrifying creation dissipates among overlong blackouts and occasionally hammy staging.
Among the cast, David Chafer offers a serious and authoritative Van Helsing, the vampire expert who advises on the hunt to track down the bloodsucking count, with Richard Keightley nicely conflicted in the role of Dr Seward between protecting a human and saving humanity. Maya-Nika Bewley’s troubled Mina Harker provides the focus for the storytelling, while the whole team take on a multitude of parts across the sweeping narrative – including three of them as Dracula himself.
Victoria Spearing’s set design allows for the easy and effective creation of everything from a storm-tossed ship to a lunatic asylum and there are lighting effects galore from Oliver Welsh. Which makes it all the stranger that this chiller never quite freezes the blood or takes flight like the demonic bat at its heart.
Ellie Leach, left, with other cast members from Cluedo 2.
CLUEDO 2
October 15, 2024
Grand Theatre, Blackpool, until Saturday, October 19, then tour continues
Which of us can honestly hold up our hands and say we’ve never played Cluedo? There can hardly be a person in the country who hasn’t encountered the famous board game, which is 75 years old this year. And if you’ve played it, you’ve probably fallen in love with it.
That’s certainly what happened to Laurence Marks, half of the legendary television sitcom writing duo Marks and Gran (think Birds of a Feather, Goodnight Sweetheart, The New Statesman and more). So when the chance came for the pair to pen this touring stage production – the second based on the game – they jumped at it.
Set in the 1960s, all the familiar faces, locations and murder weapons are there but, as Eric Morecambe might have said, not necessarily in the right order. The victim, Mr Black, is here translated into has-been rock star Rick Black, whose mansion is the venue for the crime. Colonel Mustard, Reverend Green, Miss Scarlett and the rest have all been given first names and back stories, although part of the fun of the whole show is that nobody is quite what they appear to be, and the mysteries that unfold form a crucial part of the audience’s detective game.
As you’d expect from such veterans of comedy, it’s all done very tongue-in-cheek, and while some laughs land better than others, there’s a knowing wink in the performances that allow us all in on the silliness. And there’s plenty of silliness under the directorial hand of Mark Bell, whose CV includes The Play That Goes Wrong.
The 12-strong cast deliver accents as wide-ranging as Glaswegian and Texan and there’s a daft cameo from a bear. For telly fans, there’s a nice stage debut from Ellie Leach, Corrie stalwart and winner of last year’s Strictly Come Dancing, but everyone works hard as the frantic action winds up to increasingly outrageous levels, while David Farley’s clever set and Jason Taylor’s lighting do much to infuse the production with an authentically Cluedo feel.
It may not quite be the riot that it could have been, but Cluedo 2 is a spot of nostalgic fun, laced with physical gags and a bit of mystery-solving along the way.
October 15, 2024
Grand Theatre, Blackpool, until Saturday, October 19, then tour continues
Which of us can honestly hold up our hands and say we’ve never played Cluedo? There can hardly be a person in the country who hasn’t encountered the famous board game, which is 75 years old this year. And if you’ve played it, you’ve probably fallen in love with it.
That’s certainly what happened to Laurence Marks, half of the legendary television sitcom writing duo Marks and Gran (think Birds of a Feather, Goodnight Sweetheart, The New Statesman and more). So when the chance came for the pair to pen this touring stage production – the second based on the game – they jumped at it.
Set in the 1960s, all the familiar faces, locations and murder weapons are there but, as Eric Morecambe might have said, not necessarily in the right order. The victim, Mr Black, is here translated into has-been rock star Rick Black, whose mansion is the venue for the crime. Colonel Mustard, Reverend Green, Miss Scarlett and the rest have all been given first names and back stories, although part of the fun of the whole show is that nobody is quite what they appear to be, and the mysteries that unfold form a crucial part of the audience’s detective game.
As you’d expect from such veterans of comedy, it’s all done very tongue-in-cheek, and while some laughs land better than others, there’s a knowing wink in the performances that allow us all in on the silliness. And there’s plenty of silliness under the directorial hand of Mark Bell, whose CV includes The Play That Goes Wrong.
The 12-strong cast deliver accents as wide-ranging as Glaswegian and Texan and there’s a daft cameo from a bear. For telly fans, there’s a nice stage debut from Ellie Leach, Corrie stalwart and winner of last year’s Strictly Come Dancing, but everyone works hard as the frantic action winds up to increasingly outrageous levels, while David Farley’s clever set and Jason Taylor’s lighting do much to infuse the production with an authentically Cluedo feel.
It may not quite be the riot that it could have been, but Cluedo 2 is a spot of nostalgic fun, laced with physical gags and a bit of mystery-solving along the way.
Sean Jones and Joe Sleight as Mickey and Eddie in Blood Brothers. Photo by Jack Merriman.
BLOOD BROTHERS
September 3, 2024
Opera House, Blackpool Winter Gardens, until Saturday, September 7, 2024, then tour continues
What a wonderful old powerhouse of a show Blood Brothers is. More than 40 years on from its Liverpool premiere, and with a record-breaking 24-year West End run under its belt, it still has the same magical freshness, impressing and affecting audiences all over the world.
Writer Willy Russell, who claims the whole story came to him within the range of a single footstep, somehow encapsulated all the spectacle and emotion that the best musicals can generate and forged them into a simple, yet devastating, form that feels as vivid and vibrant today as it did when it was first created.
The story of the Johnstone twins, separated at birth and brought up in very different class environments, has offered stage triumphs for everyone from Barbara Dickson to Spice Girl Mel C as their tragic mother, and although the show is virtually indestructible in its own right, the role’s casting can be crucial to the success of any particular performance. On this tour, Vivienne Carlyle – very familiar with the part thanks to London runs and other tours – gives Mrs Johnstone full-voiced drama with moving effect.
But it’s the twins themselves, Sean Jones and Joe Sleight as working-class Mickey and posh boy Eddie respectively, who really carry this latest tour. Both have the skill to play from seven to mid-20s with ease, and there is some touching interaction between them at every age. Gemma Brodrick as Linda, the girl who makes the third leg of the youngsters’ tripod, is terrific too, and they find every ounce of pathos, humour and poignancy in Russell’s meticulous script.
The songs are sublime, and if you don’t know the Blood Brothers score then you’re in for a real treat. The band of six, under musical supervisor Matt Malone, feels a little thin and synth-heavy compared to other versions, but Richard Wimpenny’s soaring saxophones add an extraordinary, ethereal dimension and there’s plenty of power in the pit when it’s needed.
Directed straightforwardly by Bob Tomson and the late Bill Kenwright, there’s a distinct shortage of crashing chandeliers and revolutionary barricades, but this production serves yet again to demonstrate that Blood Brothers may well be the finest musical to have come out of the 1980s.
September 3, 2024
Opera House, Blackpool Winter Gardens, until Saturday, September 7, 2024, then tour continues
What a wonderful old powerhouse of a show Blood Brothers is. More than 40 years on from its Liverpool premiere, and with a record-breaking 24-year West End run under its belt, it still has the same magical freshness, impressing and affecting audiences all over the world.
Writer Willy Russell, who claims the whole story came to him within the range of a single footstep, somehow encapsulated all the spectacle and emotion that the best musicals can generate and forged them into a simple, yet devastating, form that feels as vivid and vibrant today as it did when it was first created.
The story of the Johnstone twins, separated at birth and brought up in very different class environments, has offered stage triumphs for everyone from Barbara Dickson to Spice Girl Mel C as their tragic mother, and although the show is virtually indestructible in its own right, the role’s casting can be crucial to the success of any particular performance. On this tour, Vivienne Carlyle – very familiar with the part thanks to London runs and other tours – gives Mrs Johnstone full-voiced drama with moving effect.
But it’s the twins themselves, Sean Jones and Joe Sleight as working-class Mickey and posh boy Eddie respectively, who really carry this latest tour. Both have the skill to play from seven to mid-20s with ease, and there is some touching interaction between them at every age. Gemma Brodrick as Linda, the girl who makes the third leg of the youngsters’ tripod, is terrific too, and they find every ounce of pathos, humour and poignancy in Russell’s meticulous script.
The songs are sublime, and if you don’t know the Blood Brothers score then you’re in for a real treat. The band of six, under musical supervisor Matt Malone, feels a little thin and synth-heavy compared to other versions, but Richard Wimpenny’s soaring saxophones add an extraordinary, ethereal dimension and there’s plenty of power in the pit when it’s needed.
Directed straightforwardly by Bob Tomson and the late Bill Kenwright, there’s a distinct shortage of crashing chandeliers and revolutionary barricades, but this production serves yet again to demonstrate that Blood Brothers may well be the finest musical to have come out of the 1980s.
Hope Dawe as Sandy, surrounded by the Pink Ladies.
GREASE
August 20, 2024
Opera House, Blackpool Winter Gardens, until Saturday, August 24, 2024
When Nikolai Foster became artistic director of Leicester’s Curve, his vision was to turn the venue into a powerhouse for UK musicals. This tour of Grease, which originated there back in 2016, is just one of its many spectacular successes, with shows transferring to the West End and touring the country.
But if you’re expecting the bouncy, bubblegum pop of the 1978 film, starring John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John, then you’re in for a few surprises. Foster and his team have gone back to the original stage version of the show, first produced in 1971 as a gritty play with songs, and with some numbers that will be unfamiliar, as well as a rather different narrative line from the movie version.
It’s an interesting idea that throws new light on some moments and motivations without ever adding much to the inherent strength of the show as a purveyor of catchy, rock ’n’ roll-infused songs and energetic teenage boisterousness. There are points where the narrative sags and it’s obvious why some of the numbers were dropped for the big screen, but as a piece of musical archaeology it has its merits.
The choreographer from 2016 has been ditched in favour of the legendary Arlene Phillips, while Colin Richmond reprises his set and costume designs, and both contributions are functional rather than exceptional. Meanwhile, the decision not to cast a big name in any of the roles (the Teen Angel has, in recent years, been a particular favourite as a star vehicle) means the show is reliant on its own reputation as a crowd-pleaser to fill the cavernous Opera House. Which it does.
Leaving aside its highly suspect message – that you’ve got to turn trashy if you want to get your man – there’s a lot of singalong fun to be had from the well-known tale of Romeo-and-Juliet-style love across the school cliques, set against a backdrop of the burgeoning rock ’n’ roll era.
Hope Dawe’s Sandy is pretty fiery from the off, rather undermining her claim to be ‘scared and unsure’, but for a professional debut it’s a gutsy performance. Opposite her, understudy Ben Middleton steps into Danny’s shoes with some decent dance moves and a strong tenor voice, but this is much more of an ensemble piece than the film would have you believe, and the vast company and thundering eight-piece band – brilliantly led by musical director Charlie Ingles – have the audience on their feet by the end of the night.
August 20, 2024
Opera House, Blackpool Winter Gardens, until Saturday, August 24, 2024
When Nikolai Foster became artistic director of Leicester’s Curve, his vision was to turn the venue into a powerhouse for UK musicals. This tour of Grease, which originated there back in 2016, is just one of its many spectacular successes, with shows transferring to the West End and touring the country.
But if you’re expecting the bouncy, bubblegum pop of the 1978 film, starring John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John, then you’re in for a few surprises. Foster and his team have gone back to the original stage version of the show, first produced in 1971 as a gritty play with songs, and with some numbers that will be unfamiliar, as well as a rather different narrative line from the movie version.
It’s an interesting idea that throws new light on some moments and motivations without ever adding much to the inherent strength of the show as a purveyor of catchy, rock ’n’ roll-infused songs and energetic teenage boisterousness. There are points where the narrative sags and it’s obvious why some of the numbers were dropped for the big screen, but as a piece of musical archaeology it has its merits.
The choreographer from 2016 has been ditched in favour of the legendary Arlene Phillips, while Colin Richmond reprises his set and costume designs, and both contributions are functional rather than exceptional. Meanwhile, the decision not to cast a big name in any of the roles (the Teen Angel has, in recent years, been a particular favourite as a star vehicle) means the show is reliant on its own reputation as a crowd-pleaser to fill the cavernous Opera House. Which it does.
Leaving aside its highly suspect message – that you’ve got to turn trashy if you want to get your man – there’s a lot of singalong fun to be had from the well-known tale of Romeo-and-Juliet-style love across the school cliques, set against a backdrop of the burgeoning rock ’n’ roll era.
Hope Dawe’s Sandy is pretty fiery from the off, rather undermining her claim to be ‘scared and unsure’, but for a professional debut it’s a gutsy performance. Opposite her, understudy Ben Middleton steps into Danny’s shoes with some decent dance moves and a strong tenor voice, but this is much more of an ensemble piece than the film would have you believe, and the vast company and thundering eight-piece band – brilliantly led by musical director Charlie Ingles – have the audience on their feet by the end of the night.
HOT ICE – ETERNITY
July 29, 2024
Blackpool Pleasure Beach
If you like your shows fast, spectacular and packed with skill and jeopardy, you could do worse than pay a visit to Blackpool Pleasure Beach for the latest incarnation of its famous Hot Ice Show.
Running continuously for the best part of a century, Hot Ice has lost none of its ability to thrill and entertain. Producer and director Amanda Thompson has once again assembled more than 30 of the world’s finest ice-skaters and crafted a production of elegance, bombast and sequins. You can’t talk about Hot Ice without mentioning the sequins.
The venue is proudly announcing Dancing on Ice professional Simon Proulx-Sénécal as its named star but the truth is this is a staggeringly impressive ensemble show. Yes, there are occasional tumbles and scrapes, but when the technical quality of the skating is as high and as challenging as this, then you’ve got to expect the odd mishap – plus it adds to the edge-of-your-seat excitement at the increasingly risky jumps and turns.
This year’s version, under the title Eternity, is not so much a narrative story as a series of vignettes, each with its own theme, allowing for everything from a Parisian tango sequence to a tribute to the Pleasure Beach’s notorious water ride Valhalla. Plenty of supremely skillful solo and duet spots are interspersed with huge chorus numbers, accompanied by equally expansive costumes and headdresses, ensuring that the variety never stops and you’re only ever one jump away from the next spectacle.
Oula Jaaskelainen choreographs the huge cast with precision and flair, all enhanced by Jack Norman’s dazzling lighting and performed to a thundering score credited to six music producers. Coupled with a wardrobe department numbering at least seven, you can begin to see the scale of this epic production.
Unsurprisingly, as the head of the entire Pleasure Beach organisation, Thompson has an eye for the dramatic, but it would be easy to allow this show to become sprawling and unwieldy. Instead, she offers awe and excellence, delivered by a squad of skaters at the top of their game. On this showing, it’ll be no surprise if Hot Ice does indeed go on for Eternity…
July 29, 2024
Blackpool Pleasure Beach
If you like your shows fast, spectacular and packed with skill and jeopardy, you could do worse than pay a visit to Blackpool Pleasure Beach for the latest incarnation of its famous Hot Ice Show.
Running continuously for the best part of a century, Hot Ice has lost none of its ability to thrill and entertain. Producer and director Amanda Thompson has once again assembled more than 30 of the world’s finest ice-skaters and crafted a production of elegance, bombast and sequins. You can’t talk about Hot Ice without mentioning the sequins.
The venue is proudly announcing Dancing on Ice professional Simon Proulx-Sénécal as its named star but the truth is this is a staggeringly impressive ensemble show. Yes, there are occasional tumbles and scrapes, but when the technical quality of the skating is as high and as challenging as this, then you’ve got to expect the odd mishap – plus it adds to the edge-of-your-seat excitement at the increasingly risky jumps and turns.
This year’s version, under the title Eternity, is not so much a narrative story as a series of vignettes, each with its own theme, allowing for everything from a Parisian tango sequence to a tribute to the Pleasure Beach’s notorious water ride Valhalla. Plenty of supremely skillful solo and duet spots are interspersed with huge chorus numbers, accompanied by equally expansive costumes and headdresses, ensuring that the variety never stops and you’re only ever one jump away from the next spectacle.
Oula Jaaskelainen choreographs the huge cast with precision and flair, all enhanced by Jack Norman’s dazzling lighting and performed to a thundering score credited to six music producers. Coupled with a wardrobe department numbering at least seven, you can begin to see the scale of this epic production.
Unsurprisingly, as the head of the entire Pleasure Beach organisation, Thompson has an eye for the dramatic, but it would be easy to allow this show to become sprawling and unwieldy. Instead, she offers awe and excellence, delivered by a squad of skaters at the top of their game. On this showing, it’ll be no surprise if Hot Ice does indeed go on for Eternity…
Lauren-Nicole Mayes and Wendy Patterson as Chrissa and Norma in Bluebells and Dirty Nappies.
BLUEBELLS AND DIRTY NAPPIES
July 27, 2024
The Old Electric Theatre, Blackpool
ICYMI, as they say in the world of social media when something significant has happened, there’s been a festival of writing going on in Blackpool for the past four months. Under the banner Power Plays, the team at The Old Electric Theatre in Springfield Road has hosted workshops, performances, talks, events and a wide range of participatory activities for creatives of all ages and stages of development, from primary schoolchildren to professional playwrights.
The culmination of the festival was an open competition to write a new play, thematically linked to Blackpool, which would be given a full production as the climactic event. From a field of more than 30 entries, Bluebells and Dirty Nappies emerged victorious.
Written by Blackpool’s own Lindsay Bennett-Thompson, it’s a two-hander set on the beach between the piers, where a pair of litter-pickers engage in increasingly meaningful and revealing conversation as they go about their volunteering.
Wendy Patterson plays the worldly-wise veteran Norma, pottering about but easily diverted as she attempts to take her mind off some pressing health issues. Lauren-Nicole Mayes is newbie Chrissa, whose own personal demons leak out as Norma pushes her in a cheerfully relentless way to keep on talking.
The pair develop a strong, charismatic rapport, comfortably holding the huge Old Electric stage for an hour as they variously rub each other up the wrong way and give each other a supporting hand. There’s heartwarming humour and touches of affecting poignancy in Bennett-Thompson’s elegantly-constructed script, which the actors mine eagerly for laughs and tears in equal measure.
Director Melanie Whitehead allows the ebb and flow of the piece to work like the tide that has washed up the litter on the beach, and there’s a faintly melancholic, elegiac quality to the pragmatic work the pair undertake: despite their efforts on the sand, it’s impossible to escape the suspicion that they’ll face another metaphorical mess to clean up tomorrow.
With Blackpool front and centre of the story, it’s a wonderfully fitting cherry on top of the Old Electric’s Power Plays cake, putting a clear focus on the abundance of high-quality new writing in the region and marking out the venue as an important part of bringing it to new audiences.
July 27, 2024
The Old Electric Theatre, Blackpool
ICYMI, as they say in the world of social media when something significant has happened, there’s been a festival of writing going on in Blackpool for the past four months. Under the banner Power Plays, the team at The Old Electric Theatre in Springfield Road has hosted workshops, performances, talks, events and a wide range of participatory activities for creatives of all ages and stages of development, from primary schoolchildren to professional playwrights.
The culmination of the festival was an open competition to write a new play, thematically linked to Blackpool, which would be given a full production as the climactic event. From a field of more than 30 entries, Bluebells and Dirty Nappies emerged victorious.
Written by Blackpool’s own Lindsay Bennett-Thompson, it’s a two-hander set on the beach between the piers, where a pair of litter-pickers engage in increasingly meaningful and revealing conversation as they go about their volunteering.
Wendy Patterson plays the worldly-wise veteran Norma, pottering about but easily diverted as she attempts to take her mind off some pressing health issues. Lauren-Nicole Mayes is newbie Chrissa, whose own personal demons leak out as Norma pushes her in a cheerfully relentless way to keep on talking.
The pair develop a strong, charismatic rapport, comfortably holding the huge Old Electric stage for an hour as they variously rub each other up the wrong way and give each other a supporting hand. There’s heartwarming humour and touches of affecting poignancy in Bennett-Thompson’s elegantly-constructed script, which the actors mine eagerly for laughs and tears in equal measure.
Director Melanie Whitehead allows the ebb and flow of the piece to work like the tide that has washed up the litter on the beach, and there’s a faintly melancholic, elegiac quality to the pragmatic work the pair undertake: despite their efforts on the sand, it’s impossible to escape the suspicion that they’ll face another metaphorical mess to clean up tomorrow.
With Blackpool front and centre of the story, it’s a wonderfully fitting cherry on top of the Old Electric’s Power Plays cake, putting a clear focus on the abundance of high-quality new writing in the region and marking out the venue as an important part of bringing it to new audiences.
Keith Carter and Ruth Cockburn perform as Black Liver.
DEVILLED EGGS
July 8, 2024
Grand Theatre, Blackpool
A new show from Black Liver is always something to be savoured, and Devilled Eggs proves no exception. This likeable couple – she’s from Blackpool, he’s from Liverpool, hence Black Liver – have a real knack for audience interaction that charms and entertains from the word go, and they could read the phone book in either of their home towns and earn a rapturous response.
Ruth Cockburn and Keith Carter have scaled things up for their latest offering, in which the pair welcome us as Prudence and Roman to their star-filled Blackpool B&B, the Dakota Guest House, where anything seems possible amid the glamour of showbiz and quirky characters abound in the bar, bedrooms and basement.
For one night only, the audience check in as guests, allowing our slightly sinister hosts the opportunity to introduce us to the strange goings-on behind the scenes and the unexplained mystery of the noises in the cellar. It’s a brilliant device for their talents, loosely framing the evening for a series of sketches, songs and skits that show off their multiple accents and personas.
Director Mykey J Young varies the pace judiciously, using lighting, music and costume to suggest mood and atmosphere, and there are some brilliantly realised inventions, from the estranged couple bickering over who gets which friends in the split to the surreal conversation between a tiger and a walrus in denial about their role as performing animals. The highlight, though, is a beautifully on-point parody of 80s electropop in which two bespectacled mannequins deliver an oh-so-earnest refrain about budgies.
A three-piece live band help cover the links as Cockburn and Carter change costumes and character but there’s a slight sense that this is a work in progress. Some fine-tuning and sharpening of the gags and lines will surely bring things into focus a little more, and the show will be all the more entertaining and punchy as a result. Look out for the finished article over the coming months.
July 8, 2024
Grand Theatre, Blackpool
A new show from Black Liver is always something to be savoured, and Devilled Eggs proves no exception. This likeable couple – she’s from Blackpool, he’s from Liverpool, hence Black Liver – have a real knack for audience interaction that charms and entertains from the word go, and they could read the phone book in either of their home towns and earn a rapturous response.
Ruth Cockburn and Keith Carter have scaled things up for their latest offering, in which the pair welcome us as Prudence and Roman to their star-filled Blackpool B&B, the Dakota Guest House, where anything seems possible amid the glamour of showbiz and quirky characters abound in the bar, bedrooms and basement.
For one night only, the audience check in as guests, allowing our slightly sinister hosts the opportunity to introduce us to the strange goings-on behind the scenes and the unexplained mystery of the noises in the cellar. It’s a brilliant device for their talents, loosely framing the evening for a series of sketches, songs and skits that show off their multiple accents and personas.
Director Mykey J Young varies the pace judiciously, using lighting, music and costume to suggest mood and atmosphere, and there are some brilliantly realised inventions, from the estranged couple bickering over who gets which friends in the split to the surreal conversation between a tiger and a walrus in denial about their role as performing animals. The highlight, though, is a beautifully on-point parody of 80s electropop in which two bespectacled mannequins deliver an oh-so-earnest refrain about budgies.
A three-piece live band help cover the links as Cockburn and Carter change costumes and character but there’s a slight sense that this is a work in progress. Some fine-tuning and sharpening of the gags and lines will surely bring things into focus a little more, and the show will be all the more entertaining and punchy as a result. Look out for the finished article over the coming months.
The cast of Moby Dick at the Grand Theatre. Photo by Manuel Harlan.
MOBY DICK
June 4, 2024
Grand Theatre, Blackpool, until Wednesday, June 5, then tour continues
Herman Melville’s American classic about Captain Ahab’s obsessive hunt for the great white whale is more than 170 years old yet somehow retains its compulsive grip on the imagination. It’s almost as if we share in Ahab’s need for closure after the sea giant stole his leg on a previous expedition. Except that we’re not out for revenge: simply the hook of a gripping story.
Co-produced with Northampton’s Royal & Derngate, and directed by the theatre’s artistic director Jesse Jones, this version is the latest touring show from the imaginative ensemble Simple8, stripped back to a cast of nine – or eight, in fact, thanks to the indisposition of one of the team for this performance – and delivered on a creatively-used set of sparse planks, scaffolding and rigging courtesy of designer Kate Bunce.
The resources are cleverly deployed by Jones and considerably enhanced by two major factors in the show’s success: Johanna Town’s atmospheric lighting and Jonathan Charles’s superb masterminding of a soundscape that incorporates sea shanties, eerie noises and evocative music, all performed live by the cast.
As in the original novel, it’s narrated by a willing whale-hunter – “Call me Ishmael,” he utters in one of the most famous opening lines in literature – played here by the warm and vulnerable Mark Arends. The crew of the ill-fated Pequod, Ahab’s ship, is peopled by a confident and capable ensemble, helmed by Guy Rhys as the maniacal captain himself. The delay of his entrance by more than half an hour is intelligently managed to build just the right amount of tension and mystery, complemented by some wonderfully created sound effects.
Sebastian Armesto’s script manages to condense Melville’s 700-plus pages into a tight two hours, although there are curious moments when the pace lags, and others when the opening chords of yet another shanty cause a slight sink of the heart. But overall it’s a solid, imaginative telling of the old story. An American classic? Thar she blows!
June 4, 2024
Grand Theatre, Blackpool, until Wednesday, June 5, then tour continues
Herman Melville’s American classic about Captain Ahab’s obsessive hunt for the great white whale is more than 170 years old yet somehow retains its compulsive grip on the imagination. It’s almost as if we share in Ahab’s need for closure after the sea giant stole his leg on a previous expedition. Except that we’re not out for revenge: simply the hook of a gripping story.
Co-produced with Northampton’s Royal & Derngate, and directed by the theatre’s artistic director Jesse Jones, this version is the latest touring show from the imaginative ensemble Simple8, stripped back to a cast of nine – or eight, in fact, thanks to the indisposition of one of the team for this performance – and delivered on a creatively-used set of sparse planks, scaffolding and rigging courtesy of designer Kate Bunce.
The resources are cleverly deployed by Jones and considerably enhanced by two major factors in the show’s success: Johanna Town’s atmospheric lighting and Jonathan Charles’s superb masterminding of a soundscape that incorporates sea shanties, eerie noises and evocative music, all performed live by the cast.
As in the original novel, it’s narrated by a willing whale-hunter – “Call me Ishmael,” he utters in one of the most famous opening lines in literature – played here by the warm and vulnerable Mark Arends. The crew of the ill-fated Pequod, Ahab’s ship, is peopled by a confident and capable ensemble, helmed by Guy Rhys as the maniacal captain himself. The delay of his entrance by more than half an hour is intelligently managed to build just the right amount of tension and mystery, complemented by some wonderfully created sound effects.
Sebastian Armesto’s script manages to condense Melville’s 700-plus pages into a tight two hours, although there are curious moments when the pace lags, and others when the opening chords of yet another shanty cause a slight sink of the heart. But overall it’s a solid, imaginative telling of the old story. An American classic? Thar she blows!
Shawna Hamic as Ursula the sea witch with the company of Unfortunate. Photo by Pamela Raith.
UNFORTUNATE
May 21, 2024
Grand Theatre, Blackpool, until Saturday, May 25, 2024, then tour continues
First, a public service announcement: do NOT take your eight-year-old daughter to see this show. Why? Because, despite its plot – the untold story of the sea witch Ursula from The Little Mermaid – this is about as far from Disney as you can get.
The musical began life at the Edinburgh Fringe, and it shows. Now expanded and on the back of a Christmas run at Southwark Playhouse, it’s out on the road, bringing its pastiche pantomime sauciness to audiences all over the UK.
As Ariel the mermaid herself might have put it:
There are fart gags and dick jokes a-plenty,
It’s got drag queens and bondage galore.
You want special effects? They’ve got twenty.
Does it work? Yes and no – I want more.
In musicals terms, it’s probably best described as somewhere between The Rocky Horror Show and Wicked, as if devised for a university rag week. Written by Robyn Grant and Daniel Foxx, with a score by Tim Gilvin, it’s rude, crude and unashamedly in-yer-face, from the sexual references to the over-the-top costumes and props (Abby Clarke).
Its cast are terrific, led by Shawna Hamic’s scheming Ursula and Drag Race star River Medway’s innocent Ariel. There’s some fabulous doubling of roles, with Thomas Lowe, Jamie Mawson and Julian Capolei serving superb duty variously as kings, princes, eels and princesses, and culminating in a sublime routine in which Allie Dart’s French chef attempts to cook herself as Sebastian the crab.
And there’s probably a decent show behind it all, if only it were allowed to be heard. But any sparkling wit and clever lyrics become academic thanks to a shocking sound mix that renders pretty much everything an inaudible mush. Arlene McNaught’s five-piece live band, amplified to rock concert levels, sound as if they’re playing underwater and drown out a good two-thirds of the vocals. Which is... what’s the word? Unfortunate.
Gilvin’s music works best in the outright parody numbers – a chorus of ugly sea creatures lamenting ‘We didn’t make it to Disney’, or Ariel’s extremely rude alternative version of Part of Your World – but the production relies on overblown volume and bawdy spectacle for its impact, rather than subtlety.
And there’s nothing wrong with that, if it’s your cup of tea. Just don’t take your eight-year-old daughter.
May 21, 2024
Grand Theatre, Blackpool, until Saturday, May 25, 2024, then tour continues
First, a public service announcement: do NOT take your eight-year-old daughter to see this show. Why? Because, despite its plot – the untold story of the sea witch Ursula from The Little Mermaid – this is about as far from Disney as you can get.
The musical began life at the Edinburgh Fringe, and it shows. Now expanded and on the back of a Christmas run at Southwark Playhouse, it’s out on the road, bringing its pastiche pantomime sauciness to audiences all over the UK.
As Ariel the mermaid herself might have put it:
There are fart gags and dick jokes a-plenty,
It’s got drag queens and bondage galore.
You want special effects? They’ve got twenty.
Does it work? Yes and no – I want more.
In musicals terms, it’s probably best described as somewhere between The Rocky Horror Show and Wicked, as if devised for a university rag week. Written by Robyn Grant and Daniel Foxx, with a score by Tim Gilvin, it’s rude, crude and unashamedly in-yer-face, from the sexual references to the over-the-top costumes and props (Abby Clarke).
Its cast are terrific, led by Shawna Hamic’s scheming Ursula and Drag Race star River Medway’s innocent Ariel. There’s some fabulous doubling of roles, with Thomas Lowe, Jamie Mawson and Julian Capolei serving superb duty variously as kings, princes, eels and princesses, and culminating in a sublime routine in which Allie Dart’s French chef attempts to cook herself as Sebastian the crab.
And there’s probably a decent show behind it all, if only it were allowed to be heard. But any sparkling wit and clever lyrics become academic thanks to a shocking sound mix that renders pretty much everything an inaudible mush. Arlene McNaught’s five-piece live band, amplified to rock concert levels, sound as if they’re playing underwater and drown out a good two-thirds of the vocals. Which is... what’s the word? Unfortunate.
Gilvin’s music works best in the outright parody numbers – a chorus of ugly sea creatures lamenting ‘We didn’t make it to Disney’, or Ariel’s extremely rude alternative version of Part of Your World – but the production relies on overblown volume and bawdy spectacle for its impact, rather than subtlety.
And there’s nothing wrong with that, if it’s your cup of tea. Just don’t take your eight-year-old daughter.
Gordon Warnecke as Papa with Lucca Chadwick-Patel as Omar. Photo by Ellie Kurttz.
MY BEAUTIFUL LAUNDRETTE
April 4, 2024
Grand Theatre, Blackpool, until Saturday, April 6, 2024
NEARLY 40 years on from its cinematic release in the fractious, politically divisive days of a Tory Britain, Hanif Kureishi brings the stage adaptation to life in… well, the fractious, politically divisive days of a Tory Britain. That alone makes My Beautiful Laundrette a vibrant and relevant study of communities in tension and under stress.
Kureishi’s tale of interracial, same-sex love against a backdrop of racism, violence and cultural conflict is as resonant now as it was in the Eighties – which is more than a little depressing if you think about it. But if you’re expecting an evening of relentless grimness and misery, then you’re reckoning without an arsenal of slick, witty one-liners, a belting Pet Shop Boys soundtrack and some lively performances to keep things fresh and upbeat.
Yes, there’s violence, thuggery and viciousness between the white skinheads and the Pakistani extended family trying to make their way in a socially dystopian Britain, but the underlying themes of optimism, opportunity and the power of love mean that the laundrette of the title is more than just an entrepreneurial exercise for Omar and his old schoolfriend Johnny: it’s a symbol of possibility.
Lucca Chadwick-Patel and Sam Mitchell reveal a tender innocence as the two central figures, even if their characterisation feels more filmic than dramatic – motivations are sometimes unclear and actions unexplained. Kammy Darweish and Sharan Phull offer a strong pairing as the Pakistani patriarch forcing his anglicised daughter down an arranged-marriage path she’s desperate to escape. There’s even a nice bookend touch from Gordon Warnecke, the film’s original Omar, now appearing as his doddering, drunken Papa.
Evocatively designed and lit by Grace Smart and Ben Cracknell respectively, the stage version is an authentic recreation of the film, with mainly brief scenes keeping the story moving along and plenty of period atmosphere, not least thanks to the popping soundtrack and some original additional music by Pet Shoppers Neil Tennant and Blackpool’s own Chris Lowe.
Nicole Behan directs the production, which was first staged by Leicester Curve’s Nikolai Foster in 2019, with a sure hand and clear eye, but if you want to enjoy a spot of nostalgia with a hefty dose of social commentary, you’ll have to get in quick: the national tour ends in Blackpool on Saturday, April 6. Don’t say you haven’t been warned…
April 4, 2024
Grand Theatre, Blackpool, until Saturday, April 6, 2024
NEARLY 40 years on from its cinematic release in the fractious, politically divisive days of a Tory Britain, Hanif Kureishi brings the stage adaptation to life in… well, the fractious, politically divisive days of a Tory Britain. That alone makes My Beautiful Laundrette a vibrant and relevant study of communities in tension and under stress.
Kureishi’s tale of interracial, same-sex love against a backdrop of racism, violence and cultural conflict is as resonant now as it was in the Eighties – which is more than a little depressing if you think about it. But if you’re expecting an evening of relentless grimness and misery, then you’re reckoning without an arsenal of slick, witty one-liners, a belting Pet Shop Boys soundtrack and some lively performances to keep things fresh and upbeat.
Yes, there’s violence, thuggery and viciousness between the white skinheads and the Pakistani extended family trying to make their way in a socially dystopian Britain, but the underlying themes of optimism, opportunity and the power of love mean that the laundrette of the title is more than just an entrepreneurial exercise for Omar and his old schoolfriend Johnny: it’s a symbol of possibility.
Lucca Chadwick-Patel and Sam Mitchell reveal a tender innocence as the two central figures, even if their characterisation feels more filmic than dramatic – motivations are sometimes unclear and actions unexplained. Kammy Darweish and Sharan Phull offer a strong pairing as the Pakistani patriarch forcing his anglicised daughter down an arranged-marriage path she’s desperate to escape. There’s even a nice bookend touch from Gordon Warnecke, the film’s original Omar, now appearing as his doddering, drunken Papa.
Evocatively designed and lit by Grace Smart and Ben Cracknell respectively, the stage version is an authentic recreation of the film, with mainly brief scenes keeping the story moving along and plenty of period atmosphere, not least thanks to the popping soundtrack and some original additional music by Pet Shoppers Neil Tennant and Blackpool’s own Chris Lowe.
Nicole Behan directs the production, which was first staged by Leicester Curve’s Nikolai Foster in 2019, with a sure hand and clear eye, but if you want to enjoy a spot of nostalgia with a hefty dose of social commentary, you’ll have to get in quick: the national tour ends in Blackpool on Saturday, April 6. Don’t say you haven’t been warned…
Daniel Taylor fronts Something About George.
SOMETHING ABOUT GEORGE
March 3, 2024
Grand Theatre, Blackpool, then touring until Friday, March 29, 2024
For a musician who was always cast as ‘the quiet Beatle’, George Harrison made quite an impact in his own right. This tour of one-nighters – the second by Something About Productions after a Paul Simon version – aims to put the shy lead guitarist firmly in the spotlight, showcasing his songwriting talent alongside narrating his life story.
To do so, the company employs a five-piece band, fronted by actor Daniel Taylor, to deliver songs from across Harrison’s back catalogue. It covers everything from Beatles classics such as Taxman and Here Comes the Sun to Traveling Wilburys hits Handle With Care and End of the Line, incorporating along the way solo work including My Sweet Lord, All Those Years Ago and Got My Mind Set on You.
The range and scope of his material across more than three decades is, ultimately, more interesting and enjoyable than the telling of his life story, the script of which somehow renders an extraordinary career in a rather matter-of-fact way and is not helped by Taylor’s eccentric delivery, complete with odd emphases and extended pauses. It’s almost as if he’s been told to draw it out for as long as possible to fill a whole evening.
Musically, the band is solid without being exceptional, although musical director Joe Smithson provides all the famous guitar licks with some skill, and there are lots of audio-visual projections to counterbalance the lack of any real action.
But it’s always good to hear music performed live on stage, and with Harrison so often overlooked beside his former colleagues Lennon and McCartney, making him the centre of attention for a night is definitely a worthy move.
March 3, 2024
Grand Theatre, Blackpool, then touring until Friday, March 29, 2024
For a musician who was always cast as ‘the quiet Beatle’, George Harrison made quite an impact in his own right. This tour of one-nighters – the second by Something About Productions after a Paul Simon version – aims to put the shy lead guitarist firmly in the spotlight, showcasing his songwriting talent alongside narrating his life story.
To do so, the company employs a five-piece band, fronted by actor Daniel Taylor, to deliver songs from across Harrison’s back catalogue. It covers everything from Beatles classics such as Taxman and Here Comes the Sun to Traveling Wilburys hits Handle With Care and End of the Line, incorporating along the way solo work including My Sweet Lord, All Those Years Ago and Got My Mind Set on You.
The range and scope of his material across more than three decades is, ultimately, more interesting and enjoyable than the telling of his life story, the script of which somehow renders an extraordinary career in a rather matter-of-fact way and is not helped by Taylor’s eccentric delivery, complete with odd emphases and extended pauses. It’s almost as if he’s been told to draw it out for as long as possible to fill a whole evening.
Musically, the band is solid without being exceptional, although musical director Joe Smithson provides all the famous guitar licks with some skill, and there are lots of audio-visual projections to counterbalance the lack of any real action.
But it’s always good to hear music performed live on stage, and with Harrison so often overlooked beside his former colleagues Lennon and McCartney, making him the centre of attention for a night is definitely a worthy move.
The company of Oh What a Lovely War. Photo by Clive Elkington.
OH WHAT A LOVELY WAR
March 2, 2024
Grand Theatre, Blackpool, until Saturday, March 2, then tour continues
We are now further away in time from the original production of Oh What a Lovely War than that production was from the horrors of the First World War that it satirised. And if that isn’t enough to make you recoil at the stupidity of mankind in its continued relentless fascination with ways of wiping itself out, then you haven’t been paying attention to the news recently.
The show was famously devised by Joan Littlewood’s Theatre Workshop in the early 1960s, re-telling the grim history of the so-called Great War through music-hall songs and satirical sketches delivered by a troupe of Pierrots, adding immense poignancy and emotion to the bald facts of the conflict – the millions dead, wounded and missing, the pointlessness of the four-year struggle for a few hundred yards of territory on the Western front.
Now Blackeyed Theatre have resurrected it and recast it as a travelling carnival-type show with a company of just six, multi-tasking admirably as they sing, act and perform all the instruments live. It’s a show they’ve done a couple of times before and one can only hope that they’ve had a better turnout than the meagre, though enthusiastic, audience at Blackpool’s Grand on a rainy Saturday night.
The sextet work tirelessly, with barely any time off-stage, and exchange instruments and costumes with practised ease and considerable musical talent. Victoria Spearing’s evocative set and Alan Valentine’s wonderful lighting contribute enormously to the atmosphere of faded jollity which offsets the projection of horrific statistics and photographs above the action. Standout moments include Harry Curley’s mournful rendition of Roses of Picardy and the final haunting image of the six players in a beautiful unaccompanied harmonisation of And When They Ask Us.
Sadly, for most of the first half and much of the second, the company are completely hamstrung by the decision not to amplify their voices, leaving them to fight – and mostly come off worse – against the orchestrations and underscore. With so much of the show’s impact dependent on hearing song lyrics and sketch lines, it’s an unfortunate misstep by director Nicky Allpress and musical director Ellie Verkerk, or both. Inaudibility means much of the show’s effect is lost and the cast are required to work much harder than they need to just to get a melody across.
All of which is a real shame as the potential is clearly there for a hugely powerful and relevant piece of theatre with plenty of resonance among today’s headlines.
March 2, 2024
Grand Theatre, Blackpool, until Saturday, March 2, then tour continues
We are now further away in time from the original production of Oh What a Lovely War than that production was from the horrors of the First World War that it satirised. And if that isn’t enough to make you recoil at the stupidity of mankind in its continued relentless fascination with ways of wiping itself out, then you haven’t been paying attention to the news recently.
The show was famously devised by Joan Littlewood’s Theatre Workshop in the early 1960s, re-telling the grim history of the so-called Great War through music-hall songs and satirical sketches delivered by a troupe of Pierrots, adding immense poignancy and emotion to the bald facts of the conflict – the millions dead, wounded and missing, the pointlessness of the four-year struggle for a few hundred yards of territory on the Western front.
Now Blackeyed Theatre have resurrected it and recast it as a travelling carnival-type show with a company of just six, multi-tasking admirably as they sing, act and perform all the instruments live. It’s a show they’ve done a couple of times before and one can only hope that they’ve had a better turnout than the meagre, though enthusiastic, audience at Blackpool’s Grand on a rainy Saturday night.
The sextet work tirelessly, with barely any time off-stage, and exchange instruments and costumes with practised ease and considerable musical talent. Victoria Spearing’s evocative set and Alan Valentine’s wonderful lighting contribute enormously to the atmosphere of faded jollity which offsets the projection of horrific statistics and photographs above the action. Standout moments include Harry Curley’s mournful rendition of Roses of Picardy and the final haunting image of the six players in a beautiful unaccompanied harmonisation of And When They Ask Us.
Sadly, for most of the first half and much of the second, the company are completely hamstrung by the decision not to amplify their voices, leaving them to fight – and mostly come off worse – against the orchestrations and underscore. With so much of the show’s impact dependent on hearing song lyrics and sketch lines, it’s an unfortunate misstep by director Nicky Allpress and musical director Ellie Verkerk, or both. Inaudibility means much of the show’s effect is lost and the cast are required to work much harder than they need to just to get a melody across.
All of which is a real shame as the potential is clearly there for a hugely powerful and relevant piece of theatre with plenty of resonance among today’s headlines.
CALENDAR GIRLS
January 23, 2024
Opera House, Blackpool Winter Gardens, until Saturday, January 27, 2024
First there was the film, then a stage play by Tim Firth, based on his movie script. Next came a musical adaptation under the title The Girls, co-written with Take That icon Gary Barlow. That evolved into a pre-pandemic show that toured under the fully restored Calendar Girls title. And finally, thanks to some lockdown spare time and presumably the need for a cheaper pared-down version, the latest incarnation of the musical is back on the road.
Freshly designed by Gary McCann and directed by Jonathan O’Boyle, it’s been reworked from the earlier versions and slimmed down to a brisk two hours, with the mainly breezy tunes interspersed with a couple of heart-tugging ballads and plenty of jollity to leaven the true story of the Women’s Institute branch who defied conventionality to pose tastefully nude to raise money for a cancer charity.
If you’ve managed to avoid all previous manifestations, this one works perfectly well. It’s got some solid Barlow tunes and lots of Firth’s trademark comedy and one-liners, and Blackpool’s ever-generous audience is on its feet in approval by the end. And there’s no question that it’s heartwarming and sincere, even if it’s hard to see much justification for the constant tinkering.
It’s now placed firmly within the village hall, and McCann’s set boxes in the action in a rather restrictive way, especially for those in the side seats whose sightlines are severely hindered in places. And the direction doesn’t add much to the action, amounting in parts to little more than moving people around.
But there are some nice turns among the seven women who make up the WI branch, including a striking performance from Samantha Seager as the feisty Chris and a popular solo from local favourite Maureen Nolan singing the praises of a bottle of vodka in My Russian Friend and I. And there’s a real camaraderie among the group, plus the two men who make up the numbers, giving Calendar Girls a good dose of warmth and wit for a cold, wet winter’s night.
January 23, 2024
Opera House, Blackpool Winter Gardens, until Saturday, January 27, 2024
First there was the film, then a stage play by Tim Firth, based on his movie script. Next came a musical adaptation under the title The Girls, co-written with Take That icon Gary Barlow. That evolved into a pre-pandemic show that toured under the fully restored Calendar Girls title. And finally, thanks to some lockdown spare time and presumably the need for a cheaper pared-down version, the latest incarnation of the musical is back on the road.
Freshly designed by Gary McCann and directed by Jonathan O’Boyle, it’s been reworked from the earlier versions and slimmed down to a brisk two hours, with the mainly breezy tunes interspersed with a couple of heart-tugging ballads and plenty of jollity to leaven the true story of the Women’s Institute branch who defied conventionality to pose tastefully nude to raise money for a cancer charity.
If you’ve managed to avoid all previous manifestations, this one works perfectly well. It’s got some solid Barlow tunes and lots of Firth’s trademark comedy and one-liners, and Blackpool’s ever-generous audience is on its feet in approval by the end. And there’s no question that it’s heartwarming and sincere, even if it’s hard to see much justification for the constant tinkering.
It’s now placed firmly within the village hall, and McCann’s set boxes in the action in a rather restrictive way, especially for those in the side seats whose sightlines are severely hindered in places. And the direction doesn’t add much to the action, amounting in parts to little more than moving people around.
But there are some nice turns among the seven women who make up the WI branch, including a striking performance from Samantha Seager as the feisty Chris and a popular solo from local favourite Maureen Nolan singing the praises of a bottle of vodka in My Russian Friend and I. And there’s a real camaraderie among the group, plus the two men who make up the numbers, giving Calendar Girls a good dose of warmth and wit for a cold, wet winter’s night.
JACK AND THE BEANSTALK
December 10, 2023
Lowther Pavilion, Lytham, until Tuesday, January 2, 2024
We’re well into December, the Christmas Day sprouts are on the boil and it’s time to entertain the family with a spot of traditional panto. Fortunately for the Fylde coast, there’s a great example right on the doorstep, courtesy of the cast and crew at Lytham’s Lowther Pavilion.
Produced by Paul Holman Associates, Jack and the Beanstalk has all the elements you’d expect from a festive show, from cheesy laughs and colourful costumes to a wonderful dame and perhaps the north-west’s finest pantomime cow.
Without the big budgets allocated to some of the larger, celebrity-stuffed offerings, the cast of seven principals and five ensemble dancers have to work extra hard, while musical director David Windle and a solitary drummer manage to create a full sound between the pair of them for the tuneful, zippy pop interludes.
The constraints actually work to the show’s advantage as everyone pulls together and bounces off each other for some well-drilled comedy routines and peppy action as Jack is first duped into swapping the family cow for some beans, then climbs the magic beanstalk to rid the village of the pesky giant – voiced by Brian Blessed – who’s making a meal of its inhabitants.
There are some terrific singing voices throughout the company, including Jack himself (Jack Osmond) and Princess Primrose (Ellie Sharpe), while Darren Wright returns to Lytham for a nicely-judged turn as the genial but daft Silly Simon. The biggest laughs come from James Dinsmore’s delightful Dame Dotty Trott, who’s saucy without being smutty, while James Dangerfield’s villainous Fleshcreep spars amiably with Holly Goodenough’s Spirit of the Beans.
Director Debbie Flitcroft keeps things moving on at a pace to keep the youngsters interested, with the songs never allowed to drag the action, and it’s all wrapped up in a manageable couple of hours – job done. Now pass the sherry…
December 10, 2023
Lowther Pavilion, Lytham, until Tuesday, January 2, 2024
We’re well into December, the Christmas Day sprouts are on the boil and it’s time to entertain the family with a spot of traditional panto. Fortunately for the Fylde coast, there’s a great example right on the doorstep, courtesy of the cast and crew at Lytham’s Lowther Pavilion.
Produced by Paul Holman Associates, Jack and the Beanstalk has all the elements you’d expect from a festive show, from cheesy laughs and colourful costumes to a wonderful dame and perhaps the north-west’s finest pantomime cow.
Without the big budgets allocated to some of the larger, celebrity-stuffed offerings, the cast of seven principals and five ensemble dancers have to work extra hard, while musical director David Windle and a solitary drummer manage to create a full sound between the pair of them for the tuneful, zippy pop interludes.
The constraints actually work to the show’s advantage as everyone pulls together and bounces off each other for some well-drilled comedy routines and peppy action as Jack is first duped into swapping the family cow for some beans, then climbs the magic beanstalk to rid the village of the pesky giant – voiced by Brian Blessed – who’s making a meal of its inhabitants.
There are some terrific singing voices throughout the company, including Jack himself (Jack Osmond) and Princess Primrose (Ellie Sharpe), while Darren Wright returns to Lytham for a nicely-judged turn as the genial but daft Silly Simon. The biggest laughs come from James Dinsmore’s delightful Dame Dotty Trott, who’s saucy without being smutty, while James Dangerfield’s villainous Fleshcreep spars amiably with Holly Goodenough’s Spirit of the Beans.
Director Debbie Flitcroft keeps things moving on at a pace to keep the youngsters interested, with the songs never allowed to drag the action, and it’s all wrapped up in a manageable couple of hours – job done. Now pass the sherry…
Ivano Turco and Rebecca McKinnis as Jamie and his mum Margaret.
EVERYBODY’S TALKING ABOUT JAMIE
November 21, 2023
Opera House, Blackpool Winter Gardens, until Saturday, November 25, 2023
One of a clutch of high school-based musicals to emerge over the last decade or so, Jamie caught the public’s imagination when it played first in Sheffield and then in the West End in 2017. Now on its second national tour, it draws audiences attracted to its upbeat message of tolerance, individuality and infectious love of life.
It’s loosely based on the true story of Jamie Campbell, a determined 16-year-old would-be drag queen who hired a documentary crew to record his journey to the school prom… in a dress. Writers Dan Gillespie Sells – frontman of The Feeling – and Tom MacRae teamed up with director Jonathan Butterell and won a commission from Sheffield’s Crucible Theatre to create the show.
In the musical, Jamie has a new surname, has been transplanted from his actual home town of Durham and is accompanied by a troupe of all-singing, all-dancing classmates to help carry his story along. Many of the songs have become fan favourites, with plenty eager to sing or mouth along in the theatre.
The new tour features Ivano Turco in the title role, and his blond locks look amazing. He has style and attitude and a decent singing voice, although some of the smaller moments are lost in the cavern of the Opera House, while Rebecca McKinnis brings heaps of West End experience to the role of his mum Margaret, who gets the biggest number of the night in the belting He’s My Boy.
The youngsters in the company are energetic and committed, and designer Anna Fleischle’s versatile set helps keep things moving, both literally and narratively. An on-stage band of seven, led by MD Danny Belton, serve the material well, although the sound mix is ultimately defeated by the venue, with everything rendered in an echoing, swimming pool-type mush that makes deciphering the lyrics all but impossible to anyone who doesn’t already know the show inside out.
The audience are on their feet by the end in a sure sign that this tour is going to be just as successful as previous incarnations of the show. With another seven months ahead of them on the road, that’s got to be a relief.
November 21, 2023
Opera House, Blackpool Winter Gardens, until Saturday, November 25, 2023
One of a clutch of high school-based musicals to emerge over the last decade or so, Jamie caught the public’s imagination when it played first in Sheffield and then in the West End in 2017. Now on its second national tour, it draws audiences attracted to its upbeat message of tolerance, individuality and infectious love of life.
It’s loosely based on the true story of Jamie Campbell, a determined 16-year-old would-be drag queen who hired a documentary crew to record his journey to the school prom… in a dress. Writers Dan Gillespie Sells – frontman of The Feeling – and Tom MacRae teamed up with director Jonathan Butterell and won a commission from Sheffield’s Crucible Theatre to create the show.
In the musical, Jamie has a new surname, has been transplanted from his actual home town of Durham and is accompanied by a troupe of all-singing, all-dancing classmates to help carry his story along. Many of the songs have become fan favourites, with plenty eager to sing or mouth along in the theatre.
The new tour features Ivano Turco in the title role, and his blond locks look amazing. He has style and attitude and a decent singing voice, although some of the smaller moments are lost in the cavern of the Opera House, while Rebecca McKinnis brings heaps of West End experience to the role of his mum Margaret, who gets the biggest number of the night in the belting He’s My Boy.
The youngsters in the company are energetic and committed, and designer Anna Fleischle’s versatile set helps keep things moving, both literally and narratively. An on-stage band of seven, led by MD Danny Belton, serve the material well, although the sound mix is ultimately defeated by the venue, with everything rendered in an echoing, swimming pool-type mush that makes deciphering the lyrics all but impossible to anyone who doesn’t already know the show inside out.
The audience are on their feet by the end in a sure sign that this tour is going to be just as successful as previous incarnations of the show. With another seven months ahead of them on the road, that’s got to be a relief.
Cast (and audience members) of The Importance of Being... Earnest?
THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING… EARNEST?
November 15, 2023
Grand Theatre, Blackpool
Comic pastiches of some of the world’s literary classics have become rather commonplace these days. Jane Austen has been done in Austentatious, The Play That Goes Wrong team have tackled Peter Pan, among others, and now Oscar Wilde’s masterpiece The Importance of Being Earnest gets similar treatment at the hands of semi-improvised comedy troupe Say It Again, Sorry?
The premise of this irreverent knockabout is that various cast members are either absent or become, for one reason or another, indisposed. The show’s increasingly vexed director is forced to coral, coerce or otherwise entice audience members to stand in for the missing actors, resulting in varying degrees of silliness, awkwardness and ultimately triumph as the production staggers to an unlikely, often random, conclusion.
It’s a sound enough idea and the carefully-crafted collapse of order is well performed in the hands of the eight-strong cast. The concept does throw up some problems, however, not least in the very DNA of its execution: the audience. Some ‘volunteers’ are more willing than others, some more malleable, and some create difficulties which the improvising professionals have to cope with. Inevitably, the results will vary depending on who says what, how compliant the newbies are and how much humour can be wrung from the situation.
Of course, every night will be different because every press-ganged volunteer is different, and that’s where the agility and skill of the company is tested to the full. Some of it works brilliantly and with fleet comedy: other parts drag or feel laboured.
Most importantly, don’t go expecting to see The Importance of Being Earnest. It’s comedy, but not of the Wildean variety. Cleverness has been substituted with chaos, witty one-liners replaced by improvised gags. I’m not arguing that one is superior to the other, but they are quite different. This is raw, rough-edged farce – and if I were the amateur Ernest dragged from my seat, I’d be demanding a share of the proceeds…
November 15, 2023
Grand Theatre, Blackpool
Comic pastiches of some of the world’s literary classics have become rather commonplace these days. Jane Austen has been done in Austentatious, The Play That Goes Wrong team have tackled Peter Pan, among others, and now Oscar Wilde’s masterpiece The Importance of Being Earnest gets similar treatment at the hands of semi-improvised comedy troupe Say It Again, Sorry?
The premise of this irreverent knockabout is that various cast members are either absent or become, for one reason or another, indisposed. The show’s increasingly vexed director is forced to coral, coerce or otherwise entice audience members to stand in for the missing actors, resulting in varying degrees of silliness, awkwardness and ultimately triumph as the production staggers to an unlikely, often random, conclusion.
It’s a sound enough idea and the carefully-crafted collapse of order is well performed in the hands of the eight-strong cast. The concept does throw up some problems, however, not least in the very DNA of its execution: the audience. Some ‘volunteers’ are more willing than others, some more malleable, and some create difficulties which the improvising professionals have to cope with. Inevitably, the results will vary depending on who says what, how compliant the newbies are and how much humour can be wrung from the situation.
Of course, every night will be different because every press-ganged volunteer is different, and that’s where the agility and skill of the company is tested to the full. Some of it works brilliantly and with fleet comedy: other parts drag or feel laboured.
Most importantly, don’t go expecting to see The Importance of Being Earnest. It’s comedy, but not of the Wildean variety. Cleverness has been substituted with chaos, witty one-liners replaced by improvised gags. I’m not arguing that one is superior to the other, but they are quite different. This is raw, rough-edged farce – and if I were the amateur Ernest dragged from my seat, I’d be demanding a share of the proceeds…
THINK FLOYD
November 11, 2023
Grand Theatre, Blackpool
Nearly 30 years ago, a covers band in London started playing Pink Floyd requests in their local pub. Their resemblance to the originals proved startling, and the performances grew from the odd Floyd track to consume the entire show, turning the act professional in the process.
Now the latest incarnation of the band regularly tours whole albums of their idols, reproducing every last note, sound effect and echoing manic laugh live on stage. Their latest visit to Blackpool’s Grand Theatre included the whole of The Dark Side of the Moon as its second half, with a varied collection of older and newer tracks filling out the first half and the encores.
Think Floyd are, unquestionably, a dedicated band of gifted musicians, able to deliver and replicate the music of the original recordings accurately and with huge skill, accompanied by a light show that enhances the performance and offers a glimpse of the kind of gigantic spectacle for which Floyd became renowned in their heyday.
Some of the lesser-known tracks reflect the self-indulgence of the prog-rock era, with extended repetitious passages and gloomy lyrical meanderings, but at their finest Floyd were a force to be reckoned with. Dark Side is reputed to be the biggest-selling album never to have made it to number one in the charts, and it spawned a new generation of contemplative, edgy records – Floyd’s own The Wall among them.
The four-piece at the heart of Think Floyd have a clear understanding of what they’re trying to achieve, and it works magnificently. With the addition of a female vocalist delivering the iconic Clare Torry solo in The Great Gig in the Sky and a saxophonist supplying the all-important breaks in Money and Us and Them, their Dark Side is both musically impressive and deeply satisfying.
In the absence of the real thing, this is about as good as live Floyd music gets.
November 11, 2023
Grand Theatre, Blackpool
Nearly 30 years ago, a covers band in London started playing Pink Floyd requests in their local pub. Their resemblance to the originals proved startling, and the performances grew from the odd Floyd track to consume the entire show, turning the act professional in the process.
Now the latest incarnation of the band regularly tours whole albums of their idols, reproducing every last note, sound effect and echoing manic laugh live on stage. Their latest visit to Blackpool’s Grand Theatre included the whole of The Dark Side of the Moon as its second half, with a varied collection of older and newer tracks filling out the first half and the encores.
Think Floyd are, unquestionably, a dedicated band of gifted musicians, able to deliver and replicate the music of the original recordings accurately and with huge skill, accompanied by a light show that enhances the performance and offers a glimpse of the kind of gigantic spectacle for which Floyd became renowned in their heyday.
Some of the lesser-known tracks reflect the self-indulgence of the prog-rock era, with extended repetitious passages and gloomy lyrical meanderings, but at their finest Floyd were a force to be reckoned with. Dark Side is reputed to be the biggest-selling album never to have made it to number one in the charts, and it spawned a new generation of contemplative, edgy records – Floyd’s own The Wall among them.
The four-piece at the heart of Think Floyd have a clear understanding of what they’re trying to achieve, and it works magnificently. With the addition of a female vocalist delivering the iconic Clare Torry solo in The Great Gig in the Sky and a saxophonist supplying the all-important breaks in Money and Us and Them, their Dark Side is both musically impressive and deeply satisfying.
In the absence of the real thing, this is about as good as live Floyd music gets.
Boy George headlines Peter Pan as Captain Hook.
PETER PAN
October 26, 2023
Opera House, Blackpool Winter Gardens, until Sunday, October 29, 2023, then touring
The publicity for this panto, which tours the UK until early January, claims it is a ‘supersize spectacle’ which puts a ‘spectacular spin on the timeless classic adventure’. Watching the chaotic assemblage of circus acts, local dance schools and larky, laddish knockabout, it’s hard to resist the temptation to yell back: ‘Oh no it isn’t!’
Because this isn’t really panto as we know it: many of the traditional elements are there but, as Eric Morecambe once famously said, not necessarily in the right order. Spectacle there is a-plenty, though, with huge video screens instead of sets, a giant day-glo pirate ship and some genuinely impressive circus skills on display.
There are attempts at audience participation, some willy gags and a bit of swordplay that amounts to some half-hearted wafting and lots of on-stage giggling, but the cast having a laugh with one another does not a proper panto make. Those who emerge best are the non-headliners, including Dorit Kemsley’s impressive Magical Mermaid, Ebony Feare’s roller-skating Tinkerbelle and Penni Tovey’s punky Tiger Lily, but everyone is in dire need of some clear direction and a decent script.
And then there’s Boy George. An acknowledged cultural icon, he’s woefully out of his depth as Captain Hook, although his Culture Club medley is just about enough to justify his marketing as the star attraction. What’s less forgivable, however, is the dropping of the F-bomb in an auditorium crammed with young children, many of whom are likely to be experiencing panto for the first time. Not once, but twice.
It’s indicative of the whole show, which values the spectacle above everything else but doesn’t care enough about its storytelling – or its audience. There’s so much more to panto than a bucket of shaving foam and some lame one-liners.
October 26, 2023
Opera House, Blackpool Winter Gardens, until Sunday, October 29, 2023, then touring
The publicity for this panto, which tours the UK until early January, claims it is a ‘supersize spectacle’ which puts a ‘spectacular spin on the timeless classic adventure’. Watching the chaotic assemblage of circus acts, local dance schools and larky, laddish knockabout, it’s hard to resist the temptation to yell back: ‘Oh no it isn’t!’
Because this isn’t really panto as we know it: many of the traditional elements are there but, as Eric Morecambe once famously said, not necessarily in the right order. Spectacle there is a-plenty, though, with huge video screens instead of sets, a giant day-glo pirate ship and some genuinely impressive circus skills on display.
There are attempts at audience participation, some willy gags and a bit of swordplay that amounts to some half-hearted wafting and lots of on-stage giggling, but the cast having a laugh with one another does not a proper panto make. Those who emerge best are the non-headliners, including Dorit Kemsley’s impressive Magical Mermaid, Ebony Feare’s roller-skating Tinkerbelle and Penni Tovey’s punky Tiger Lily, but everyone is in dire need of some clear direction and a decent script.
And then there’s Boy George. An acknowledged cultural icon, he’s woefully out of his depth as Captain Hook, although his Culture Club medley is just about enough to justify his marketing as the star attraction. What’s less forgivable, however, is the dropping of the F-bomb in an auditorium crammed with young children, many of whom are likely to be experiencing panto for the first time. Not once, but twice.
It’s indicative of the whole show, which values the spectacle above everything else but doesn’t care enough about its storytelling – or its audience. There’s so much more to panto than a bucket of shaving foam and some lame one-liners.
Zak Ford-Williams as Joseph Merrick in The Real and Imagined History of the Elephant Man.
THE REAL AND IMAGINED HISTORY OF THE ELEPHANT MAN
October 17, 2023
Grand Theatre, Blackpool, until Saturday, October 21, 2023
When does a physical difference become a freak show? How does someone with an appearance other than ‘the norm’ navigate the conventions of society? And who decides what that ‘norm’ is anyway?
These are some of the huge and potent questions thrown up by Australian playwright Tom Wright’s new retelling of the story of Joseph Merrick, the real-life Victorian weaver’s son who developed extraordinary deformities as he grew up and became the star attraction in circus and carnival shows across Europe under the billing of The Elephant Man.
Here, Wright casts him as victim, pure and simple, with his doctor Frederick Treves – never shown on stage – hinted at as condescending and exploitative. The truth was more complex, with Merrick putting himself forward for the European tours and his relationship with Treves developing into a firm friendship. But his short, troubled life raises compelling questions about our modern-day attitudes to disability, society’s gaze and the basic human right to a dignified existence.
In Stephen Bailey’s production, the clash of time periods is explicitly played out. Some costumes and props reflect the 19th century setting, while Killian Thomas Lefevre’s doom-laden narrator strides the stage strumming sinister chords on an electric guitar. The visual and aural dissonance adds atmosphere but also confusion.
Likewise, Simon Kenny’s set is inconsistent. In the first half, a giant revolving box dominates, providing alternative uses as a terrace of houses or a sideshow booth and lit in semi-industrial neon strips (Jai Morjaria). Later, the set is a naturalistic square of dull brick walls serving as Merrick’s hospital accommodation, with the implication of a prison cell. The tone, like the script, is uneven, a combination of abstract impressionism and forced naturalism that never quite settles and never quite convinces.
The performances are on surer ground, with Zak Ford-Williams delivering a powerful, impressive turn as Merrick. Himself an actor with cerebral palsy, Ford-Williams adds authenticity to his portrayal without resorting to prosthetics or over-exaggeration and he’s both engaging and accomplished.
Lefevre is moody and dangerous, while Daneka Etchells, Annabelle Davis, Nadia Nadarajah and Tim Pritchett are believable and versatile in a wide range of supporting roles, and the cast’s own physical differences – restricted growth and Deafness among them – are woven seamlessly into the storytelling in wonderfully diverse and accessible ways.
In the end, how much of it is ‘true’ becomes less significant than how much it puts our own attitudes into the spotlight. There’s even a clue in the title. It’s an important and intriguing take on such a rich vein of human experience.
October 17, 2023
Grand Theatre, Blackpool, until Saturday, October 21, 2023
When does a physical difference become a freak show? How does someone with an appearance other than ‘the norm’ navigate the conventions of society? And who decides what that ‘norm’ is anyway?
These are some of the huge and potent questions thrown up by Australian playwright Tom Wright’s new retelling of the story of Joseph Merrick, the real-life Victorian weaver’s son who developed extraordinary deformities as he grew up and became the star attraction in circus and carnival shows across Europe under the billing of The Elephant Man.
Here, Wright casts him as victim, pure and simple, with his doctor Frederick Treves – never shown on stage – hinted at as condescending and exploitative. The truth was more complex, with Merrick putting himself forward for the European tours and his relationship with Treves developing into a firm friendship. But his short, troubled life raises compelling questions about our modern-day attitudes to disability, society’s gaze and the basic human right to a dignified existence.
In Stephen Bailey’s production, the clash of time periods is explicitly played out. Some costumes and props reflect the 19th century setting, while Killian Thomas Lefevre’s doom-laden narrator strides the stage strumming sinister chords on an electric guitar. The visual and aural dissonance adds atmosphere but also confusion.
Likewise, Simon Kenny’s set is inconsistent. In the first half, a giant revolving box dominates, providing alternative uses as a terrace of houses or a sideshow booth and lit in semi-industrial neon strips (Jai Morjaria). Later, the set is a naturalistic square of dull brick walls serving as Merrick’s hospital accommodation, with the implication of a prison cell. The tone, like the script, is uneven, a combination of abstract impressionism and forced naturalism that never quite settles and never quite convinces.
The performances are on surer ground, with Zak Ford-Williams delivering a powerful, impressive turn as Merrick. Himself an actor with cerebral palsy, Ford-Williams adds authenticity to his portrayal without resorting to prosthetics or over-exaggeration and he’s both engaging and accomplished.
Lefevre is moody and dangerous, while Daneka Etchells, Annabelle Davis, Nadia Nadarajah and Tim Pritchett are believable and versatile in a wide range of supporting roles, and the cast’s own physical differences – restricted growth and Deafness among them – are woven seamlessly into the storytelling in wonderfully diverse and accessible ways.
In the end, how much of it is ‘true’ becomes less significant than how much it puts our own attitudes into the spotlight. There’s even a clue in the title. It’s an important and intriguing take on such a rich vein of human experience.
Phil Walker, the brains behind The Story of Guitar Heroes.
THE STORY OF GUITAR HEROES
October 9, 2023
Grand Theatre, Blackpool
It seems such an obvious idea that it’s surprising nobody has come up with it before: a show telling the story of the electric guitar through decades of the songs that it has made famous. But there’s a catch. If you’re going to deliver countless axe-hero classics from Eddie Cochran to AC/DC, you’ve got to be able to deliver them. Properly.
Fortunately for the quartet of musicians performing The Story of Guitar Heroes, they can… and do. The show is the brainchild of guitarist Phil Walker, who leads the night in an extraordinarily versatile range of styles, recreating the sounds of everyone from Buddy Holly to Brian May with authenticity and some blistering fingerwork.
But he’s far from alone. Lee Williams and Chris Taylor have plenty of time in the spotlight too, showcasing their virtuoso playing in styles as varied as bluegrass, jazz and the heaviest of heavy metal. Even drummer Chris Allan – whose rock-solid rhythms hold everything together throughout the night – gets a chance to step out from behind the kit to demonstrate his own axe talents with a driving version of Black Sabbath’s Paranoid.
Think of a guitar hero and he’s probably represented here. From Clapton to Chuck Berry, Hendrix to Slash, there’s barely a name that you won’t recognise or a lick you can’t rock out to. For two-and-a- half hours, the foursome deliver hit after hit with skill and no little humour, clearly loving every moment of living the dream. The vocals are mighty impressive too, with all four contributing at one point or another and delivering some fabulous harmonies along the way.
The array of guitars forming a backdrop to the stage has the senses tingling before a note is struck, and the show is cleverly woven together with clips and voiceovers explaining each guitarist’s place in the pantheon before the live music kicks in with examples. Highlights include the stunning act one closer, Pink Floyd’s Comfortably Numb, a romping version of Dire Straits’ Sultans of Swing and the spinning instruments of ZZ Top.
If you’ve ever picked up a guitar and wondered, ‘Could I play Layla like Clapton?’ – or even if you’re simply an admirer of its outstanding proponents – then The Story of Guitar Heroes has got your name written all over it.
October 9, 2023
Grand Theatre, Blackpool
It seems such an obvious idea that it’s surprising nobody has come up with it before: a show telling the story of the electric guitar through decades of the songs that it has made famous. But there’s a catch. If you’re going to deliver countless axe-hero classics from Eddie Cochran to AC/DC, you’ve got to be able to deliver them. Properly.
Fortunately for the quartet of musicians performing The Story of Guitar Heroes, they can… and do. The show is the brainchild of guitarist Phil Walker, who leads the night in an extraordinarily versatile range of styles, recreating the sounds of everyone from Buddy Holly to Brian May with authenticity and some blistering fingerwork.
But he’s far from alone. Lee Williams and Chris Taylor have plenty of time in the spotlight too, showcasing their virtuoso playing in styles as varied as bluegrass, jazz and the heaviest of heavy metal. Even drummer Chris Allan – whose rock-solid rhythms hold everything together throughout the night – gets a chance to step out from behind the kit to demonstrate his own axe talents with a driving version of Black Sabbath’s Paranoid.
Think of a guitar hero and he’s probably represented here. From Clapton to Chuck Berry, Hendrix to Slash, there’s barely a name that you won’t recognise or a lick you can’t rock out to. For two-and-a- half hours, the foursome deliver hit after hit with skill and no little humour, clearly loving every moment of living the dream. The vocals are mighty impressive too, with all four contributing at one point or another and delivering some fabulous harmonies along the way.
The array of guitars forming a backdrop to the stage has the senses tingling before a note is struck, and the show is cleverly woven together with clips and voiceovers explaining each guitarist’s place in the pantheon before the live music kicks in with examples. Highlights include the stunning act one closer, Pink Floyd’s Comfortably Numb, a romping version of Dire Straits’ Sultans of Swing and the spinning instruments of ZZ Top.
If you’ve ever picked up a guitar and wondered, ‘Could I play Layla like Clapton?’ – or even if you’re simply an admirer of its outstanding proponents – then The Story of Guitar Heroes has got your name written all over it.
HEATHERS – THE MUSICAL
September 12, 2023
Opera House, Blackpool Winter Gardens, until Saturday, September 16, 2023
Heathers, for those old enough to remember, was a dark, cynical 1989 film starring Winona Ryder and Christian Slater intended to counteract the sweet teen movies of the era with something altogether more sinister. It’s become a cult favourite and now, thanks to writers Kevin Murphy and Laurence O’Keefe, a blockbuster Broadway musical.
The musical has, in turn, become a cult, with audience members dressing as the eponymous high school band of bitches and screaming ecstatically at their every vapid utterance. Its appeal is somewhat mystifying, based as it is on the extreme – some would say dangerously irresponsible – trivialisation of themes as jolly and jaunty as bullying, violent homophobia, date rape, suicide and mass murder.
It purports to undercut its bleakness by billing itself as a ‘black comedy’. There’s plenty of the former in evidence; depressingly, far less of the latter. But then, as a middle-aged man, I’m hardly the target audience. Nor, though, are the eight- or nine-year-old girls, some in costume, who come to idolise the trio of nasty, vicious airheads whose club becomes the pivot around which the nasty, vicious story unfolds.
If you can put all the unpleasantness aside, there are some fine performances in this national tour. Jenna Innes takes the Ryder role as Veronica, whose internal battle between short-term popularity and loyalty to her unfashionable friend provides the starting point for the dubious bloodbath that follows. Innes has a fine, strong voice and considerable charisma, while Jacob Fowler offers a powerful counterpart as her brooding Goth boyfriend JD.
Across the large company and accomplished band under musical director Will Joy, there are plenty of impressive vocals and solid musicianship, with energetic choreography by Gary Lloyd and some appealing supporting performances. The sound balance needs work – too many lyrics are lost in the mush – but if trashy, snarky teens with a side order of jokey amorality are your thing, then knock yourself out.
September 12, 2023
Opera House, Blackpool Winter Gardens, until Saturday, September 16, 2023
Heathers, for those old enough to remember, was a dark, cynical 1989 film starring Winona Ryder and Christian Slater intended to counteract the sweet teen movies of the era with something altogether more sinister. It’s become a cult favourite and now, thanks to writers Kevin Murphy and Laurence O’Keefe, a blockbuster Broadway musical.
The musical has, in turn, become a cult, with audience members dressing as the eponymous high school band of bitches and screaming ecstatically at their every vapid utterance. Its appeal is somewhat mystifying, based as it is on the extreme – some would say dangerously irresponsible – trivialisation of themes as jolly and jaunty as bullying, violent homophobia, date rape, suicide and mass murder.
It purports to undercut its bleakness by billing itself as a ‘black comedy’. There’s plenty of the former in evidence; depressingly, far less of the latter. But then, as a middle-aged man, I’m hardly the target audience. Nor, though, are the eight- or nine-year-old girls, some in costume, who come to idolise the trio of nasty, vicious airheads whose club becomes the pivot around which the nasty, vicious story unfolds.
If you can put all the unpleasantness aside, there are some fine performances in this national tour. Jenna Innes takes the Ryder role as Veronica, whose internal battle between short-term popularity and loyalty to her unfashionable friend provides the starting point for the dubious bloodbath that follows. Innes has a fine, strong voice and considerable charisma, while Jacob Fowler offers a powerful counterpart as her brooding Goth boyfriend JD.
Across the large company and accomplished band under musical director Will Joy, there are plenty of impressive vocals and solid musicianship, with energetic choreography by Gary Lloyd and some appealing supporting performances. The sound balance needs work – too many lyrics are lost in the mush – but if trashy, snarky teens with a side order of jokey amorality are your thing, then knock yourself out.
The cast of Greatest Days, the official Take That musical. Photo by Alastair Muir.
GREATEST DAYS
August 18, 2023
Opera House, Blackpool Winter Gardens, until Saturday, August 19, 2023
It’s been six years since a show called The Band took a talent-show-created boy band on the road in a jokey parallel with Take That, performing the songs and routines of Gary Barlow et al within the setting of a play about five of their fans. It was all a bit meta but playwright Tim Firth (Calendar Girls, Our House etc) is a master of this kind of thing and pulled it off with panache.
Now rebranded Greatest Days, and with a few minor tweaks – Prague has been replaced by Athens, for instance – the so-called ‘Official Take That musical’ is back on the road, presumably to coincide with the release of a film version this summer by the same name.
It’s a no-brainer for any fans of Gary, Robbie and the rest, but the good news is that it’s also a fun night out for everyone else too. Personally I’d prefer to hear the terrific back catalogue sung by the performers on stage rather than by the army of ladies of a certain age in the row behind, but I suppose this is almost as much a gig as it is a stage show so perhaps they can be forgiven.
Meanwhile, what’s on stage is pretty darn likeable. Kalifa Burton, Jamie Corner, Archie Durrant, Regan Gascoigne and Alexanda O’Reilly make excellent eye and ear candy as the unnamed band who are the object of affection of five 16-year-olds from a north-west town, vowing with their friendship bracelets never to lose touch. Fast-forward 25 years and a tragedy has split the group: can a joint trip to see ‘the boys’ perform in Athens repair the concealed damage?
If you seriously need an answer to that question, then you’ve clearly never been to a musical – especially not a Tim Firth one. But it’s the emotional heart, rather than the specifics of the plot, that keeps this show grounded – plus, of course, those songs, which are interspersed throughout, sometimes as stadium crowdpleasers, sometimes as underscore to the dialogue.
One-time manufactured pop star Kym Marsh (remember Hear-Say?) leads the group of grown-up friends in the touching if slight role of Rachel, and Holly Ashton, Rachel Marwood and Jamie-Rose Monk complete a rounded quartet of believable, bickering pals, while Alan Stocks gets most of the laughs as every supporting character bar one.
Aaron Renfree’s choreography looks sensational and authentic, and it’s performed superbly, with crisp unison line-ups, lots of costume changes and athleticism galore. Firth himself co-directs with Stacey Haynes and together they make sure the narrative is well-paced, allowing for big highs and moving interludes.
And the live band under Zach Flis are simply superb, whether they’re gently tinkling a phrase from Back for Good or powering through a megahit like Never Forget. In the end, it’s all about the music.
August 18, 2023
Opera House, Blackpool Winter Gardens, until Saturday, August 19, 2023
It’s been six years since a show called The Band took a talent-show-created boy band on the road in a jokey parallel with Take That, performing the songs and routines of Gary Barlow et al within the setting of a play about five of their fans. It was all a bit meta but playwright Tim Firth (Calendar Girls, Our House etc) is a master of this kind of thing and pulled it off with panache.
Now rebranded Greatest Days, and with a few minor tweaks – Prague has been replaced by Athens, for instance – the so-called ‘Official Take That musical’ is back on the road, presumably to coincide with the release of a film version this summer by the same name.
It’s a no-brainer for any fans of Gary, Robbie and the rest, but the good news is that it’s also a fun night out for everyone else too. Personally I’d prefer to hear the terrific back catalogue sung by the performers on stage rather than by the army of ladies of a certain age in the row behind, but I suppose this is almost as much a gig as it is a stage show so perhaps they can be forgiven.
Meanwhile, what’s on stage is pretty darn likeable. Kalifa Burton, Jamie Corner, Archie Durrant, Regan Gascoigne and Alexanda O’Reilly make excellent eye and ear candy as the unnamed band who are the object of affection of five 16-year-olds from a north-west town, vowing with their friendship bracelets never to lose touch. Fast-forward 25 years and a tragedy has split the group: can a joint trip to see ‘the boys’ perform in Athens repair the concealed damage?
If you seriously need an answer to that question, then you’ve clearly never been to a musical – especially not a Tim Firth one. But it’s the emotional heart, rather than the specifics of the plot, that keeps this show grounded – plus, of course, those songs, which are interspersed throughout, sometimes as stadium crowdpleasers, sometimes as underscore to the dialogue.
One-time manufactured pop star Kym Marsh (remember Hear-Say?) leads the group of grown-up friends in the touching if slight role of Rachel, and Holly Ashton, Rachel Marwood and Jamie-Rose Monk complete a rounded quartet of believable, bickering pals, while Alan Stocks gets most of the laughs as every supporting character bar one.
Aaron Renfree’s choreography looks sensational and authentic, and it’s performed superbly, with crisp unison line-ups, lots of costume changes and athleticism galore. Firth himself co-directs with Stacey Haynes and together they make sure the narrative is well-paced, allowing for big highs and moving interludes.
And the live band under Zach Flis are simply superb, whether they’re gently tinkling a phrase from Back for Good or powering through a megahit like Never Forget. In the end, it’s all about the music.
The cast of Quality Street at the Grand Theatre in Blackpool. Photo by Martin Bostock.
QUALITY STREET
June 27, 2023
Grand Theatre, Blackpool, until Saturday, July 1, 2023
Have you ever wondered why those brightly-wrapped chocolates are called Quality Street? The answer, it might surprise you to learn, is that they are named after a play, written by Peter Pan author JM Barrie in 1901. It’s a Regency comedy of manners in the Jane Austen style, which was so popular in its time that Halifax chocolatier Harold Mackintosh named his new tinned sweets after it between the wars.
If you haven’t heard of the play, don’t feel too bad about it: these days it’s hardly ever performed – which makes Northern Broadsides’ touring production doubly welcome. Not only is it a charming show in its own right, it also breathes new life into an old classic.
Rather than simply disinter the script, the company – which prides itself on authentic northern shows and accents – has framed it with the verbatim observations of real-life present-day workers at the Mackintosh sweet factory. Thus genuine Quality Street manufacturers offer their thoughts on the Quality Street play, like a kind of Greek chorus straight out of Victoria Wood’s dinnerladies.
Director Laurie Sansom has some fun with the staging too, with the second half really coming to life at a grand ball thanks to some superb sweet-wrapper-inspired costumes from designers Jessica Worrall and Lis Evans, modern dance routines by choreographer Ben Wright and some neatly blended musical underscoring by composer Nick Sagar.
The cast of nine are totally committed to their task, whether they’re playing the Regency ensemble or the 21st century factory workers. The terrific Paula Lane and Louisa-May Parker hold the plot together as sisters Phoebe and Susan Throssel, whose lives are toyed with by the dashing Valentine Brown – a bravura performance by Aron Julius. Around this excellent trio revolve dim-witted soldiers, gossipy neighbours and even some Muppet-like schoolchildren in a well-crafted world that is vibrant, witty and constantly entertaining.
It’s a delightful evening that pleasingly revives a period piece and makes it fresh and appealing for a modern audience without losing the elegance and cleverness of Barrie’s original. Quality indeed…
June 27, 2023
Grand Theatre, Blackpool, until Saturday, July 1, 2023
Have you ever wondered why those brightly-wrapped chocolates are called Quality Street? The answer, it might surprise you to learn, is that they are named after a play, written by Peter Pan author JM Barrie in 1901. It’s a Regency comedy of manners in the Jane Austen style, which was so popular in its time that Halifax chocolatier Harold Mackintosh named his new tinned sweets after it between the wars.
If you haven’t heard of the play, don’t feel too bad about it: these days it’s hardly ever performed – which makes Northern Broadsides’ touring production doubly welcome. Not only is it a charming show in its own right, it also breathes new life into an old classic.
Rather than simply disinter the script, the company – which prides itself on authentic northern shows and accents – has framed it with the verbatim observations of real-life present-day workers at the Mackintosh sweet factory. Thus genuine Quality Street manufacturers offer their thoughts on the Quality Street play, like a kind of Greek chorus straight out of Victoria Wood’s dinnerladies.
Director Laurie Sansom has some fun with the staging too, with the second half really coming to life at a grand ball thanks to some superb sweet-wrapper-inspired costumes from designers Jessica Worrall and Lis Evans, modern dance routines by choreographer Ben Wright and some neatly blended musical underscoring by composer Nick Sagar.
The cast of nine are totally committed to their task, whether they’re playing the Regency ensemble or the 21st century factory workers. The terrific Paula Lane and Louisa-May Parker hold the plot together as sisters Phoebe and Susan Throssel, whose lives are toyed with by the dashing Valentine Brown – a bravura performance by Aron Julius. Around this excellent trio revolve dim-witted soldiers, gossipy neighbours and even some Muppet-like schoolchildren in a well-crafted world that is vibrant, witty and constantly entertaining.
It’s a delightful evening that pleasingly revives a period piece and makes it fresh and appealing for a modern audience without losing the elegance and cleverness of Barrie’s original. Quality indeed…
The cast of The SpongeBob Musical. Photo by Mark Senior.
THE SPONGEBOB MUSICAL
June 13, 2023
Opera House, Blackpool Winter Gardens, until Saturday, June 17, 2023
Something of a mystery surrounds this musical, which is billed as a UK premiere, fresh from Broadway. The mystery is that there was another SpongeBob musical which toured the UK in 2009, which actually had better songs, a better story and better jokes. That one seems to have been quietly forgotten by Nickelodeon, the TV giant which has produced the underwater cartoon since 1999.
This new show purports to feature original songs by the likes of Aerosmith, Sara Bareilles, Cyndi Lauper and John Legend, but their blandness and unmemorability belies their origins, while the narrative serves as an extended episode of the TV show interspersed with what feel like functional nods to the pantheon of characters: oh, here’s Mr Krabs – we must have a song about avarice.
What lifts this production above the ‘Meh’ is the performances. Director Tara Overfield Wilkinson draws some superb characterisations from her cast, with Lewis Cornay as SpongeBob SquarePants himself holding the flimsy threads together with panache. Gareth Gates makes a wonderfully grumpy Squidward despite his impeccable singing voice rarely being given full rein, and Divina De Campo hams it up beautifully as Plankton.
Among the company there are some truly excellent musical theatre voices – Irfan Damani as the starfish Patrick, Sarah Freer as Mr Krabs’s daughter Pearl, to name but two – and the harmonies and ensemble numbers look and sound terrific thanks to the musical direction of Marcus Carter-Adams and choreography of Fabian Aloise. Designer Steve Howells also delivers an authentic slice of Bikini Bottom, complete with garish colours and clever costumes suggestive of their characters rather than slavishly representational.
Much of the smartness of the television original is lost in a muddy mix but there’s enough here to satisfy young fans of the cartoon as well as their accompanying adults. And you can’t fault the energy and commitment of the cast, who jump from one frenetic scene to another without batting an eyelid. It would be really interesting to see what they could have achieved with that 2009 script…
June 13, 2023
Opera House, Blackpool Winter Gardens, until Saturday, June 17, 2023
Something of a mystery surrounds this musical, which is billed as a UK premiere, fresh from Broadway. The mystery is that there was another SpongeBob musical which toured the UK in 2009, which actually had better songs, a better story and better jokes. That one seems to have been quietly forgotten by Nickelodeon, the TV giant which has produced the underwater cartoon since 1999.
This new show purports to feature original songs by the likes of Aerosmith, Sara Bareilles, Cyndi Lauper and John Legend, but their blandness and unmemorability belies their origins, while the narrative serves as an extended episode of the TV show interspersed with what feel like functional nods to the pantheon of characters: oh, here’s Mr Krabs – we must have a song about avarice.
What lifts this production above the ‘Meh’ is the performances. Director Tara Overfield Wilkinson draws some superb characterisations from her cast, with Lewis Cornay as SpongeBob SquarePants himself holding the flimsy threads together with panache. Gareth Gates makes a wonderfully grumpy Squidward despite his impeccable singing voice rarely being given full rein, and Divina De Campo hams it up beautifully as Plankton.
Among the company there are some truly excellent musical theatre voices – Irfan Damani as the starfish Patrick, Sarah Freer as Mr Krabs’s daughter Pearl, to name but two – and the harmonies and ensemble numbers look and sound terrific thanks to the musical direction of Marcus Carter-Adams and choreography of Fabian Aloise. Designer Steve Howells also delivers an authentic slice of Bikini Bottom, complete with garish colours and clever costumes suggestive of their characters rather than slavishly representational.
Much of the smartness of the television original is lost in a muddy mix but there’s enough here to satisfy young fans of the cartoon as well as their accompanying adults. And you can’t fault the energy and commitment of the cast, who jump from one frenetic scene to another without batting an eyelid. It would be really interesting to see what they could have achieved with that 2009 script…
Door-to-door poet Rowan McCabe.
DOOR-TO-DOOR POETRY: NATIONWIDE
May 26, 2023
Old Electric Theatre, Blackpool
In March 2019, Geordie poet Rowan McCabe embarked on a crazy mission. His idea was to prove that strangers were just as willing to talk to him in the South as they were on his own doorstep, and to find out what really makes England tick behind the lace curtains.
Across 12 months, he planned to visit a variety of locations, literally knocking on random doors and asking people if they would like a poem written about them and the things that were important to them. With the project on the verge of completion, a certain pandemic closed the country down.
This one-hour, one-man show is the story of that mission, from McCabe’s Newcastle council estate origins to the high-class residences of London’s Eaton Square, taking in protesting grandmas, restless travellers and the regimented strangeness of Lundy Island along the way.
McCabe is a natural storyteller and, under the direction of Peader Kirk, leads his audience gently and sensitively through his own nationwide journey, encompassing highs of exuberant silliness and lows of his subjects’ personal traumas. It’s all deftly handled and capably performed, weaving some of the resulting poems into the narrative.
The poems are little gems in themselves, ranging from the poignant to the polemic and leavened with a judicious dose of humour, and the way McCabe integrates them into his mini geography lesson is both enlightening and entertaining. He’s constantly aware of bringing his audience with him, and empathetic enough to interact with them without allowing the odd whimsical diversion to detract from his central purpose.
It bills itself as a show about class and the kindness of strangers, but it’s actually much more than that: fundamentally it’s simply about people. The tour continues into June and is well worth an hour of anyone’s time.
May 26, 2023
Old Electric Theatre, Blackpool
In March 2019, Geordie poet Rowan McCabe embarked on a crazy mission. His idea was to prove that strangers were just as willing to talk to him in the South as they were on his own doorstep, and to find out what really makes England tick behind the lace curtains.
Across 12 months, he planned to visit a variety of locations, literally knocking on random doors and asking people if they would like a poem written about them and the things that were important to them. With the project on the verge of completion, a certain pandemic closed the country down.
This one-hour, one-man show is the story of that mission, from McCabe’s Newcastle council estate origins to the high-class residences of London’s Eaton Square, taking in protesting grandmas, restless travellers and the regimented strangeness of Lundy Island along the way.
McCabe is a natural storyteller and, under the direction of Peader Kirk, leads his audience gently and sensitively through his own nationwide journey, encompassing highs of exuberant silliness and lows of his subjects’ personal traumas. It’s all deftly handled and capably performed, weaving some of the resulting poems into the narrative.
The poems are little gems in themselves, ranging from the poignant to the polemic and leavened with a judicious dose of humour, and the way McCabe integrates them into his mini geography lesson is both enlightening and entertaining. He’s constantly aware of bringing his audience with him, and empathetic enough to interact with them without allowing the odd whimsical diversion to detract from his central purpose.
It bills itself as a show about class and the kindness of strangers, but it’s actually much more than that: fundamentally it’s simply about people. The tour continues into June and is well worth an hour of anyone’s time.
The cast of Unexpected Twist in full beatbox action. Photo by Manuel Harlan.
UNEXPECTED TWIST
May 23, 2023
Grand Theatre, Blackpool, until Saturday, May 27, 2023.
Let’s get the big quibble out of the way at the start: this is not, as is claimed in the attendant publicity, a “re-telling of the Charles Dickens classic” Oliver Twist. This is children’s author Michael Rosen’s modern-day story about a motherless girl, Shona, trying to fit in at a new school only to discover that the gang who entice her with a fancy mobile phone aren’t simply being friendly.
Granted, there’s a subplot in which the class studies the Dickens novel under the tutelage of well-meaning Miss Cavani and plenty of unsubtle similarities are drawn between the two tales, but if you don’t know the basic plot of the first Twist, then the Unexpected one doesn’t offer much assistance.
Right, now for the good stuff. Director James Dacre deftly marshals a ten-strong team of mainly young actors across an amazing school-based set (Frankie Bradshaw), helpfully lit by Rory Beaton and frequently accompanied by completely a capella performances of songs that intersperse the action. There’s astonishing beatboxing, sublime vocals and powerful harmonising in a rap, hip-hop and even grime package, all delivered without the aid of musical instruments. Forget your Lionel Barts: this is Oliver for the 21st century.
The vocals and the visuals are the real high points of the production, and undoubtedly appeal to the target audience of youngsters possibly coming to live theatre for the first time. If they’re expecting dry, dusty old Dickens, they’re in for a delightful shock.
As Shona, Drew Hylton’s singing voice is as impressive as you’d expect from a TikTok star with a sizeable following, and her duet with Thomas Vernal as her dad is especially poignant and lyrical. Alex Hardie and Alexander Lobo Moreno supply the bulk of the extraordinary beatboxing, while Kate Donnachie – also in charge of the vocals – Nadine Rose Johnson and Liyah Summers make a fabulous girl-group trio.
Roy Williams’s adaptation is oddly light on emotion and heavy on unlikely Dickensian parallels, while Yaya Bey and Conrad Murray’s songs – in reality little more than snippets for the most part – rarely offer the versatile vocalists much to get their teeth into. But the feel of downtrodden suburbia is authentic enough and the energy and commitment of the performers lifts the material to something greater than its parts.
It’s never going to match Bart for popularity or singalongability, but as a twist on an old tale, there’s much to entertain a fresh and eager young theatregoer.
May 23, 2023
Grand Theatre, Blackpool, until Saturday, May 27, 2023.
Let’s get the big quibble out of the way at the start: this is not, as is claimed in the attendant publicity, a “re-telling of the Charles Dickens classic” Oliver Twist. This is children’s author Michael Rosen’s modern-day story about a motherless girl, Shona, trying to fit in at a new school only to discover that the gang who entice her with a fancy mobile phone aren’t simply being friendly.
Granted, there’s a subplot in which the class studies the Dickens novel under the tutelage of well-meaning Miss Cavani and plenty of unsubtle similarities are drawn between the two tales, but if you don’t know the basic plot of the first Twist, then the Unexpected one doesn’t offer much assistance.
Right, now for the good stuff. Director James Dacre deftly marshals a ten-strong team of mainly young actors across an amazing school-based set (Frankie Bradshaw), helpfully lit by Rory Beaton and frequently accompanied by completely a capella performances of songs that intersperse the action. There’s astonishing beatboxing, sublime vocals and powerful harmonising in a rap, hip-hop and even grime package, all delivered without the aid of musical instruments. Forget your Lionel Barts: this is Oliver for the 21st century.
The vocals and the visuals are the real high points of the production, and undoubtedly appeal to the target audience of youngsters possibly coming to live theatre for the first time. If they’re expecting dry, dusty old Dickens, they’re in for a delightful shock.
As Shona, Drew Hylton’s singing voice is as impressive as you’d expect from a TikTok star with a sizeable following, and her duet with Thomas Vernal as her dad is especially poignant and lyrical. Alex Hardie and Alexander Lobo Moreno supply the bulk of the extraordinary beatboxing, while Kate Donnachie – also in charge of the vocals – Nadine Rose Johnson and Liyah Summers make a fabulous girl-group trio.
Roy Williams’s adaptation is oddly light on emotion and heavy on unlikely Dickensian parallels, while Yaya Bey and Conrad Murray’s songs – in reality little more than snippets for the most part – rarely offer the versatile vocalists much to get their teeth into. But the feel of downtrodden suburbia is authentic enough and the energy and commitment of the performers lifts the material to something greater than its parts.
It’s never going to match Bart for popularity or singalongability, but as a twist on an old tale, there’s much to entertain a fresh and eager young theatregoer.
TIMES LIKE THESE
March 15, 2023
Lowther Pavilion, Lytham
There’s something historic happening at the Lowther Pavilion in Lytham St Annes. For the first time in its 100-year-plus history, the venue is staging its own in-house production of a new musical. It’s part of the Lowther’s ongoing development as a creative hub for the Fylde coast, and it’s something of a landmark for artistic director Tim Lince.
Spearheading the expansion of the Pavilion this year, to incorporate a studio annexe and a diverse range of community activities, Lince takes the directorial helm for this curtain-raiser, penned by local writer Barry Speed and featuring a cast of five talented vocalists backed by a four-piece live band.
The tale is pretty standard fare, drawing inspiration from musical sources as varied as Norah Jones and Meat Loaf. It tells the fractured love story of singing duo Steve and Rosi, whose paths diverge when a cutthroat agent entices songwriter Steve away to service his rising stars, Vince and Sadie. But if the narrative and dialogue lack some originality, the vocal performances and superbly controlled band counteract any deficiencies elsewhere.
Speed’s songs come alive in the hands of musical director Jonathan Wilby, his terrific musicians and the harmonies and voices of the actors. The material is at its strongest when it’s channelling American soft country-rock, and each of the five performers – Mike Peyton, Jess McGlinchey, Julie Evans, Ian Fox and Nathan Smith – combines emotional and expressive tone with pitch-perfect delivery.
Lince marshalls his forces judiciously, making the most of individual voices and talents, and the whole show is contained in a circular playing area with three doors. The simplicity of the staging serves to accentuate the strength of the musicians and singers, while Dan Creasey’s lighting picks out moments and atmospherics at significant points in the story.
As a toe in the water for forthcoming original shows, Times Like These suggests not only that there’s an appetite on the Fylde coast for new writing, but also that the Lowther is well capable of offering the focal point that it aims to provide in the region.
March 15, 2023
Lowther Pavilion, Lytham
There’s something historic happening at the Lowther Pavilion in Lytham St Annes. For the first time in its 100-year-plus history, the venue is staging its own in-house production of a new musical. It’s part of the Lowther’s ongoing development as a creative hub for the Fylde coast, and it’s something of a landmark for artistic director Tim Lince.
Spearheading the expansion of the Pavilion this year, to incorporate a studio annexe and a diverse range of community activities, Lince takes the directorial helm for this curtain-raiser, penned by local writer Barry Speed and featuring a cast of five talented vocalists backed by a four-piece live band.
The tale is pretty standard fare, drawing inspiration from musical sources as varied as Norah Jones and Meat Loaf. It tells the fractured love story of singing duo Steve and Rosi, whose paths diverge when a cutthroat agent entices songwriter Steve away to service his rising stars, Vince and Sadie. But if the narrative and dialogue lack some originality, the vocal performances and superbly controlled band counteract any deficiencies elsewhere.
Speed’s songs come alive in the hands of musical director Jonathan Wilby, his terrific musicians and the harmonies and voices of the actors. The material is at its strongest when it’s channelling American soft country-rock, and each of the five performers – Mike Peyton, Jess McGlinchey, Julie Evans, Ian Fox and Nathan Smith – combines emotional and expressive tone with pitch-perfect delivery.
Lince marshalls his forces judiciously, making the most of individual voices and talents, and the whole show is contained in a circular playing area with three doors. The simplicity of the staging serves to accentuate the strength of the musicians and singers, while Dan Creasey’s lighting picks out moments and atmospherics at significant points in the story.
As a toe in the water for forthcoming original shows, Times Like These suggests not only that there’s an appetite on the Fylde coast for new writing, but also that the Lowther is well capable of offering the focal point that it aims to provide in the region.
Kevin Kennedy as the club owner Dennis Dupree in Rock of Ages. Photo by The Other Richard.
ROCK OF AGES
February 20, 2023
Opera House, Blackpool Winter Gardens, until Saturday, February 25, 2023
There’s really only one way to approach this stomping shoutalong show and that’s to ignore the threadbare narrative and give yourself up to the music.
If you remember the outrageously camp 2012 film starring Tom Cruise, Alec Baldwin and – in a bizarre cameo – Russell Brand, then you’ll have some idea of just how daft and flimsy the story is. Ruthless German developers are threatening to demolish the Bourbon Room rock venue on Hollywood’s Sunset Strip and a collection of oddball misfits combines to stymie them. That’s pretty much it, with a couple of unlikely love stories and a lot of whiskey thrown in to pad out the sagginess of the plot.
Well, this is the original jukebox musical on which that film was based, although it’s now bunged in a couple of barbed references to the movie, as if somehow linking Tom Cruise’s name to the enterprise didn’t boost its popularity massively.
The story is no less ludicrous, the characters no more credible. What you get here, though, that you can never get from the silver screen, is a thumping, blistering live band that pumps out a succession of 80s rock anthems – some better known over here than others – to satisfy any metalhead.
Musical director Liam Holmes leads the five-piece on keyboards, with Elliot Mason (bass) and Steve Hynes (drums) offering a solid back line, but the stunning guitar work of Liam Stevenson and Alex Ward is what really steals the show. Whether it’s soft-rock Starship or bullet-hard Bon Jovi, the musicianship is outstanding and the songs and their delivery are the undoubted highlight of the night.
Fortunately there are a host of outstanding rock voices among the cast to handle this epic and entertaining stuff. Sam Turrell and Gabriella Williams form the hit-and-miss pairing at the heart of the story, and Turrell in particular has a range and tonal quality to lead any rock band. Cameron Sharp makes a decent fist of the Tom Cruise role, while Tim Oxbrow’s narrator handles the high notes with equal verve and panache. Even former Corrie heartthrob Kevin Kennedy holds his own as the fried club owner.
The producers and director-choreographer Nick Winston wisely opt for strong production values and a large, capable ensemble, giving the stage a vibrant, rock-concert feel. Leaving aside some highly questionable sexual and cultural exploitation which should, in my view, have stayed firmly in the 80s (and don’t start me on the “but it was a different time” argument), this is an evening of superb musicianship and terrific vocals. Just don’t look too closely at the surrounding material.
February 20, 2023
Opera House, Blackpool Winter Gardens, until Saturday, February 25, 2023
There’s really only one way to approach this stomping shoutalong show and that’s to ignore the threadbare narrative and give yourself up to the music.
If you remember the outrageously camp 2012 film starring Tom Cruise, Alec Baldwin and – in a bizarre cameo – Russell Brand, then you’ll have some idea of just how daft and flimsy the story is. Ruthless German developers are threatening to demolish the Bourbon Room rock venue on Hollywood’s Sunset Strip and a collection of oddball misfits combines to stymie them. That’s pretty much it, with a couple of unlikely love stories and a lot of whiskey thrown in to pad out the sagginess of the plot.
Well, this is the original jukebox musical on which that film was based, although it’s now bunged in a couple of barbed references to the movie, as if somehow linking Tom Cruise’s name to the enterprise didn’t boost its popularity massively.
The story is no less ludicrous, the characters no more credible. What you get here, though, that you can never get from the silver screen, is a thumping, blistering live band that pumps out a succession of 80s rock anthems – some better known over here than others – to satisfy any metalhead.
Musical director Liam Holmes leads the five-piece on keyboards, with Elliot Mason (bass) and Steve Hynes (drums) offering a solid back line, but the stunning guitar work of Liam Stevenson and Alex Ward is what really steals the show. Whether it’s soft-rock Starship or bullet-hard Bon Jovi, the musicianship is outstanding and the songs and their delivery are the undoubted highlight of the night.
Fortunately there are a host of outstanding rock voices among the cast to handle this epic and entertaining stuff. Sam Turrell and Gabriella Williams form the hit-and-miss pairing at the heart of the story, and Turrell in particular has a range and tonal quality to lead any rock band. Cameron Sharp makes a decent fist of the Tom Cruise role, while Tim Oxbrow’s narrator handles the high notes with equal verve and panache. Even former Corrie heartthrob Kevin Kennedy holds his own as the fried club owner.
The producers and director-choreographer Nick Winston wisely opt for strong production values and a large, capable ensemble, giving the stage a vibrant, rock-concert feel. Leaving aside some highly questionable sexual and cultural exploitation which should, in my view, have stayed firmly in the 80s (and don’t start me on the “but it was a different time” argument), this is an evening of superb musicianship and terrific vocals. Just don’t look too closely at the surrounding material.
SLEEPING BEAUTY
December 3, 2022
Grand Theatre, Blackpool
It could be awfully easy to get jaded and cynical about panto – oh yes it could – with its formulaic retreads of creaking old jokes and brash simplicity aimed at the lowest common denominator. But the cleverest producers of the form take these constraints and transform them, like Cinderella’s coach, into something magical.
UK Productions’ Martin Dodd is an old enough hand at the game to know just where to pitch things, and director Kylie Butler has a huge Blackpool pedigree on which to draw to give this Sleeping Beauty exactly the right blend of local knockabout and topical twists.
Of course, it doesn’t hurt that the show is in the safe hands of panto stalwarts such as Blackpool comedy favourite Steve Royle and veteran dame Philip Meeks, with Emmerdale star Hayley Tamaddon and hometown girl Christina Meehan duelling it out as the good and wicked fairies respectively. Maisie Sellwood, meanwhile, makes a sweet professional debut as Princess Rose, whose singing complements that of Josh Belward’s Prince beautifully.
There’s a phalanx of well-drilled dancers choreographed by Katie Hill, with girls from the Barbara Jackson Theatre Arts Centre doing sterling work as the youngsters in the troupe. It’s a tribute to the professionalism and talent of these young performers that four former students have graduated to the grown-up chorus in this year’s event.
As for the show itself, there’s just the sparkle, silliness and singalong routines that you’d expect, with production values pleasingly high and energy levels to satisfy any hyperactive audience member dosed up on sugary sweets – or something stronger. The script, credited to four writers including the versatile Royle, is cheesy without being stale, the band under musical director Sam Coates is sharp and focused, and there’s a palpable sense of fun and frivolity that oozes across the footlights along with the dry ice.
It’s smart enough to appeal across the ages without resorting to the kind of nudge-nudge awkwardness that sometimes plagues these things, and makes a great curtain-raiser for the festive season. Jaded and cynical? Bah, humbug!
December 3, 2022
Grand Theatre, Blackpool
It could be awfully easy to get jaded and cynical about panto – oh yes it could – with its formulaic retreads of creaking old jokes and brash simplicity aimed at the lowest common denominator. But the cleverest producers of the form take these constraints and transform them, like Cinderella’s coach, into something magical.
UK Productions’ Martin Dodd is an old enough hand at the game to know just where to pitch things, and director Kylie Butler has a huge Blackpool pedigree on which to draw to give this Sleeping Beauty exactly the right blend of local knockabout and topical twists.
Of course, it doesn’t hurt that the show is in the safe hands of panto stalwarts such as Blackpool comedy favourite Steve Royle and veteran dame Philip Meeks, with Emmerdale star Hayley Tamaddon and hometown girl Christina Meehan duelling it out as the good and wicked fairies respectively. Maisie Sellwood, meanwhile, makes a sweet professional debut as Princess Rose, whose singing complements that of Josh Belward’s Prince beautifully.
There’s a phalanx of well-drilled dancers choreographed by Katie Hill, with girls from the Barbara Jackson Theatre Arts Centre doing sterling work as the youngsters in the troupe. It’s a tribute to the professionalism and talent of these young performers that four former students have graduated to the grown-up chorus in this year’s event.
As for the show itself, there’s just the sparkle, silliness and singalong routines that you’d expect, with production values pleasingly high and energy levels to satisfy any hyperactive audience member dosed up on sugary sweets – or something stronger. The script, credited to four writers including the versatile Royle, is cheesy without being stale, the band under musical director Sam Coates is sharp and focused, and there’s a palpable sense of fun and frivolity that oozes across the footlights along with the dry ice.
It’s smart enough to appeal across the ages without resorting to the kind of nudge-nudge awkwardness that sometimes plagues these things, and makes a great curtain-raiser for the festive season. Jaded and cynical? Bah, humbug!
From left, Jeremy Lloyd, Robert Wilfort and Patrick Warner in Spike. Photo by Pamela Raith.
SPIKE
November 16, 2022
Grand Theatre, Blackpool
For those of a certain age, Spike Milligan holds a special place in the pantheon of British comedy. His own sense that he was always rather overlooked – first in The Goon Show next to his colleagues Harry Secombe and Peter Sellers and even when he had his own later television series – is matched by the history books, which often sideline him as something of an also-ran.
But, as Ian Hislop and Nick Newman make very clear in their crazy tribute to the great man, his role in the development of comedy from the 1950s onwards creates a spine that is tracable from Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, via Monty Python, to modern-day comedians including Ricky Gervais and Eddie Izzard, all of whom credit Milligan as their comedy idol. He was voted by his peers as the funniest person of the last 1,000 years and has even been scientifically proven to have written the world’s funniest joke.
The poignancy behind Milligan’s own view of himself – which prompted mental health problems and an unstable personal life – is well drawn in this play, which focuses on the Goon years to highlight not only Milligan’s comic genius but also to emphasise his outsider status. The BBC never really understood him or knew what to do with him, and his innate reaction against authority, stemming from his haunting army career in the Second World War, left him constantly frustrated and angry.
Hislop and Newman – both veterans of Private Eye, with which Milligan enjoyed a mutually adoring relationship – have combined all this into a piece which deploys much of Spike’s offbeat humour while contrasting it elegantly with his deteriorating mental state. The result is full of smart and funny vignettes (check out Margaret Cabourn-Smith’s delightful turn as the sound effects ‘girl’) but loses none of its punch when addressing the unfairness of its hero’s treatment.
Robert Wilfort captures Spike’s quirkiness superbly, while Jeremy Lloyd’s jolly Secombe and Patrick Warner’s smooth Sellers make up a terrific trio at the forefront of a nine-strong ensemble playing a multitude of roles, including Robert Mountford as a wonderfully dismissive BBC executive and James Mack doubling neatly as the two Goon producers.
Paul Hart’s crisp direction is well supported by Rory Beaton’s lighting and Katie Lias’s design to craft a show that makes an excellent homage to its subject. It’s coming to the end of an autumn tour and runs in Blackpool until Saturday, November 19. You don’t have to be a Goons fan to find it both fascinating and entertaining.
November 16, 2022
Grand Theatre, Blackpool
For those of a certain age, Spike Milligan holds a special place in the pantheon of British comedy. His own sense that he was always rather overlooked – first in The Goon Show next to his colleagues Harry Secombe and Peter Sellers and even when he had his own later television series – is matched by the history books, which often sideline him as something of an also-ran.
But, as Ian Hislop and Nick Newman make very clear in their crazy tribute to the great man, his role in the development of comedy from the 1950s onwards creates a spine that is tracable from Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, via Monty Python, to modern-day comedians including Ricky Gervais and Eddie Izzard, all of whom credit Milligan as their comedy idol. He was voted by his peers as the funniest person of the last 1,000 years and has even been scientifically proven to have written the world’s funniest joke.
The poignancy behind Milligan’s own view of himself – which prompted mental health problems and an unstable personal life – is well drawn in this play, which focuses on the Goon years to highlight not only Milligan’s comic genius but also to emphasise his outsider status. The BBC never really understood him or knew what to do with him, and his innate reaction against authority, stemming from his haunting army career in the Second World War, left him constantly frustrated and angry.
Hislop and Newman – both veterans of Private Eye, with which Milligan enjoyed a mutually adoring relationship – have combined all this into a piece which deploys much of Spike’s offbeat humour while contrasting it elegantly with his deteriorating mental state. The result is full of smart and funny vignettes (check out Margaret Cabourn-Smith’s delightful turn as the sound effects ‘girl’) but loses none of its punch when addressing the unfairness of its hero’s treatment.
Robert Wilfort captures Spike’s quirkiness superbly, while Jeremy Lloyd’s jolly Secombe and Patrick Warner’s smooth Sellers make up a terrific trio at the forefront of a nine-strong ensemble playing a multitude of roles, including Robert Mountford as a wonderfully dismissive BBC executive and James Mack doubling neatly as the two Goon producers.
Paul Hart’s crisp direction is well supported by Rory Beaton’s lighting and Katie Lias’s design to craft a show that makes an excellent homage to its subject. It’s coming to the end of an autumn tour and runs in Blackpool until Saturday, November 19. You don’t have to be a Goons fan to find it both fascinating and entertaining.
From left, Sarah Dearlove, Gemma Bissix and Amy Ambrose in Mum's the Word.
MUM’S THE WORD
November 12, 2022
Grand Theatre, Blackpool
If you’ve ever had children, contemplated having children or been in a public place where there are children around, then Mum’s the Word has a message that’s aimed at you. This compilation of monologues and sketches, delivered by a trio of harassed mums, sets out to skewer the painful realities of parenthood by poking fun at its absurdities and sharing a laugh at its madness.
Six writers are credited – Linda A Carson, Jill Daum, Alison Kelly, Robin Nicol, Barbara Pollard and Deborah Williams – and it turns out they were all Vancouver performers who collaborated in 1993 on a show about their shared experiences of motherhood. The themes being universal, they soon found that their stories hit home with audiences, and the show has migrated around the world.
Slimmed down for its current UK tour, the interlinked narratives and skits are now presented by just three performers, Gemma Bissix, Sarah Dearlove and Amy Ambrose. Their hard work and commitment leaps across the footlights and they carry the mainly female audience through tales of childbirth, toddlerhood and the dreaded teenage years with charm and energy.
Ian Good’s directions keeps the pace up throughout, and the whole production is aided by a simple set of three doors and some playboxes, with Mitch Broomhead’s lighting doing much of the heavy lifting in terms of scene-setting and atmosphere.
Inevitably some of the sketches work better than others. A recurring gag about end-of-her-tether Robin leaving notes around the house for her less-than-helpful partner has some nicely amusing twists and turns, while a swiftly-abandoned interlude about a breast cancer diagnosis feels tonally out of place among the mayhem.
But there’s plenty that’s relatable, even to a man, and the laughter of recognition runs gleefully around the auditorium. The overall sense of cynicism and despair can get a little wearing – there’s precious little about the redeeming joy children can also provide, for instance – but Mum’s the Word clearly has the longevity to reach a new generation of parents all over again.
November 12, 2022
Grand Theatre, Blackpool
If you’ve ever had children, contemplated having children or been in a public place where there are children around, then Mum’s the Word has a message that’s aimed at you. This compilation of monologues and sketches, delivered by a trio of harassed mums, sets out to skewer the painful realities of parenthood by poking fun at its absurdities and sharing a laugh at its madness.
Six writers are credited – Linda A Carson, Jill Daum, Alison Kelly, Robin Nicol, Barbara Pollard and Deborah Williams – and it turns out they were all Vancouver performers who collaborated in 1993 on a show about their shared experiences of motherhood. The themes being universal, they soon found that their stories hit home with audiences, and the show has migrated around the world.
Slimmed down for its current UK tour, the interlinked narratives and skits are now presented by just three performers, Gemma Bissix, Sarah Dearlove and Amy Ambrose. Their hard work and commitment leaps across the footlights and they carry the mainly female audience through tales of childbirth, toddlerhood and the dreaded teenage years with charm and energy.
Ian Good’s directions keeps the pace up throughout, and the whole production is aided by a simple set of three doors and some playboxes, with Mitch Broomhead’s lighting doing much of the heavy lifting in terms of scene-setting and atmosphere.
Inevitably some of the sketches work better than others. A recurring gag about end-of-her-tether Robin leaving notes around the house for her less-than-helpful partner has some nicely amusing twists and turns, while a swiftly-abandoned interlude about a breast cancer diagnosis feels tonally out of place among the mayhem.
But there’s plenty that’s relatable, even to a man, and the laughter of recognition runs gleefully around the auditorium. The overall sense of cynicism and despair can get a little wearing – there’s precious little about the redeeming joy children can also provide, for instance – but Mum’s the Word clearly has the longevity to reach a new generation of parents all over again.
Luke Barton, right, and Joseph Derrington as Holmes and Watson in The Valley of Fear.
SHERLOCK HOLMES – THE VALLEY OF FEAR
November 1, 2022
Grand Theatre, Blackpool
Rather like Dr Who, most people have their own idea of their favourite Sherlock Holmes. An older generation might fondly recall the black-and-white inscrutability of Basil Rathbone; others praise Jeremy Brett’s television incarnation for its faithfulness to the original stories. More recently, Benedict Cumberbatch and Henry Cavill have given him a stylish makeover for modern audiences.
This is one of author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s great triumphs: his most famous creation is instantly recognisable, yet just unknowable enough for everyone to imprint their own version of him on the character. It’s also one of the triumphs of Blackeyed Theatre, who have returned to Holmes for their latest UK tour four years after taking The Sign of Four out on the road.
In the hands of the same adapter-director, Nick Lane, The Valley of Fear is a fine addition to the company’s canon. It’s actually two tales in one – the great detective’s untangling of a murder mystery and the backstory behind the crime – and Lane weaves them brilliantly together in a way that transforms Conan Doyle’s novel into something truly theatrical. The pacing is beautifully judged and the performances both entertaining and illuminating.
A cast of just five provide the host of characters across two time settings and multiple locations. Luke Barton’s Holmes is a wonderful study in cold logic, with just enough of a sense of inner turmoil to put a delightful spin on his relationship with Dr Watson. Joseph Derrington’s doctor, narrating the tale as if from his copious notes, is an excellent combination of admiring devotee and irritated sparring partner.
Both play other parts too, as do Blake Kubena, Gavin Molloy and Alice Osmanski, whose range of accents, styles and characterisations bring a real vibrancy to the story. Every role is carefully crafted, every cog in the wheel perfectly placed and judiciously used, so that the whole becomes more than the sum of its parts.
Played out on Victoria Spearing’s elegant and intelligent set, with an atmospheric underscore by Tristan Parkes, Lane’s production is classy, evocative and full of intrigue – everything you could want from a Sherlock Holmes adaptation.
It runs at the Grand until Saturday, November 5.
November 1, 2022
Grand Theatre, Blackpool
Rather like Dr Who, most people have their own idea of their favourite Sherlock Holmes. An older generation might fondly recall the black-and-white inscrutability of Basil Rathbone; others praise Jeremy Brett’s television incarnation for its faithfulness to the original stories. More recently, Benedict Cumberbatch and Henry Cavill have given him a stylish makeover for modern audiences.
This is one of author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s great triumphs: his most famous creation is instantly recognisable, yet just unknowable enough for everyone to imprint their own version of him on the character. It’s also one of the triumphs of Blackeyed Theatre, who have returned to Holmes for their latest UK tour four years after taking The Sign of Four out on the road.
In the hands of the same adapter-director, Nick Lane, The Valley of Fear is a fine addition to the company’s canon. It’s actually two tales in one – the great detective’s untangling of a murder mystery and the backstory behind the crime – and Lane weaves them brilliantly together in a way that transforms Conan Doyle’s novel into something truly theatrical. The pacing is beautifully judged and the performances both entertaining and illuminating.
A cast of just five provide the host of characters across two time settings and multiple locations. Luke Barton’s Holmes is a wonderful study in cold logic, with just enough of a sense of inner turmoil to put a delightful spin on his relationship with Dr Watson. Joseph Derrington’s doctor, narrating the tale as if from his copious notes, is an excellent combination of admiring devotee and irritated sparring partner.
Both play other parts too, as do Blake Kubena, Gavin Molloy and Alice Osmanski, whose range of accents, styles and characterisations bring a real vibrancy to the story. Every role is carefully crafted, every cog in the wheel perfectly placed and judiciously used, so that the whole becomes more than the sum of its parts.
Played out on Victoria Spearing’s elegant and intelligent set, with an atmospheric underscore by Tristan Parkes, Lane’s production is classy, evocative and full of intrigue – everything you could want from a Sherlock Holmes adaptation.
It runs at the Grand until Saturday, November 5.
ELKIE BROOKS
October 30, 2022
Grand Theatre, Blackpool
If all you know of Elkie Brooks is Pearl’s a Singer and Lilac Wine, then you’re missing out on one of the great British blues voices ever to grace a stage. It’s a shame that these two tracks are the only ones that ever get airplay because there’s a rather astonishing back catalogue of singles and albums, ranging from jazz with Humphrey Lyttelton to rock ’n’ roll with the likes of Jimmy Page.
Over the years, she’s broken records as the UK’s biggest-selling and most prolific female album artist and, at the age of 76, continues to tour with no sign of slowing down. The latest date in her current UK venture brought her to Blackpool’s historic Grand Theatre, where an enthusiastic and knowledgeable crowd gave her a reception befitting her status.
Fronting a five-piece band consisting of sax, guitar, bass, drums and keyboard, her sound is beautifully controlled, whether she’s wrenching at the heartstrings with ballads such as Don’t Cry Out Loud or belting out classics like Prince’s Purple Rain. The musicianship is first-rate and that bluesy, ballsy voice sits on top of the sound like it’s resting on a cloud.
There’s no concession to age in the performance, with two hours of stunning material. All the hits are there – Fool If You Think it’s Over, Sunshine After the Rain, No More the Fool – plus a variety of well-selected covers, including a gorgeous version of Bob Dylan’s Make You Feel My Love. Elkie’s quirky delivery and interaction with her audience make for an intimate, classy night of musical magic, and the timeless quality and stylistic range of her voice continue to mark her out as one of the greats.
Tour dates run through November, with a couple of outlying gigs early in 2023.
October 30, 2022
Grand Theatre, Blackpool
If all you know of Elkie Brooks is Pearl’s a Singer and Lilac Wine, then you’re missing out on one of the great British blues voices ever to grace a stage. It’s a shame that these two tracks are the only ones that ever get airplay because there’s a rather astonishing back catalogue of singles and albums, ranging from jazz with Humphrey Lyttelton to rock ’n’ roll with the likes of Jimmy Page.
Over the years, she’s broken records as the UK’s biggest-selling and most prolific female album artist and, at the age of 76, continues to tour with no sign of slowing down. The latest date in her current UK venture brought her to Blackpool’s historic Grand Theatre, where an enthusiastic and knowledgeable crowd gave her a reception befitting her status.
Fronting a five-piece band consisting of sax, guitar, bass, drums and keyboard, her sound is beautifully controlled, whether she’s wrenching at the heartstrings with ballads such as Don’t Cry Out Loud or belting out classics like Prince’s Purple Rain. The musicianship is first-rate and that bluesy, ballsy voice sits on top of the sound like it’s resting on a cloud.
There’s no concession to age in the performance, with two hours of stunning material. All the hits are there – Fool If You Think it’s Over, Sunshine After the Rain, No More the Fool – plus a variety of well-selected covers, including a gorgeous version of Bob Dylan’s Make You Feel My Love. Elkie’s quirky delivery and interaction with her audience make for an intimate, classy night of musical magic, and the timeless quality and stylistic range of her voice continue to mark her out as one of the greats.
Tour dates run through November, with a couple of outlying gigs early in 2023.
Wayne Sleep. Photo by Steve Ullathorne.
AN AUDIENCE WITH WAYNE SLEEP
October 10, 2022
Grand Theatre, Blackpool
At five feet two inches tall, Wayne Sleep knew he was never going to dance a leading man role at the Royal Ballet. But in spite of – or, more likely, because of – the obstacles he faced, he set out to become one of the finest technical ballet performers to ever grace the Covent Garden stage.
And after six years as one of the company’s shining stars, he set out on a new path, learning to sing, tap-dance and entertain in the tradition of Bruce Forsyth, Dickie Henderson and the like, starring in Cats and Cabaret, and turning himself into something of a national treasure. He’s danced with Margot Fonteyn and Princess Diana, broken records for his footwork and won the hearts of television viewers in everything from I’m A Celebrity to Masterchef.
All this and more is related by the man himself, now a spritely 74-year-old, in a marathon one-man Audience with… that is packed with humour, anecdotes, song and dance and a few well-placed indiscretions.
Behind the performer’s façade, Sleep seems to be a shy man in need of public validation. What he has to be shy about is anyone’s guess as his career testifies to his extraordinary talent, while his popular votes on those reality TV shows reveal he is not just admired but loved. In the intimate environment of the Grand’s studio theatre, with a warm and receptive audience, his charm is abundant and his charisma infectious.
He intersperses the anecdotes with clips filmed across his career, from early Royal Ballet performances in the 1960s to his Real Marigold Hotel experience. There are even grainy black-and-white photographs, never before published, of a one-off duet with Princess Diana, rehearsed in secret and performed to surprise her then husband at a private event at Covent Garden.
He’s on stage alone for the best part of three hours and the pace never flags. His career is remarkable, his stories entertaining and revealing, and his talent still bubbling away in spite of a new hip. But if you want to know about those indiscretions, you’ll have to get along and see for yourself…
October 10, 2022
Grand Theatre, Blackpool
At five feet two inches tall, Wayne Sleep knew he was never going to dance a leading man role at the Royal Ballet. But in spite of – or, more likely, because of – the obstacles he faced, he set out to become one of the finest technical ballet performers to ever grace the Covent Garden stage.
And after six years as one of the company’s shining stars, he set out on a new path, learning to sing, tap-dance and entertain in the tradition of Bruce Forsyth, Dickie Henderson and the like, starring in Cats and Cabaret, and turning himself into something of a national treasure. He’s danced with Margot Fonteyn and Princess Diana, broken records for his footwork and won the hearts of television viewers in everything from I’m A Celebrity to Masterchef.
All this and more is related by the man himself, now a spritely 74-year-old, in a marathon one-man Audience with… that is packed with humour, anecdotes, song and dance and a few well-placed indiscretions.
Behind the performer’s façade, Sleep seems to be a shy man in need of public validation. What he has to be shy about is anyone’s guess as his career testifies to his extraordinary talent, while his popular votes on those reality TV shows reveal he is not just admired but loved. In the intimate environment of the Grand’s studio theatre, with a warm and receptive audience, his charm is abundant and his charisma infectious.
He intersperses the anecdotes with clips filmed across his career, from early Royal Ballet performances in the 1960s to his Real Marigold Hotel experience. There are even grainy black-and-white photographs, never before published, of a one-off duet with Princess Diana, rehearsed in secret and performed to surprise her then husband at a private event at Covent Garden.
He’s on stage alone for the best part of three hours and the pace never flags. His career is remarkable, his stories entertaining and revealing, and his talent still bubbling away in spite of a new hip. But if you want to know about those indiscretions, you’ll have to get along and see for yourself…
Daniella Agredo Piper, Stanton Wright and Laura Smithers in action. Photo by Joe Bailey.
FIRST ENCOUNTERS: TWELFTH NIGHT
September 30, 2022
Grand Theatre, Blackpool, until Saturday, October 1, 2022
There have been some interesting exchanges in the wake of the RSC’s recent announcement of its forthcoming joint artistic directors. Grandee theatre critic Michael Billington ventured to suggest that the company’s main stage work should be the primary criterion against which the RSC should be judged, while designating its education work as “subordinate”.
Predictably, Billington got himself into hot water with the remark, and the RSC’s First Encounters project lends considerable weight to the evidence for the case against him. Aimed firmly at youngsters and Shakespeare first-timers, the programme is rolling out a non-stop, 90-minute version of Twelfth Night to theatres, schools and communities across the north and Midlands with the express intent of introducing the Bard to newcomers.
With eight cast members supplemented by local schoolchildren – in Blackpool’s case from Our Lady of the Assumption Catholic Primary School – director Robin Belfield takes a no-nonsense approach to the production, balancing some of the obscurities of Shakespeare’s language against the meaty elements of fun and festivity in the play. The result is brisk, entertaining and, if the eight-year-olds at the Grand are any judge, thoroughly engaging.
Georgie White’s evocative design and Simon Slater’s rhythmic music place us firmly in the Caribbean, where the shipwrecked twins Viola and Sebastian, each believing the other to be dead, embark on adventures that include cross-dressing, playing Cupid and falling hopelessly in love. Daniella Agredo Piper and Stanton Wright form a solid thread at the centre of this version of the narrative, but there’s plenty of action and side plots to keep the entertainment levels high, not least from Wright doubling capably as Sir Andrew Aguecheek opposite Tyreke Leslie’s boisterous Toby Belch.
Emma Manton is a beautifully humourless Malvolio, Laura Smithers and Ibraheem Toure offer a haughty but human Olivia and Orsino, while Alice Blundell’s Feste and Perola Congo’s Maria bring energy and insight to their characters.
Billington may have his reservations about the RSC’s education work but the youngsters in this enthralled audience clearly enjoyed their baptism into the Shakespearean canon and they, after all, will be the next generation of theatregoers. Perhaps we should pay attention to them…
September 30, 2022
Grand Theatre, Blackpool, until Saturday, October 1, 2022
There have been some interesting exchanges in the wake of the RSC’s recent announcement of its forthcoming joint artistic directors. Grandee theatre critic Michael Billington ventured to suggest that the company’s main stage work should be the primary criterion against which the RSC should be judged, while designating its education work as “subordinate”.
Predictably, Billington got himself into hot water with the remark, and the RSC’s First Encounters project lends considerable weight to the evidence for the case against him. Aimed firmly at youngsters and Shakespeare first-timers, the programme is rolling out a non-stop, 90-minute version of Twelfth Night to theatres, schools and communities across the north and Midlands with the express intent of introducing the Bard to newcomers.
With eight cast members supplemented by local schoolchildren – in Blackpool’s case from Our Lady of the Assumption Catholic Primary School – director Robin Belfield takes a no-nonsense approach to the production, balancing some of the obscurities of Shakespeare’s language against the meaty elements of fun and festivity in the play. The result is brisk, entertaining and, if the eight-year-olds at the Grand are any judge, thoroughly engaging.
Georgie White’s evocative design and Simon Slater’s rhythmic music place us firmly in the Caribbean, where the shipwrecked twins Viola and Sebastian, each believing the other to be dead, embark on adventures that include cross-dressing, playing Cupid and falling hopelessly in love. Daniella Agredo Piper and Stanton Wright form a solid thread at the centre of this version of the narrative, but there’s plenty of action and side plots to keep the entertainment levels high, not least from Wright doubling capably as Sir Andrew Aguecheek opposite Tyreke Leslie’s boisterous Toby Belch.
Emma Manton is a beautifully humourless Malvolio, Laura Smithers and Ibraheem Toure offer a haughty but human Olivia and Orsino, while Alice Blundell’s Feste and Perola Congo’s Maria bring energy and insight to their characters.
Billington may have his reservations about the RSC’s education work but the youngsters in this enthralled audience clearly enjoyed their baptism into the Shakespearean canon and they, after all, will be the next generation of theatregoers. Perhaps we should pay attention to them…
Chloe Hart as Catherine of Aragon with the other wives in the UK tour of Six.
SIX
August 30, 2022
Opera House, Blackpool Winter Gardens, until Saturday, September 3, 2022
Unless you’ve been living in a cupboard for the past few years – which I suppose, given the circumstances, isn’t an entirely unreasonable hypothesis – you’re likely to have come across the phenomenon that is Six.
It’s essentially a student revue that takes the six wives of Henry VIII and turns them into pop divas, giving each a song – plus a handful of ensemble numbers to fill out the 80-minute running time – to tell their stories from their perspective. The songs are mainly decent but unremarkable Europop with some rather strained lyrics and rhymes, while the linking script sparkles with wit and some good-natured pokes at how the six have been treated by history across the centuries.
But this standard Edinburgh Fringe fare is much bigger than the sum of its parts and has become a worldwide juggernaut, with all the accompanying marketing, merchandise and social media attention – in this case known as the ‘Queendom’. So full marks to creators Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss for carving out a niche that will keep them in comfort for many years to come.
As so often with this kind of extraordinary success, it’s interesting to try and pin down the constituent elements that make up the formula. Equally often, it’s impossible to do that: if someone could identify the qualities that turn a show into a megahit and bottle them, there’d be theatre producers queuing up to buy such snake oil.
With Six, it’s easy enough to point to the Girl Power ethos of half a dozen impressive vocalists, a tight four-piece all-female on-stage band and some stunning set and costume designs from Emma Bailey and Gabriella Slade respectively. There’s an infectious atmosphere inherited from the pop-concert format and some beautiful vocal harmonies underlying the sense of camaraderie between the six performers.
But there’s also something else that’s indefinable and carries the show from the first cheesy entrance to the final megamix anthem, lifting the audience and bringing them happily along on this quasi-historical romp of a ride. Don’t ask me what it is – if I knew, I’d be on the phone to a producer right now…
August 30, 2022
Opera House, Blackpool Winter Gardens, until Saturday, September 3, 2022
Unless you’ve been living in a cupboard for the past few years – which I suppose, given the circumstances, isn’t an entirely unreasonable hypothesis – you’re likely to have come across the phenomenon that is Six.
It’s essentially a student revue that takes the six wives of Henry VIII and turns them into pop divas, giving each a song – plus a handful of ensemble numbers to fill out the 80-minute running time – to tell their stories from their perspective. The songs are mainly decent but unremarkable Europop with some rather strained lyrics and rhymes, while the linking script sparkles with wit and some good-natured pokes at how the six have been treated by history across the centuries.
But this standard Edinburgh Fringe fare is much bigger than the sum of its parts and has become a worldwide juggernaut, with all the accompanying marketing, merchandise and social media attention – in this case known as the ‘Queendom’. So full marks to creators Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss for carving out a niche that will keep them in comfort for many years to come.
As so often with this kind of extraordinary success, it’s interesting to try and pin down the constituent elements that make up the formula. Equally often, it’s impossible to do that: if someone could identify the qualities that turn a show into a megahit and bottle them, there’d be theatre producers queuing up to buy such snake oil.
With Six, it’s easy enough to point to the Girl Power ethos of half a dozen impressive vocalists, a tight four-piece all-female on-stage band and some stunning set and costume designs from Emma Bailey and Gabriella Slade respectively. There’s an infectious atmosphere inherited from the pop-concert format and some beautiful vocal harmonies underlying the sense of camaraderie between the six performers.
But there’s also something else that’s indefinable and carries the show from the first cheesy entrance to the final megamix anthem, lifting the audience and bringing them happily along on this quasi-historical romp of a ride. Don’t ask me what it is – if I knew, I’d be on the phone to a producer right now…
SHOWADDYWADDY
August 17, 2022
Grand Theatre, Blackpool
Plenty of scoffers thought they were old-fashioned when they first hit the charts in the 1970s with their colourful drape suits and infectious repurposing of early rock ’n’ roll songs. Nearly 50 years on from their New Faces television debut, Showaddywaddy have the last laugh: they have proved they are beyond fashion.
And a thrilled audience at Blackpool’s Grand Theatre clapped, waved and danced to the catchy numbers belted out for two hours by the current six-piece incarnation of the band, singing along to hits such as When, Dancin’ Party, Hey Rock and Roll and their legendary number one Under the Moon of Love.
The line-up, which has only been in this configuration for a few months, makes full use of a versatile group of top-class musicians. Fronted by vocalist and guitarist Andy Pelos, it features two further guitarists in newbies Billy Shannon and Sam Holland, multi-skilling saxophonist and guitarist Dave Graham and bassist Tom Bull, whose sublime lead talents are also showcased from time to time. Keeping things rock solid on the drums is the only remaining original band member Romeo Challenger.
Between them, they switch instruments and roles to a dazzling degree, making sure the momentum never flags and maintaining interest and variety in the vibrant set list. But the real icing on the cake is the vocals. Frequently shared between five – even six, on occasion – beautifully blended voices, the harmonies are crystal clear, warm and perfectly balanced in the impressive sound mix.
Sometimes four guitars playing simultaneously feels a little like overkill, but when Graham pumps out his growling tenor sax or Bull is given free rein with his gold-spangled Telecaster guitar, the sound is fantastic, and with Pelos and Shannon providing soaring lead vocals and some witty banter, there are no complaints about anything seeming old-fashioned.
This particular version of Showaddywaddy is a hard-working, hit-churning line-up of musical quality all set to carry the band capably into its sixth timeless decade at the top of its game.
August 17, 2022
Grand Theatre, Blackpool
Plenty of scoffers thought they were old-fashioned when they first hit the charts in the 1970s with their colourful drape suits and infectious repurposing of early rock ’n’ roll songs. Nearly 50 years on from their New Faces television debut, Showaddywaddy have the last laugh: they have proved they are beyond fashion.
And a thrilled audience at Blackpool’s Grand Theatre clapped, waved and danced to the catchy numbers belted out for two hours by the current six-piece incarnation of the band, singing along to hits such as When, Dancin’ Party, Hey Rock and Roll and their legendary number one Under the Moon of Love.
The line-up, which has only been in this configuration for a few months, makes full use of a versatile group of top-class musicians. Fronted by vocalist and guitarist Andy Pelos, it features two further guitarists in newbies Billy Shannon and Sam Holland, multi-skilling saxophonist and guitarist Dave Graham and bassist Tom Bull, whose sublime lead talents are also showcased from time to time. Keeping things rock solid on the drums is the only remaining original band member Romeo Challenger.
Between them, they switch instruments and roles to a dazzling degree, making sure the momentum never flags and maintaining interest and variety in the vibrant set list. But the real icing on the cake is the vocals. Frequently shared between five – even six, on occasion – beautifully blended voices, the harmonies are crystal clear, warm and perfectly balanced in the impressive sound mix.
Sometimes four guitars playing simultaneously feels a little like overkill, but when Graham pumps out his growling tenor sax or Bull is given free rein with his gold-spangled Telecaster guitar, the sound is fantastic, and with Pelos and Shannon providing soaring lead vocals and some witty banter, there are no complaints about anything seeming old-fashioned.
This particular version of Showaddywaddy is a hard-working, hit-churning line-up of musical quality all set to carry the band capably into its sixth timeless decade at the top of its game.
Dominic Halpin fronts the band The Hurricanes for A Country Night in Nashville.
A COUNTRY NIGHT IN NASHVILLE
August 11, 2022
Grand Theatre, Blackpool
As part of a summer season of weekly one-nighters, which also includes Showaddywaddy and a handful of Queen tribute acts, the Grand is playing host to what is billed as A Country Night in Nashville. I can report that it does exactly what it says on the tin.
A six-piece band, The Hurricanes, are led by singer-guitarist Dominic Halpin through two hours of non-stop country music hits that show off their talented musicianship, some wonderful singalong tunes and a decent dose of homespun charm.
Halpin himself has recorded in Nashville and his catchy self-penned song One Night in Nashville anchors the show, both as a demonstration of his writing abilities and as a showcase for the band. Alongside the original material are wall-to-wall bangers ranging from early Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson to later proponents of the form such as Lady Antebellum and Kacey Musgraves.
There’s plenty of opportunity for audience participation too, and while the numbers in the Grand may have been a little thin, they more than made up for it joining in with The Gambler, Jolene and more, relishing medleys, upbeat foot-stompers and wistful ballads alike.
The Hurricanes have been collaborating for a long time, and the tightness of the musical structure shows. Bassist Ben Wiltshire and drummer Jonathan Price keep things steady at the back, allowing Donna Marie on keyboards and vocals and lead guitarist Matt Wells the opportunity to shine. Singer Shelly Quarmby works well alongside Halpin himself, who holds things together with an affable, amiable warmth and a welcoming smile, and there are some stunning vocal harmonies across the board.
The truth is you don’t have to be a die-hard country music aficionado to enjoy what’s on offer: most of the tunes are chart hits and very recognisable, and the arrangements are easy on the ear and capably performed. Halpin and The Hurricanes return to the Grand for another night of Nashville on August 25.
DREAMBOATS AND PETTICOATS –
BRINGING ON BACK THE GOOD TIMES
August 2, 2022
Grand Theatre, Blackpool, until Saturday, August 6, 2022
It was a stroke of genius to allow comedy writers Marks and Gran to plunder the back catalogue of Universal Music for their jukebox musical Dreamboats and Petticoats back in 2009, exploiting the success of the chart compilations that had been previously released.
Two musicals on, the Birds of a Feather pair repeat the formula for the latest instalment in the saga of 1960s youth club stalwarts Laura and Bobby, whose relentless quest for the big time takes them in this outing to Butlins in Bognor Regis and the dizzy heights of the Eurovision Song Contest.
It has to be said that the recycling of the same basic storyline and the wheeling out of tunes from perilously near the bottom of the Universal barrel means that this incarnation of Dreamboats feels thinner and altogether less satisfying than its earlier brethren. On the other hand, if you love your 60s music and are quite happy to trade narrative for a cracking live band, then what’s not to like?
There’s a star turn from genuine period heartthrob Mark Wynter and a wonderful Kenneth Williams impersonation by David Benson that’s worth the admission price alone, but otherwise it’s pretty much wall-to-wall singalong, with Sean Cavannagh’s set and costumes doing some heavy lifting in the atmospherics stakes.
Musical director Sheridan Lloyd runs things pacily and precisely while the 16-strong cast keep the stage busy throughout, and there are plenty of opportunities for audiences of a certain vintage to join in the numbers, from Eddie Cochran to Tony Christie. It’s only rock ’n’ roll… but they like it.
BRINGING ON BACK THE GOOD TIMES
August 2, 2022
Grand Theatre, Blackpool, until Saturday, August 6, 2022
It was a stroke of genius to allow comedy writers Marks and Gran to plunder the back catalogue of Universal Music for their jukebox musical Dreamboats and Petticoats back in 2009, exploiting the success of the chart compilations that had been previously released.
Two musicals on, the Birds of a Feather pair repeat the formula for the latest instalment in the saga of 1960s youth club stalwarts Laura and Bobby, whose relentless quest for the big time takes them in this outing to Butlins in Bognor Regis and the dizzy heights of the Eurovision Song Contest.
It has to be said that the recycling of the same basic storyline and the wheeling out of tunes from perilously near the bottom of the Universal barrel means that this incarnation of Dreamboats feels thinner and altogether less satisfying than its earlier brethren. On the other hand, if you love your 60s music and are quite happy to trade narrative for a cracking live band, then what’s not to like?
There’s a star turn from genuine period heartthrob Mark Wynter and a wonderful Kenneth Williams impersonation by David Benson that’s worth the admission price alone, but otherwise it’s pretty much wall-to-wall singalong, with Sean Cavannagh’s set and costumes doing some heavy lifting in the atmospherics stakes.
Musical director Sheridan Lloyd runs things pacily and precisely while the 16-strong cast keep the stage busy throughout, and there are plenty of opportunities for audiences of a certain vintage to join in the numbers, from Eddie Cochran to Tony Christie. It’s only rock ’n’ roll… but they like it.
Jason Donovan as Pharaoh and Jac Yarrow as Joseph. ©Tristram Kenton
JOSEPH AND THE AMAZING TECHNICOLOR DREAMCOAT
July 26, 2022
Opera House, Blackpool Winter Gardens, until Saturday, July 30, 2022
At well over 50 years old, it’s hardly surprising that everyone has their own particular take on Joseph. For the early adopters, it included a chorus of local schoolchildren and a traditional Elvis impersonator as Pharaoh. For the 90s crowd, it was Jason Donovan or Phillip Schofield in the coat, and for the new millennium Lee Mead gave us the definitive Joe courtesy of his triumph in the reality television competition Any Dream Will Do.
Through much of that, producer Bill Kenwright had an almost constant touring version on the road which prescribed for many how Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s vintage show should look and sound. For lots of those fans, this new production may prove something of a head-scratcher.
Oh sure, Jason Donovan is back – now as a hip-shaking Pharaoh – and there are plenty of children on stage, but this time they are young professionals, taking main roles as several of Joseph’s brothers, instead of singing along from the sidelines. And very fine they are at it too.
There is a hint of money-saving about the exercise, which is further exacerbated by the decision to get the overworked narrator – an effervescent Linzi Hateley – to double up with the roles of Jacob and Potiphar, among others. The money-saving notion may not be true – it’s undercut by the presence of plenty of vibrant singers and dancers in the adult company, plus a 10-strong band in the pit – but it’s an odd choice nonetheless.
And there’s tinkering with the songs as well. Additional dance routines have been thrown into several of them, and tweaks and tucks made here and there for reasons that are never particularly clear. But the truth is that Joseph was always a moveable feast, and there’s no such thing as a ‘definitive version’. It’s been chopped, changed and played with from day one – and if it keeps things as fresh as this, then why on earth not?
The present occupant of the titular multi-coloured garment is Jac Yarrow, who played it opposite Hateley and Donovan at the London Palladium in 2019 and 2021, and the trio are clearly having a ball taking it out on the road for the rest of the country to relish.
The production is spectacular, the dancing tightly drilled and the children superb. Tim Rice once said that the versions he enjoys most are those closest in spirit to the show’s earliest incarnation as a 20-minute school concert in 1968, and this one certainly ticks that box. It’s bright, breezy and full of fun, and the audiences go wild. Not bad for an old-timer.
July 26, 2022
Opera House, Blackpool Winter Gardens, until Saturday, July 30, 2022
At well over 50 years old, it’s hardly surprising that everyone has their own particular take on Joseph. For the early adopters, it included a chorus of local schoolchildren and a traditional Elvis impersonator as Pharaoh. For the 90s crowd, it was Jason Donovan or Phillip Schofield in the coat, and for the new millennium Lee Mead gave us the definitive Joe courtesy of his triumph in the reality television competition Any Dream Will Do.
Through much of that, producer Bill Kenwright had an almost constant touring version on the road which prescribed for many how Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s vintage show should look and sound. For lots of those fans, this new production may prove something of a head-scratcher.
Oh sure, Jason Donovan is back – now as a hip-shaking Pharaoh – and there are plenty of children on stage, but this time they are young professionals, taking main roles as several of Joseph’s brothers, instead of singing along from the sidelines. And very fine they are at it too.
There is a hint of money-saving about the exercise, which is further exacerbated by the decision to get the overworked narrator – an effervescent Linzi Hateley – to double up with the roles of Jacob and Potiphar, among others. The money-saving notion may not be true – it’s undercut by the presence of plenty of vibrant singers and dancers in the adult company, plus a 10-strong band in the pit – but it’s an odd choice nonetheless.
And there’s tinkering with the songs as well. Additional dance routines have been thrown into several of them, and tweaks and tucks made here and there for reasons that are never particularly clear. But the truth is that Joseph was always a moveable feast, and there’s no such thing as a ‘definitive version’. It’s been chopped, changed and played with from day one – and if it keeps things as fresh as this, then why on earth not?
The present occupant of the titular multi-coloured garment is Jac Yarrow, who played it opposite Hateley and Donovan at the London Palladium in 2019 and 2021, and the trio are clearly having a ball taking it out on the road for the rest of the country to relish.
The production is spectacular, the dancing tightly drilled and the children superb. Tim Rice once said that the versions he enjoys most are those closest in spirit to the show’s earliest incarnation as a 20-minute school concert in 1968, and this one certainly ticks that box. It’s bright, breezy and full of fun, and the audiences go wild. Not bad for an old-timer.
The cast of Chicago, running at the Opera House in Blackpool's Winter Gardens.
CHICAGO
June 28, 2022
Opera House, Blackpool Winter Gardens, until Saturday, July 2, 2022
The story of two murderesses, partly fictionalised by the young reporter who covered their trials in mafia-ridden Chicago more than 100 years ago, seems a strange topic for a musical. Yet Kander and Ebb’s 1975 adaptation of Maurine Watkins’s stage play has become one of the most popular and enduring musicals, seemingly touring the UK endlessly for the last 20 years or so.
You might think that such longevity and familiarity would render this production of Chicago rather tired and past its best. The company committing themselves wholeheartedly to performances at Blackpool’s enormous Opera House would beg to differ.
Every Bob Fosse-choreographed step, wrist flick and head turn is meticulously drilled; each of the iconic jazz-era songs is delivered with punch and style; and the ten-strong on-stage band under musical director Andrew Hilton are having so much infectious fun that you can’t help but revel in the sheer quality of the entertainment.
Much of the credit, of course, goes to Kander and Ebb’s thrilling score and book (with Fosse), which are bristling with dark humour, stunning melodies and a sultry sexiness that’s reinforced by the designs of John Lee Beatty and the costumes of William Ivey Long. But it’s also a tribute to the company, whose constant refreshing keeps the show vibrant and alive. There’s strength across the whole vast ensemble, and at their heart are half a dozen performers at the top of their game.
Faye Brookes plays killer Roxie Hart with fire and passion opposite Djalenga Scott as Velma Kelly, the more hardened criminal with a past as a vaudeville girl. Separately, they sing and dance up a storm: together they are dynamite.
Lee Mead steps into the shoes of Billy Flynn, the charming but conniving lawyer hired to get them off their respective murder charges. His fabulously rich voice and twinkling persona perfectly hit the mark in the role, creating a nice contrast with the almost invisible Amos, Roxie’s dupe of a husband, poignantly portrayed by Jamie Baughan.
Brenda Edwards fills the role that was meant to be played by Gemma Collins, the prison ‘Mama’ who can fix things for her wards. Her extraordinary voice, familiar to X Factor viewers, is underused in the show but a real powerhouse when it lets loose, while B E Wong turns in an amazing performance as Mary Sunshine, the optimistic reporter assigned to cover Roxie’s trial.
The Opera House is a cavern to fill, but the sound quality is top-notch and the voices sit beautifully on the impeccable bed of the band. This is truly a West End show, brought to the seaside and delivered with love and affection.
June 28, 2022
Opera House, Blackpool Winter Gardens, until Saturday, July 2, 2022
The story of two murderesses, partly fictionalised by the young reporter who covered their trials in mafia-ridden Chicago more than 100 years ago, seems a strange topic for a musical. Yet Kander and Ebb’s 1975 adaptation of Maurine Watkins’s stage play has become one of the most popular and enduring musicals, seemingly touring the UK endlessly for the last 20 years or so.
You might think that such longevity and familiarity would render this production of Chicago rather tired and past its best. The company committing themselves wholeheartedly to performances at Blackpool’s enormous Opera House would beg to differ.
Every Bob Fosse-choreographed step, wrist flick and head turn is meticulously drilled; each of the iconic jazz-era songs is delivered with punch and style; and the ten-strong on-stage band under musical director Andrew Hilton are having so much infectious fun that you can’t help but revel in the sheer quality of the entertainment.
Much of the credit, of course, goes to Kander and Ebb’s thrilling score and book (with Fosse), which are bristling with dark humour, stunning melodies and a sultry sexiness that’s reinforced by the designs of John Lee Beatty and the costumes of William Ivey Long. But it’s also a tribute to the company, whose constant refreshing keeps the show vibrant and alive. There’s strength across the whole vast ensemble, and at their heart are half a dozen performers at the top of their game.
Faye Brookes plays killer Roxie Hart with fire and passion opposite Djalenga Scott as Velma Kelly, the more hardened criminal with a past as a vaudeville girl. Separately, they sing and dance up a storm: together they are dynamite.
Lee Mead steps into the shoes of Billy Flynn, the charming but conniving lawyer hired to get them off their respective murder charges. His fabulously rich voice and twinkling persona perfectly hit the mark in the role, creating a nice contrast with the almost invisible Amos, Roxie’s dupe of a husband, poignantly portrayed by Jamie Baughan.
Brenda Edwards fills the role that was meant to be played by Gemma Collins, the prison ‘Mama’ who can fix things for her wards. Her extraordinary voice, familiar to X Factor viewers, is underused in the show but a real powerhouse when it lets loose, while B E Wong turns in an amazing performance as Mary Sunshine, the optimistic reporter assigned to cover Roxie’s trial.
The Opera House is a cavern to fill, but the sound quality is top-notch and the voices sit beautifully on the impeccable bed of the band. This is truly a West End show, brought to the seaside and delivered with love and affection.
Shobna Gulati, Christina Bianco and Ian Kelsey star in The Rise and Fall of Little Voice.
THE RISE AND FALL OF LITTLE VOICE
June 15, 2022
Grand Theatre, Blackpool, until Saturday, June 18, 2022
There’s a recurring motif in Jim Cartwright’s 1992 play of lights flickering and fading. It’s intended as a metaphor for the young singer at the story’s heart, who pines for her dead father through the old records he left her and imitates the voices on them in the sanctum of her bedroom before being talent-spotted and thrust into a spotlight she has no desire to occupy.
The metaphor works just as well for this new touring production, which opened in Blackpool on the eve of its 30th anniversary: there are plenty of sparks and some touches of brilliance, but the sparks never quite ignite into a full flame.
Some of this is undoubtedly down to the material, which hasn’t dated especially well. Pickled in period aspic, some of its attitudes now look painfully old-fashioned, long since bypassed by New Labour, MeToo and social media. Cartwright’s stereotypes of drunken single mum, unfeasibly dopey best friend and cynical club comic feel two-dimensional and tired.
But there are two performances in particular which stand out and raise the level above the mundanity of the play’s drab northern world, where a grim terraced house is home to shattered dreams and a relentless hopelessness. Christina Bianco has the vocal and acting chops to carry off the central role of Little Voice with a fantastic stage presence that really gets the fireworks started. And Ian Kelsey as Ray Say, the small-time impresario who wants to make her a star, is rounded and grounded in a way some of the characters don’t quite manage.
The other star of the show is Sara Perks’s superb set, which slices the side off the house and allows the audience to watch voyeuristically as Little Voice is packaged, poked and persuaded to perform.
Bronagh Lagan’s direction leaves most of the play running at ticking-over speed, although Bianco fires things up in the second act with her uncanny impersonations of everyone from Shirley Bassey to Edith Piaf in a dazzling ten-minute spot. Meanwhile, Shobna Gulati as her tarty mother Mari opts for outright comedy over pathos, which sometimes feels like a missed opportunity.
It’s an interesting revival with some impressive performances and an authentically nineties northern aesthetic. And as for the voice at its core, there’s nothing little about that.
June 15, 2022
Grand Theatre, Blackpool, until Saturday, June 18, 2022
There’s a recurring motif in Jim Cartwright’s 1992 play of lights flickering and fading. It’s intended as a metaphor for the young singer at the story’s heart, who pines for her dead father through the old records he left her and imitates the voices on them in the sanctum of her bedroom before being talent-spotted and thrust into a spotlight she has no desire to occupy.
The metaphor works just as well for this new touring production, which opened in Blackpool on the eve of its 30th anniversary: there are plenty of sparks and some touches of brilliance, but the sparks never quite ignite into a full flame.
Some of this is undoubtedly down to the material, which hasn’t dated especially well. Pickled in period aspic, some of its attitudes now look painfully old-fashioned, long since bypassed by New Labour, MeToo and social media. Cartwright’s stereotypes of drunken single mum, unfeasibly dopey best friend and cynical club comic feel two-dimensional and tired.
But there are two performances in particular which stand out and raise the level above the mundanity of the play’s drab northern world, where a grim terraced house is home to shattered dreams and a relentless hopelessness. Christina Bianco has the vocal and acting chops to carry off the central role of Little Voice with a fantastic stage presence that really gets the fireworks started. And Ian Kelsey as Ray Say, the small-time impresario who wants to make her a star, is rounded and grounded in a way some of the characters don’t quite manage.
The other star of the show is Sara Perks’s superb set, which slices the side off the house and allows the audience to watch voyeuristically as Little Voice is packaged, poked and persuaded to perform.
Bronagh Lagan’s direction leaves most of the play running at ticking-over speed, although Bianco fires things up in the second act with her uncanny impersonations of everyone from Shirley Bassey to Edith Piaf in a dazzling ten-minute spot. Meanwhile, Shobna Gulati as her tarty mother Mari opts for outright comedy over pathos, which sometimes feels like a missed opportunity.
It’s an interesting revival with some impressive performances and an authentically nineties northern aesthetic. And as for the voice at its core, there’s nothing little about that.
Jeremy Edwards stars in Dead Lies.
DEAD LIES
May 20, 2022
Grand Theatre, Blackpool, until Saturday, May 21, 2022
It’s taken more than 15 years for Dead Lies to reach the stage, thanks to a combination of factors including, of course, a certain pandemic. Hilary Bonner, the celebrated crime novelist, finally gets to see her debut play on the boards in this national tour, and takes advantage of the delays by building in lots of topical politics and cutting jibes at the current executive.
The narrative, of a principled politician fighting the tide of corruption and self-advancement in Westminster only to be confronted with a moral dilemma he can’t escape, has plenty of opportunity for the trademarks of the crime thriller genre: we have murders, we have murky pasts, we have complicated twists and turns. Somehow, Bonner rarely manages to overcome the sense that this would all work so much better in one of her books than rather statically and wordily played out on a stage.
On the plus side, Sean Cavanagh’s set design cleverly uses shifting panels of LED displays to create atmospheric scenery out of almost nothing. One moment we’re in a vast conference centre, the next – thanks to a change in back projection – we’re in a cosy flat or country cottage.
Elsewhere, the production is less successful. Aside from the plot, which descends into implausible twist after unbelievable turn, Joe Harmston’s direction does little to help the cast of eight, led by television’s Jeremy Edwards. There are a variety of devices to move things along, including some rather unpleasantly gratuitous black-and-white footage of a flashback scene, but at nearly three hours, the whole thing is too long, too preachy and with nowhere near enough light relief to sustain itself.
It’s a real shame as any new writing sent out on a national tour should be applauded for its ambition. Unfortunately, this feels more like a missed opportunity.
May 20, 2022
Grand Theatre, Blackpool, until Saturday, May 21, 2022
It’s taken more than 15 years for Dead Lies to reach the stage, thanks to a combination of factors including, of course, a certain pandemic. Hilary Bonner, the celebrated crime novelist, finally gets to see her debut play on the boards in this national tour, and takes advantage of the delays by building in lots of topical politics and cutting jibes at the current executive.
The narrative, of a principled politician fighting the tide of corruption and self-advancement in Westminster only to be confronted with a moral dilemma he can’t escape, has plenty of opportunity for the trademarks of the crime thriller genre: we have murders, we have murky pasts, we have complicated twists and turns. Somehow, Bonner rarely manages to overcome the sense that this would all work so much better in one of her books than rather statically and wordily played out on a stage.
On the plus side, Sean Cavanagh’s set design cleverly uses shifting panels of LED displays to create atmospheric scenery out of almost nothing. One moment we’re in a vast conference centre, the next – thanks to a change in back projection – we’re in a cosy flat or country cottage.
Elsewhere, the production is less successful. Aside from the plot, which descends into implausible twist after unbelievable turn, Joe Harmston’s direction does little to help the cast of eight, led by television’s Jeremy Edwards. There are a variety of devices to move things along, including some rather unpleasantly gratuitous black-and-white footage of a flashback scene, but at nearly three hours, the whole thing is too long, too preachy and with nowhere near enough light relief to sustain itself.
It’s a real shame as any new writing sent out on a national tour should be applauded for its ambition. Unfortunately, this feels more like a missed opportunity.
From left, Linda Purl, Patrick Duffy and Gray O'Brien star in Catch Me If You Can.
CATCH ME IF YOU CAN
March 7, 2022
Grand Theatre, Blackpool
There are some touring plays that rather cynically cash in on a star name or two to peddle some pedestrian fare on a rickety set simply to rake in some cash. Catch Me If You Can is not one of those.
Veteran producer Bill Kenwright does indeed parade some star names – chief among them the Dallas heartthrob Patrick Duffy, of Bobby Ewing fame – but the fare is far from pedestrian. It may be old, old-fashioned even, having originated on Broadway in the 1960s, and it’s nothing to do with the Leonardo DiCaprio film. Instead, it’s an ingeniously plotted and wittily written whodunnit – or rather, who-dun-what.
The twists and turns come relentlessly across two smart hours, keeping you guessing and switching your allegiances from moment to moment as newlywed Danny Corban tries to fathom the disappearance of his bride. Along the way he’s variously helped, hindered and harried by a cast of unreliable contacts, with local police inspector Levine at the heart of the investigation.
Duffy may well provide the Hollywood glitz as the bewildered Corban, but there is plenty more to recommend this long tour, which continues well into the summer. Gray O’Brien holds much of the action together as the wisecracking cop, and their sparring is fast and frequently funny, even if Duffy seems a little underpowered at times.
The rest of the company are consistently sharp and director Bob Tomson keeps things zipping along, while Julie Godfrey’s wonderful cabin-in-the-woods set creates terrific atmosphere, aided by Chris Davey’s lighting and Matt Bugg’s sound.
It makes no claims to be groundbreaking, but Catch Me If You Can is a neatly respectable example of what rather disparagingly used to be called a well-made play – and that’s something to be celebrated in these post-Covid times.
March 7, 2022
Grand Theatre, Blackpool
There are some touring plays that rather cynically cash in on a star name or two to peddle some pedestrian fare on a rickety set simply to rake in some cash. Catch Me If You Can is not one of those.
Veteran producer Bill Kenwright does indeed parade some star names – chief among them the Dallas heartthrob Patrick Duffy, of Bobby Ewing fame – but the fare is far from pedestrian. It may be old, old-fashioned even, having originated on Broadway in the 1960s, and it’s nothing to do with the Leonardo DiCaprio film. Instead, it’s an ingeniously plotted and wittily written whodunnit – or rather, who-dun-what.
The twists and turns come relentlessly across two smart hours, keeping you guessing and switching your allegiances from moment to moment as newlywed Danny Corban tries to fathom the disappearance of his bride. Along the way he’s variously helped, hindered and harried by a cast of unreliable contacts, with local police inspector Levine at the heart of the investigation.
Duffy may well provide the Hollywood glitz as the bewildered Corban, but there is plenty more to recommend this long tour, which continues well into the summer. Gray O’Brien holds much of the action together as the wisecracking cop, and their sparring is fast and frequently funny, even if Duffy seems a little underpowered at times.
The rest of the company are consistently sharp and director Bob Tomson keeps things zipping along, while Julie Godfrey’s wonderful cabin-in-the-woods set creates terrific atmosphere, aided by Chris Davey’s lighting and Matt Bugg’s sound.
It makes no claims to be groundbreaking, but Catch Me If You Can is a neatly respectable example of what rather disparagingly used to be called a well-made play – and that’s something to be celebrated in these post-Covid times.
Lara Beth-Sas (Monica), Thomas Mitchells (Chandler), Elena Christie (Phoebe), Rebecca Brierley (Rachel), Mikey Wooster (Ross), Max Cadman (Joey) and Jonathan Walker Gilland (Gunther).
FRIENDS! THE MUSICAL PARODY
February 24, 2022
Opera House, Blackpool Winter Gardens
Anyone who was alive in the mid 1990s – and pretty much everyone born since – will have the cultural imprint of Friendsstamped firmly in their brains. The sitcom antics of Monica, Rachel, Phoebe, Joey, Chandler and Ross were compulsory viewing for ten seasons, and you’d have been hard-pushed to find anyone who said they didn’t watch.
Even today, when a televised Friends reunion had fans across the world gripped to their screens during lockdown, the long shadow of one of the most popular TV shows in history continues to resonate.
So when veteran American spoofers Bob and Tobly McSmith turned their sights on the sitcom sextet for their off-Broadway parody in 2017, they suspected they might have a ready-made audience for their particular brand of affectionate mickey-taking. Fast-forward four-and-a-bit years and Friends! The Musical Parody is also taking over the world. And quite right too.
Currently touring the UK, this compact, tight show has everything the avid Friends fan could wish for and more. But you don’t have to be an aficionado to appreciate the extraordinary work of the seven performers – yes, even coffee-shop manager Gunther makes an appearance as a sidelined sidekick, just like he was in the original.
A combination of wigs, costumes and brilliantly observed characterisations means that the whole ensemble skewer their targets perfectly, from Chandler’s puppyish freneticism to Phoebe’s other-worldly whimsy, Monica’s control freakery to Joey’s effortless cool. Thomas Mitchells even doubles his performance as Chandler with a showstopping turn as the obnoxious girlfriend Janice (‘Oh… my… gaaahd!’), while a guest appearance from ‘Tom Selleck’ sees him tottering on with grey hair and a stick.
Lara Beth-Sas (Monica), Rebecca Brierley (Rachel), Elena Christie (Phoebe), Max Cadman (Joey), Mikey Wooster (Ross) and Jonathan Walker Gilland (Gunther) all bring their talents to their respective roles, not imitating but paying homage to the originals, exaggerating some of the most amusing tics and foibles and exploiting them for full comic effect.
Some zippy and witty 90s-styled songs by Assaf Gleizner tap into catchphrases – How You Doin’? for Joey, a Smelly Cat-type song for Phoebe in which the cast lament not being able to get the rights for the original – as well as racing through some of the better-known plotlines from the TV series. The whole thing fizzes with energy and some glorious harmonies, although some of the clever lyrics are lost in a rather muddy sound mix, and the icing on the cake would have been a live band.
But this joyful show – in reality not so much a parody as a tuneful tribute – is as much fun for the audience as it is for the performers, who are clearly having a ball. No one told me life was going to be this way…
February 24, 2022
Opera House, Blackpool Winter Gardens
Anyone who was alive in the mid 1990s – and pretty much everyone born since – will have the cultural imprint of Friendsstamped firmly in their brains. The sitcom antics of Monica, Rachel, Phoebe, Joey, Chandler and Ross were compulsory viewing for ten seasons, and you’d have been hard-pushed to find anyone who said they didn’t watch.
Even today, when a televised Friends reunion had fans across the world gripped to their screens during lockdown, the long shadow of one of the most popular TV shows in history continues to resonate.
So when veteran American spoofers Bob and Tobly McSmith turned their sights on the sitcom sextet for their off-Broadway parody in 2017, they suspected they might have a ready-made audience for their particular brand of affectionate mickey-taking. Fast-forward four-and-a-bit years and Friends! The Musical Parody is also taking over the world. And quite right too.
Currently touring the UK, this compact, tight show has everything the avid Friends fan could wish for and more. But you don’t have to be an aficionado to appreciate the extraordinary work of the seven performers – yes, even coffee-shop manager Gunther makes an appearance as a sidelined sidekick, just like he was in the original.
A combination of wigs, costumes and brilliantly observed characterisations means that the whole ensemble skewer their targets perfectly, from Chandler’s puppyish freneticism to Phoebe’s other-worldly whimsy, Monica’s control freakery to Joey’s effortless cool. Thomas Mitchells even doubles his performance as Chandler with a showstopping turn as the obnoxious girlfriend Janice (‘Oh… my… gaaahd!’), while a guest appearance from ‘Tom Selleck’ sees him tottering on with grey hair and a stick.
Lara Beth-Sas (Monica), Rebecca Brierley (Rachel), Elena Christie (Phoebe), Max Cadman (Joey), Mikey Wooster (Ross) and Jonathan Walker Gilland (Gunther) all bring their talents to their respective roles, not imitating but paying homage to the originals, exaggerating some of the most amusing tics and foibles and exploiting them for full comic effect.
Some zippy and witty 90s-styled songs by Assaf Gleizner tap into catchphrases – How You Doin’? for Joey, a Smelly Cat-type song for Phoebe in which the cast lament not being able to get the rights for the original – as well as racing through some of the better-known plotlines from the TV series. The whole thing fizzes with energy and some glorious harmonies, although some of the clever lyrics are lost in a rather muddy sound mix, and the icing on the cake would have been a live band.
But this joyful show – in reality not so much a parody as a tuneful tribute – is as much fun for the audience as it is for the performers, who are clearly having a ball. No one told me life was going to be this way…
SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS
December 10, 2021
Grand Theatre, Blackpool, until Sunday, January 2, 2022
The Grand in Blackpool makes much of its long and treasured heritage dating back to Victorian times. And while that might be right and proper when discussing the esteemed history of the place, it’s less appropriate when the material on stage seems to be from the same period.
Yes, it’s true: this year’s panto feels as fresh and new as… well, Queen Victoria. But wait, I hear you cry, it’s panto, and panto is an ancient, well-loved tradition that not only introduces children to live theatre but also hands down established routines and jokes from generation to generation.
Well yes, to a point. And it’s fair to say that many of the children in the audience were as vocal and engaged as you could wish for in this kind of participatory experience, booing the baddie and screaming advice to the heroine over whether she should eat the poisoned apple or not.
It’s also true that the producers at UK Productions have not stinted on the show, with some beautiful sets, large cast numbers and that all-important (if rather minimal) live band. All of which is to be applauded. Snow herself is sweetly delivered by recent drama school graduate Ellie Green, and the six-strong ensemble and seven-strong team of what are still bewilderingly referred to in 2021 as ‘Dwarfs’ do a sterling job of keeping the stage alive and vibrant.
Elsewhere in the cast, where some of the more experienced and long-standing professionals should be showing the way in how thrilling and exciting live entertainment can be, there’s more than a hint of going through the motions. I have no complaint about yet another 12 Days of Christmas routine or a Ghostbusters interlude per se, but they need to be sharper and much, much funnier if they’re going to justify their place.
Local favourite Steve Royle puts in his usual turn as Muddles, Vicky Entwistle is the Wicked Queen and Jamie Steen sports some nice frocks as the dame, Dolly, but they’re not helped by the material, which opts for hugely dated ‘topical’ references (Linford Christie, anyone?) and an uncomfortably tacky level of smut that really isn’t necessary in a family show. I’m no prude, but panto is hardly the place for erection gags, however far over the kids’ heads they might be aimed.
On the plus side, it’s colourful, loud and lavish, while Royle’s self-deprecation about his third-place BGT appearance belies his talents as a juggler. And his monkey routine is a surefire winner.
December 10, 2021
Grand Theatre, Blackpool, until Sunday, January 2, 2022
The Grand in Blackpool makes much of its long and treasured heritage dating back to Victorian times. And while that might be right and proper when discussing the esteemed history of the place, it’s less appropriate when the material on stage seems to be from the same period.
Yes, it’s true: this year’s panto feels as fresh and new as… well, Queen Victoria. But wait, I hear you cry, it’s panto, and panto is an ancient, well-loved tradition that not only introduces children to live theatre but also hands down established routines and jokes from generation to generation.
Well yes, to a point. And it’s fair to say that many of the children in the audience were as vocal and engaged as you could wish for in this kind of participatory experience, booing the baddie and screaming advice to the heroine over whether she should eat the poisoned apple or not.
It’s also true that the producers at UK Productions have not stinted on the show, with some beautiful sets, large cast numbers and that all-important (if rather minimal) live band. All of which is to be applauded. Snow herself is sweetly delivered by recent drama school graduate Ellie Green, and the six-strong ensemble and seven-strong team of what are still bewilderingly referred to in 2021 as ‘Dwarfs’ do a sterling job of keeping the stage alive and vibrant.
Elsewhere in the cast, where some of the more experienced and long-standing professionals should be showing the way in how thrilling and exciting live entertainment can be, there’s more than a hint of going through the motions. I have no complaint about yet another 12 Days of Christmas routine or a Ghostbusters interlude per se, but they need to be sharper and much, much funnier if they’re going to justify their place.
Local favourite Steve Royle puts in his usual turn as Muddles, Vicky Entwistle is the Wicked Queen and Jamie Steen sports some nice frocks as the dame, Dolly, but they’re not helped by the material, which opts for hugely dated ‘topical’ references (Linford Christie, anyone?) and an uncomfortably tacky level of smut that really isn’t necessary in a family show. I’m no prude, but panto is hardly the place for erection gags, however far over the kids’ heads they might be aimed.
On the plus side, it’s colourful, loud and lavish, while Royle’s self-deprecation about his third-place BGT appearance belies his talents as a juggler. And his monkey routine is a surefire winner.
AROUND THE WORLD IN 80s DAYS
October 12, 2021
Grand Theatre, Blackpool, until Friday, November 5
Someone had a bit of an inspired idea. And that someone was Ian McFarlane, writer, producer, director and choreographer of this daft, delightful and danceable mash-up of 80s hits crowbarred into the rough framework of Jules Verne’s 1873 comic novel.
It’s already had one outing at the Grand, pre-pandemic, and went down so well that it was an obvious choice for emerging out the other side. And pretty much everything about the show marks it out as a winner, both in terms of crowd-pleasing popularity and dramatic quality.
McFarlane takes the bare bones of Verne’s original story, in which adventurer Phileas Fogg takes on a wager to circumnavigate the globe in 80 days accompanied by his sidekick Passepartout, and recasts it to serve his own ends. Thus Verne’s romantic subplot about a rescued damsel is abandoned in favour of a new one in which an Indiana Jones-type archaeologist, Dr Harlow Hayes, outdoes Fogg with her derring-do and takes a much more dynamic and active role in subsequent proceedings.
There’s also a hilarious diversion into another subplot in which a crazed German professor is trying to take over the world, with only Fogg and his crew standing in his way. En route, McFarlane throws in everything but the kitchen sink, with train journeys, sea crossings, elephant rides and the essential balloon aiding Fogg on his quest.
It’s all helped along by a rather brilliant score, arranged by Laurie Denman – who also performs in the eight-strong ensemble – which takes iconic songs from the 1980s and puts them to narrative use in the service of the story. Some fit better than others but when it works, it really works. And while I understand the commercial imperative for using recorded backing tracks, a live band would have been the icing on the cake.
The comedy is plentiful and high-quality, working best with gags that flow from the action, rather than panto-style one-liners or broad farce, and the script is done full justice by the superb cast. Alastair Hill leads the company as a nice-but-dim Fogg, while Oliver Mawdsley underplays Passepartout brilliantly, winning bigger laughs because of it.
Sophia Lewis provides some stunning vocals and decent panache as Dr Hayes, but the show is undoubtedly stolen by Ben Watson, whose villainous Professor Gold is a wonderful comic creation. Watson and many of the rest of the cast in fact play multiple roles, and every one is beautifully drawn and carefully characterised for maximum effect.
You don’t have to be a fan of 80s music to enjoy it – although it certainly doesn’t do any harm. Around the World in 80s Days, with its nods to Kneehigh, Spymonkey and other weavers of classic-tale magic, is a terrific night out.
October 12, 2021
Grand Theatre, Blackpool, until Friday, November 5
Someone had a bit of an inspired idea. And that someone was Ian McFarlane, writer, producer, director and choreographer of this daft, delightful and danceable mash-up of 80s hits crowbarred into the rough framework of Jules Verne’s 1873 comic novel.
It’s already had one outing at the Grand, pre-pandemic, and went down so well that it was an obvious choice for emerging out the other side. And pretty much everything about the show marks it out as a winner, both in terms of crowd-pleasing popularity and dramatic quality.
McFarlane takes the bare bones of Verne’s original story, in which adventurer Phileas Fogg takes on a wager to circumnavigate the globe in 80 days accompanied by his sidekick Passepartout, and recasts it to serve his own ends. Thus Verne’s romantic subplot about a rescued damsel is abandoned in favour of a new one in which an Indiana Jones-type archaeologist, Dr Harlow Hayes, outdoes Fogg with her derring-do and takes a much more dynamic and active role in subsequent proceedings.
There’s also a hilarious diversion into another subplot in which a crazed German professor is trying to take over the world, with only Fogg and his crew standing in his way. En route, McFarlane throws in everything but the kitchen sink, with train journeys, sea crossings, elephant rides and the essential balloon aiding Fogg on his quest.
It’s all helped along by a rather brilliant score, arranged by Laurie Denman – who also performs in the eight-strong ensemble – which takes iconic songs from the 1980s and puts them to narrative use in the service of the story. Some fit better than others but when it works, it really works. And while I understand the commercial imperative for using recorded backing tracks, a live band would have been the icing on the cake.
The comedy is plentiful and high-quality, working best with gags that flow from the action, rather than panto-style one-liners or broad farce, and the script is done full justice by the superb cast. Alastair Hill leads the company as a nice-but-dim Fogg, while Oliver Mawdsley underplays Passepartout brilliantly, winning bigger laughs because of it.
Sophia Lewis provides some stunning vocals and decent panache as Dr Hayes, but the show is undoubtedly stolen by Ben Watson, whose villainous Professor Gold is a wonderful comic creation. Watson and many of the rest of the cast in fact play multiple roles, and every one is beautifully drawn and carefully characterised for maximum effect.
You don’t have to be a fan of 80s music to enjoy it – although it certainly doesn’t do any harm. Around the World in 80s Days, with its nods to Kneehigh, Spymonkey and other weavers of classic-tale magic, is a terrific night out.
