April - 2018

Archive

Review: A Clockwork Orange at Liverpool Everyman ***1/2

It seems incredible that it’s taken 30 years for Anthony Burgess’s own live version of his best-known work to be brought to the stage. Because the author and composer’s vision of A Clockwork Orange as a ‘play with music’ seems a very natural way of telling what is admittedly anything but a natural story. But here it is, finally, Burgess-meets-Beethoven-meets-music hall, played by percussionist Peter Mitchell and sung with rhythmic and harmonic gusto by the Everyman Rep compan

Stereophonics Echo Arena date and ticket details

The Stereophonics are coming to the Echo Arena for a special gig next month ahead of a series of high-profile summer shows. They will play at the waterfront venue on May 30. Tickets are priced between £37.50 and £62.50. The Welsh rockers, currently on a tour of Australia, will also appear at Cardiff City Football Club, Experience Milano, Rock Werchter in Belgium and Paris’s Longchamp Racecourse over the summer months, as well as RiZE Festival at Hylands Park in Chelmsford. St

Chester Storyhouse prepares for summer rep season

Chester Storyhouse is preparing for its second summer season of shows which will play at the striking former cinema venue. Steven Sondheim’s Tony Award-winning A Little Night Music will launch the season on May 5. The musical is being directed by Storyhouse artistic director Alex Clifton and will run in rep until July 8. The plot revolves around the tangled web that surrounds an actress and the men who love her, and the show's songs include the famous Send In the Clowns. Swal

Review: Hairspray at the Liverpool Empire *****

You can’t stop the beat at the Empire this week – but then why would you want to when a show is as much glorious fun as Hairspray? Wrapping its serious message of love, tolerance and respect in a multi-coloured song and dance extravaganza, it’s no wonder the musical, based on John Waters’ film, has proved such a hit with audiences since it was first staged in the States a decade-and-a-half ago. This latest touring production has been on the road for eight months, but it shows

Euphonia brings harmony to Liverpool's Bluecoat

Visitors are being encouraged to add their own voices to an exhibition with a difference at the Bluecoat. Euphonia, the first large-scale solo show by artist Emma Smith, explores the idea that we are all musicians without realising it. Smith is utilising the music, harmony and rhythmic patterns of conversation to create new artwork at the School Lane venue, developing a new form of musical scoring which captures the sound of human relationships and turning the gallery in to a

Review: Romeo and Juliet at the Epstein Theatre ***1/2

Stabbings, poisonings, gang warfare….400 years after his own death, Shakespeare proves it’s plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose when it comes to the human condition. And there are tragic consequences all round of course in his tale of star-crossed lovers battling to be together against a backdrop of family feuding and enmity. Last season Daniel Taylor Productions brought A Midsummer Night’s Dream to the Epstein in a staging that had an impressive clarity of delivery. The

Review: Matthew Bourne's Cinderella at Liverpool Empire ****

Matthew Bourne’s work has always been inspired by the silver screen – not least The Red Shoes, which he brought to the Empire 12 months ago. Now he returns with a reprise of his atmospheric, dark fairytale version of Cinderella, bathed in silvery hues and paying nodding homage to those great romantic wartime movies, from Brief Encounter to the superlative David Niven Technicolor fantasy A Matter of Life and Death. Prokofiev penned his score for Cinderella during the Second Wo

Kinky Boots UK tour heads for Liverpool Empire

Multi award-winning hit musical Kinky Boots is making its first visit to Liverpool next spring. The West End and Broadway smash will be at the Liverpool Empire for a fortnight from March 25 to April 6 as part of an inaugural UK tour. Tickets are on general sale from today. Kinky Boots is based on the film of the same name, and tells the story of a family shoe factory in Northampton that is struggling until its young owner decides to start making some magnificently outrageous

Moon to shine over Liverpool Tall Ships regatta

Visitors to Liverpool Cathedral can experience a giant luminous lunar landscape as part of events around the Three Festivals Tall Ships Regatta this weekend. Artist Luke Jerram’s Museum of the Moon installation has taken residence in the sandstone landmark for the late May Bank Holiday. The 23ft sphere uses detailed NASA imagery in a recreation of the moon’s surface, and the artwork includes a surround sound composition by BAFTA and Ivor Novello Award-winning composer Dan Jon

Review: The Last Ship at Liverpool Playhouse ****

What do you do when everything that defines you – as an individual and a community – suddenly threatens to disappear? It’s a question that has been asked many times over the past few decades, particularly in the now former heartlands of heavy industry. And with an estimated 50 per cent of jobs that currently exist set to disappear in the next 20 years, it’s a question that will become increasingly pertinent for all of us. For the characters that populate Sting and writer/dire