Tag Archives: Liverpool

Jack And The Beanstalk, Theatre Review. Epstein Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Ray Quinn, Lindzi Germain, Claire Simmo, Lewis Pryor, Michael Chapman, Mia Molloy.

The Pantomime is an institution, one of first experiences for many to whom the theatre is a haven to be preserved, of silliness and beauty, of hearing that loud series of giggles and laughter from younger audiences before they become self-conscious and trapped within the confines of fitting behaviour. It is when you see this in action during the Pantomime that it reminds you of what brought you into this fascinating and beguiling world in the first place, magic, the wonderful world of the delightful thrill, where anything is possible and the overall enchantment that the young mind grasps onto with relish.

Jack And The Beanstalk, Theatre Review. Epstein Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(399 words, estimated 1:36 mins reading time)

Horny Handed Tons Of Soil, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

It would have undoubtedly pleased, intrigued, even fascinated the late, great Adrian Henri to have witnessed Horny Handed Tons Of Soil, not least for the acknowledgment of one of the three revered poets of the city of Liverpool but because of its absolute beauty. To be seen as beyond a performance, more of a living, breathing entity in which poetry becomes fine art, morphs into a moment of true artistic temperament which has been nursed and raised by more than just a tender loving of words, which has music, mood and movement sewn into its very fabric.

Horny Handed Tons Of Soil, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(454 words, estimated 1:49 mins reading time)

Hard Times, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Vanessa Schofield, Perry Moore, Suzanne Ahmet, Andrew Price, Howard Chadwick, Victoria Brazier, Anthony Hunt, Darren Kuppan, Claire Storey, Paul Barnhill.

It is often the case to congratulate Northern Broadsides when they come to Liverpool, a much loved theatre company to who much has always been appreciated and taken to the audience’s hearts, they have always given themselves the hardest of challenges by producing theatre that has struck a chord with the times we find ourselves in.

Hard Times, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(485 words, estimated 1:56 mins reading time)

The Fratellis, Gig Review. Liverpool Olympia, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

It always seems that the choice of music that a group comes out on stage to is a huge indicator of how the evening might progress, as if it is a secret message being audibly sent to the crowd, a musical Morse code filled with important notes and playful notation advising the audience of the adventure ahead. If The Stranglers for example can come out to their own Waltz In Black and Marillion at one time to La Gazza Ladra; it only is surely appropriate that Scotland’s The Fratelli’s, with all their high eyebrow cool and playful intentions, appear back in Liverpool to The Can Can.

The Fratellis, Gig Review. Liverpool Olympia, Liverpool. full post

(546 words, estimated 2:11 mins reading time)

Wille And The Bandits, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall Music Rooms, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Wille and the Bandits at the Music Rooms in Liverpool. March 2018. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

The equinox may turn and gift us the power of more sunlight in which the refuge of the day we seek but it is still in the apparent darkness, the illuminated room and the hum of electricity in which we come alive and warm ourselves in the company of the like minded, the curious and the players, those who are there to capture our hearts and drive the whispers of beige away into the furthest reaches and corners of our minds.

Wille And The Bandits, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall Music Rooms, Liverpool. full post

(483 words, 1 image, estimated 1:56 mins reading time)

Paloma Faith, Gig Review. Echo Arena, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

It is with the ferocity of a warrior’s heart to which we acknowledge that the world is not right, that it has always had its priorities wrong and the sense of balance that we are urged to seek to uphold the so called natural order, is nothing but a misaligned scale, weighted in the favour of the few, prejudiced by decisions taken long before we even had the chance to understand.

Paloma Faith, Gig Review. Echo Arena, Liverpool. full post

(466 words, estimated 1:52 mins reading time)

Mark Thomas: Showtime From The Frontline, Theatre Review. Playhouse, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

A man walks into a comedy club and finds a way to make life better through humour and observational clowning; it could be the start to perhaps one of the most farcical jokes, instead it becomes the punch line to the best evening of wit and the pathos of human tragedy conceived.

Mark Thomas: Showtime From The Frontline, Theatre Review. Playhouse, Liverpool. full post

(462 words, estimated 1:51 mins reading time)

Place & Chips, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Alice Bunker-Whitney.

We are at constant war with the one to whom we are nothing without. The daily bombardment of information, propaganda sheets delivered, in magazines, on television, radio, in advertising, across conversations and whispered jibes about how we would be better off, feel better, look more amazing.

Place & Chips, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(434 words, estimated 1:44 mins reading time)

Wicked, Theatre Review. Empire Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Helen Woolf, Aaron Sidwell, Kim Ismay, Steven Pinder, Emily Shaw, Iddon Jones, Charli Baptie, Emily Olive Boyd, Georgia Rae Briggs, Jason Broderick, Samantha Brown, Hannah Cadec, Grace Chapman, James Davies –Williams, Howard Ellis, Amy Goodwin, Daniel James Greenway, Jack Harrison–Cooper, Charlie Karlsen, Nicole Lupino, Stuart MacIver, Stacey McGuire, Sara Morely, Paul Saunders, James Titchener, Helen Walsh, Amy Webb, Luke Woollaston, Benjamin Yates, Amy Ross, Nikki Bentley.

Wicked, Theatre Review. Empire Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(462 words, estimated 1:51 mins reading time)

Judy & Liza, Theatre Review. Downstairs At The Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Emma Dears, Helen Sheals.

Music: Greg Palmer.

There are icons and then there are those who, thanks to maybe one performance, one shining brilliant moment captured on film or record, will forever be immortalised, their images seared into the minds of the public, even those who were not born when they tragically passed away, their attitude remaining an engraved line on the monument on how stars are born and their names becoming the epitaph of the age. It is both a warning to how lives can be snatched away and never be truly our own, and it can be the huge embrace of knowing how much a human being can be loved.

Judy & Liza, Theatre Review. Downstairs At The Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(415 words, estimated 1:40 mins reading time)