Category Archives: Theatre

Bella – Queen of the Blackfriars Ring, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Denise Kennedy, Andrew Frizell.

Whitechapel has produced more than a few characters of ill repute and more than a few of notable glory over the last couple of centuries but arguably none were like Bella Burge. A woman who typified the spirit of the East-End, who on her 11th birthday walked through the same misbegotten streets as Jack the Ripper, who was taken in and apprenticed by one of Music Halls leading lights, trod the boards herself, married a championship winning boxer only to see him arrested as part of a bank fraud/betting scam three weeks later in Liverpool and who in the end became the first woman Boxing promoter in the world. Bella Burge is ripe to spoken of just as highly as anybody from the East-End.

Bella – Queen of the Blackfriars Ring, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(475 words, estimated 1:54 mins reading time)

The Judgement Of Hakim, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Nick Birkinshaw.

Supported by Mark Lea, Hannah Plant, Jack Cooper, Warren Tutt, Joe Ball, Thoma Galashan, Jake Barrowcliffe, Michael Coumas, Bethany Sprontson, Jade Thomson, Ewan Pollitt, Jamie Barton, Sam Williams.

If you keep your wits about you, you will not be harmed. If you keep the information that you hold to yourself and don’t give into the piercing stare, the charm and easy smile of the interrogator then you will have avoided The Judgement of Hakim. Find yourself in left wing book shop, too late, he knows and you’re on a list, read right wing literature, he knows and you’re on a list, buy a certain food, on a list, in fact anything you do in life is listed and what you hold as freedom is just purely an illusion but vital to the trade of the interrogator.

The Judgement Of Hakim, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(443 words, estimated 1:46 mins reading time)

Tonight’s The Night, Theatre Review. Empire Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Cast: Ben Heathcote, Jenna Lee-James, Jade Ewen, Michael McKell, Tiffany Groves, Andy Rees, Michael Antrobus, Joshua Dever, Amy Diamond, Rosie Fletcher, Rosie Heath, Sinead Long, Craig Mather, Tom Millen, Darryl Paul, Ricky Rojas, Lindsay Tierney, Spin.

Rod Stewart certainly belongs in the pantheon of all-time greats of performers that have bridged both sides of The Atlantic Ocean. His music is as popular as it perhaps ever was and still gets performed live by a man whose life off stage is as interesting to millions as the music he has helped make musically immortal. That immortality will perhaps continue long after the end of the next decade and beyond with Ben Elton’s latest foray into the world of musical theatre in The Rod Stewart Musical, Tonight’s The Night.

Tonight’s The Night, Theatre Review. Empire Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(515 words, estimated 2:04 mins reading time)

Once A Catholic, Theatre Review. Royal Court, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Richard Bremner, Calum Callaghan, Sean Campion, Clare Cathcart, Oliver Coopersmith, Kate Lock, Molly Logan, Amy Morgan, Katherine Rose Morley, Cecilia Noble.

If you are bad, apparently as the saying perhaps misleadingly suggests, you will go to Hell. However if you are good, if you are very good and eat everything set before you and say your prayers and remember to confess your sins, you might just be fortunate enough to see one of the best comedies likely to hit Liverpool this year, the beautifully irreverent, the supremely funny Once A Catholic.

Once A Catholic, Theatre Review. Royal Court, Liverpool. full post

(526 words, estimated 2:06 mins reading time)

Scottie Road, The Musical. Theatre Review. Unity Theatre (2014)

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Keddy Sutton, Gillian Hardie.

When Scottie Road, The Musical was first performed it was genuine piece of Liverpool humour delivered by two of the finest female talents around. One sequel later, a vast swathe of the population who make it their duty to support local theatre, no matter the size of the venue, left feeling enraptured and laughing so hard it would make an ice bun melt, the two stars of the show, Caz and Britney, take the audience back to where it all started, where the music first played and the threat of prison was something that came along on a really bad throw at Monopoly and just as then as it is now, the audience fell completely and utterly in love with it all.

Scottie Road, The Musical. Theatre Review. Unity Theatre (2014) full post

(436 words, estimated 1:45 mins reading time)

Noises Off, Theatre Review. The Arts Centre, Liverpool

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Caitlin Clough, Jack Murray, Karl Falconer, Rhea Little, Sam Walton, Stewart McDonald, Abi Taylor Jones, Siobhan Crinson, Albert Hastings.

Quite simply you can never have too much of Michael Frayn’s Noises Off placed before you. It is a sumptuous comedy banquet that keeps giving and each serving is captured differently as the last. It is rightly regarded as one of the finest stage comedies of its time but it has to be captured right, one person miscast, one mistimed moment and the momentum goes completely. It is a play that is so giving and yet one wrong step, it can be a cruel mistress and leave the feeling of undiluted suffering in the audience and it takes real guts to even attempt to put it on. Thankfully PurpleCoat productions weren’t put off by the thought and gave a performance of high ability and virtue at the Arts Centre on Myrtle Street.

Noises Off, Theatre Review. The Arts Centre, Liverpool full post

(557 words, estimated 2:14 mins reading time)

Dreaming Of A Barry White Christmas, Theatre Review. Echo Arena, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision 9/10

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

Before a word is spoken inside the Echo Arena, before Andrew Schofield and Alan Stocks pass that wonderful look between them and the marvellous Keddy Sutton manages to bring her array of much loved admired voices to the table, just to know that these six amazingly funny and versatile actors are about to bring Dave Kirby’s work to life, there is already a broad smile on the audience who braved the December storms to watch Dreaming Of A Barry White Christmas.

Dreaming Of A Barry White Christmas, Theatre Review. Echo Arena, Liverpool. full post

(527 words, estimated 2:06 mins reading time)

Alastair Clark, Comedy Review. 81 Renshaw Street, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

At 81 Renshaw Street, local comedian and University of Liverpool graduate, Alastair Clark brought an intelligent and ambitious hour of anecdotal stand-up on the theme of the difficulties and conflicts caused by opinions.

The show itself was a stand-alone project and a pre-cursor to his future endeavours which include an upcoming hour long Edinburgh Fringe show. His future audiences can look forward to a confident dead-pan delivery of extended deconstructions of unique political and social observations. One highlight was when he took a thread of Youtube user commentators to task for their misguided and hilariously knee-jerk argument on the page of The Doors’ classic song L.A. Woman (“At this point the web site user weighs in with their view- I’m sure we can trust that to be objective.”) He is at his best here when pitting his wearied rationale against the inane vacuous nature of bad lyricism.

Alastair Clark, Comedy Review. 81 Renshaw Street, Liverpool. full post

(284 words, estimated 1:08 mins reading time)

Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs. Theatre Review. Epstein Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Crissy Rock, Amanda Harrington, Paul Danan, Laura Gregory, Herbert Howe, Michael Chapman, Paul Quinn, Joe Cawley.

It is a story as old as Liverpool theatres, the young damsel in distress, hated by her vain and immoral step-mother, of witchcraft, of love and a man in various dresses making all laugh before him. Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs is a prime example of the British Pantomime giving all who make their way to the theatre at Christmas a good time, full of songs and cheer and that in the end good will overcome evil. The Epstein Theatre’s festive foray into the world of sparkly tights and vanity mirrors is a delight that kept giving.

Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs. Theatre Review. Epstein Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(390 words, estimated 1:34 mins reading time)

The Pied Piper, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Edwina Lea, Emma Hirons, James Michael Doolan, Nathan Smith.

The Pied Piper is one of those rare stories that can both enthral and beguile and disgust and terrify at the same time, it is no wonder it is such a firm favourite of lovers of fairy tales and that it is ripe for re-telling in as many different ways as you can imagine on the stage.

The Pied Piper, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(380 words, estimated 1:31 mins reading time)