Christmas really does get earlier every year – but a Nativity on Halloween night? That could have been an interesting mash-up, and indeed there were some young members of the Empire audience who looked like they might have come straight from a round of trick or treating. Meanwhile, although it was definitely treat on stage, behind the scenes it was more trick for the adult cast who got stuck in the Empire’s backstage lift for a couple of hours during the afternoon and had to

Ten years ago this week, Northern Broadsides staged Dario Fo’s Accidental Death of an Anarchist at the Liverpool Playhouse. The play was adapted by Deborah McAndrew and directed by Conrad Nelson. And now here they are, Playhouse, Fo, McAndrew and Nelson, reunited a decade on in a new Broadsides production, this time of Fo’s second most famous work – Can’t Pay, Won’t Pay. The Italian penned his political farce, which features housewives taking direct action against high prices

Rita Ora heads for the Echo Arena next spring as part of a world tour. The record-breaking singer will perform at the venue on Bank Holiday Monday, May 27 towards the end of the three-month tour supporting the release of her second studio album Phoenix. Tickets are now on sale and cost between £37.90 and £165.60. The 27-year-old, who sang on Strictly last weekend, said: “I’m so happy to be on tour again. Nothing makes me happier than performing and travelling to see all my fa

Mirror Mirror on the wall, what’s the best Christmas show of them all? With so many festive offerings heading this way it’s almost impossible to choose between the Peter Pans, Beauty and the Beasts, Aladdins, Cinderellas, Snow Whites, and not forgetting Jack and the Beanstalk – plus all the seasonal shows that don’t fit in to the traditional panto mould. This year these include a very Scouse Cinders at the Royal Court, A Christmas Carol with a difference at the Playhouse, and

When Still Alice was premiered at Every Third Minute - a festival of theatre, dementia and hope – in Leeds earlier this year one man came up afterwards to tell Sharon Small how much he had enjoyed the performance. “He said: ‘I have dementia and I loved that. But I won’t remember it tomorrow’,” recalls the actress. How sad, I suggest. “Yes,” she replies. “But it was really joyful in that moment. Which was important to see as well.” Still Alice, which comes to the Liverpool Pla

“Normally you start off on stage as an actor and then work up to TV. But I did it the other way around,” explains actor Adam Thomas. “I started doing TV work at 16, and now at the age of 30 I’m making my debut on stage. And in a musical! What have I got myself in to? “But hopefully I’ll do the role justice.” I’ve caught up with the Mancunian for a chat ahead of his stage debut next week – yes, at the grand old age of 30 – in Nativity! the Musical which pays its first visit to

The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic will join forces with musicians and singers from Germany to perform Benjamin Britten’s stunning War Requiem to mark the centenary of the end of the First World War. More than 300 players and singers from Liverpool and Hannover will take part in the concert in Liverpool Cathedral on Saturday, November 10. The event is part of Liverpool’s Brittle Heart season marking 100 years since the Armistice was declared in ‘war to end all wars’. And it wil

Playwright Lizzie Nunnery returns to the Everyman stage with this dramatically spare but emotionally resonant telling of a real-life tragedy. Playing as part of this year’s Liverpool Irish Festival and on a short UK tour, which also features a date at Ormskirk’s Arts Centre, To Have to Shoot Irishmen shines an uncomfortable light on a single story played out the midst of the maelstrom of the Easter Rising of 1916. Journalist and republican pacifist Frank Sheehy Skeffington wa

He may be advancing in age, but 50 years on after Forty Years On, Armley’s finest (and trademarked ‘National Treasure’) Alan Bennett is having something of a purple patch at the theatre box office. His latest play Allelujah! was staged by Nick Hytner at The Bridge this summer, while Nottingham Playhouse is about to revive The Madness of King George with Mark Gatiss as the titular monarch. And now the Original Theatre Company is touring with Bennett’s 2009 multi-layered musing

More than 600,000 people will have seen the Terracotta Warriors by the time the acclaimed show closes this weekend – making it the most visited ticketed exhibition in the UK this year. And it is estimated that China’s First Emperor and the Terracotta Warriors, which opened at the World Museum in February, has generate £78million for the visitor economy. Around 36% of visitors to National Museums Liverpool venues are on staying visits from outside the city region. Using this d