Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Andrew Schofield, Alan Stocks, Paul Duckworth, Keddy Sutton, Gillian Hardie, Lenny Wood.

A different setting, a changed venue, can make all the difference between wildly incredible and drop dead tremendous.

For the second year running the area around the Echo Arena played host to Dave Kirby’s sensational and uproarious Dreaming Of A Barry White Christmas and yet just to take it out of the main arena in which the echo of Christmas Day’s Past Roger Daltrey, Pete Townshend and Peter Gabriel songs were still bouncing off the walls and in which Deacon Blue’s soulful pop was still to grace, the Auditorium became a more natural staging in which to completely immerse one’s self into the world of Thomas Minge and his collection of oddities and workers with the most wonderful but very peculiar habits.

Dave Kirby’s hit comedy is one of those productions that sits at the very heart of Liverpool’s funny bone. Like Council Depot Blues, Reds and Blues and Brick Up The Mersey Tunnels, Dreaming Of A Barry White Christmas is much more than just a way for the people of Merseyside to come together and shake off the ensuing winter blues and the hardship that mingles with the gaiety and frivolity, it is a true reflection of life, albeit in a caricature way, of how society is at times.

The laughter, the true sound of genuine mirth, amusement and delightfully entertained was as heartening to hear as a genuine chuckle of friendship at unheard private joke between two old campaigners at the bar. The faithful, if albeit lonely, secretary portrayed with riveting pleasure by Gillian Hardie was complimented at all times by the ever enchanting Keddy Sutton, who is worth an entrance fee on her own just to her take of Marge and Bart Simpson, Cilla Black and The Wizard of Oz’s Dorothy, and by the outrageous Paul Duckworth and Alan Stocks.

In the time that Lenny Wood has appeared on the Liverpool stage his timing and control has just got better and better with each passing year. This second outing into the world of Thomas Minge has provided him once more with the ability to work with five of the cities comedic greats and it is easy to see just how much the influence of their artistry has rubbed off on him. Lenny Wood was already a talent in which audiences in Liverpool adore and cannot help but see the similarities between him and arguably one of his comedic inspirations in Andrew Schofield.

In amongst the many gems that the show has to offer, is the tantalisingly, stitch inducing passage involving Mr. Wood and Mr. Schofield and a blow up doll. It is a moment of sheer writing genius bought to the stage by two consummate professionals but who also have that rare touch of acting insanity inside them.

There are shows that just grab you by the shoulders, that make you want to misbehave as much as the incredible writing takes you down a road in which sides will ache all the way home. To end a year of such inclusive, artistic theatre in Liverpool with Dreaming Of A Barry White Christmas proves exactly why at times The West End of London has nothing on what Liverpool can provide.

A shattering, laugh inducing and superb production, it is a timely Christmas gift to theatre goers in Liverpool.

Ian D. Hall