February - 2020

Review: Petrenko's Mahler II at Liverpool Philharmonic ****1/2

It was voted one of the greatest symphonies of all time in a poll of more than 150 conductors. And you can see why Mahler’s mighty Resurrection, composed over a period of six years and running to a substantial 80 minutes, has won the hearts and souls of baton wielders everywhere. All human life – and death – is contained within its five movements which take their listener on a rollercoaster journey into the afterlife, a rollercoaster that becomes a musical juggernaut as it re

School of Rock makes Liverpool Empire date on first UK tour

Smash hit stage musical School of Rock is heading for the Liverpool Empire as part of its inaugural UK tour. Dewey Finn and the hard-playing kids of the prestigious Horace Green prep school will be sticking it to the man at the Lime Street theatre from October 18-23 next year. The Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, with a book by Downton creator Julian Fellowes and lyrics by Glenn Slater, is based on the 2003 musical comedy film starring Jack Black. It follows the story of Dewey Fi

Review: Blue Stockings at Storyhouse ****

Cambridge University may have nurtured some of the most exceptional minds in history, but at the end of the 19th century it was still some way from experiencing its own age of enlightenment. And as Jessica Swale’s excoriating drama suggests, intellect and common sense are not necessarily regular bedfellows. It’s 1896, and while women are grudgingly tolerated within their tight sphere in the Fens (and tightly chaperoned here by the ever-present form of the raven-like Miss Bott

OMD among headliners at Wirral Food and Music festival 2020

Music will fill Birkenhead Park this summer with the return of Wirral’s popular food, drink and music festival. The three-day festival, which runs from September 4-6, will feature three of the biggest names in Merseyside music. Wirral’s finest The Coral will headline a show on Friday, September 4, while Echo and the Bunnymen will be centre stage on Saturday, September 5. And on Sunday, September 6 the event will culminate with a rare public performance from Wirral superstars

Review: Matthew Bourne's The Red Shoes at Liverpool Empire *****

Outside in Lime Street, the façade of St George’s Hall was glowing red. Simply an illuminating coincidence, or did they know Matthew Bourne’s The Red Shoes was celebrating the 100th performance of its current tour with an opening night at the Empire? Bourne’s stage version of Powell and Pressburger’s landmark 1948 film - and, like it, also influenced by Hans Christian Andersen’s original fairytale - is on its second visit to the theatre after a successful run during its inaug

Review: Band of Gold at the Floral Pavilion ***1/2

It’s a quarter of a century now since Kay Mellor’s hard-hitting, thought-provoking drama Band of Gold burst on to unsuspecting TV screens. The drama, which regularly pulled in 15 million viewers, was ground-breaking in that it put sex workers, along with their worries and their aspirations, at the heart of the story rather than, as Mellor explains in the programme notes for this stage version, making them a peripheral, shadowy one-dimensional figure in someone else’s. And it

Woodland Walk for George Harrison on late Beatle's birthday

A new woodland memorial in South Liverpool will celebrate the life of late Beatle George Harrison. The 12-acre George Harrison Woodland Walk is being created on land opposite Allerton Towers, close to where the guitarist and singer-songwriter was born and brought up. Today’s announcement comes on what would have been Harrison’s 77th birthday. The Beatle died in 2001 at the age of 58. Harrison’s widow Olivia said today: “‘George was an avid gardener who found solace and joy in

Dua Lipa Liverpool Arena concert ticket details

Dua Lipa is set to play a date in Liverpool as part of a tour to support the release of her new album. The 24-year-old singer-songwriter and model was due to appear at the M&S Bank Arena on May 29 this year. Now because of the Coronavirus pandemic that show has been rescheduled for January 6 2021. Tickets already bought for May 29 are still valid. Dua Lipa, born in London to Kosovo Albanian parents, started performing as a teenager, posting covers of songs by artists like Nel

Liverpool date for Jason Manford's Like Me tour

Jason Manford is returning to the stand-up stage with a massive new 99-date UK tour which comes to the M&S Bank Arena next autumn. The Salford-born comedian and actor – and recent star of TV hit The Masked Singer – will appear at the waterfront venue on October 6 2021. Ahead of that he has also announced two dates at Warrington’s Parr Hall on March 17-18 next year, and Chester Storyhouse from July 21-22. Tickets for the Like Me tour go on general sale this Friday at 10am. It’

Maureen Nolan joins St Helens Easter panto cast

Maureen Nolan is promising St Helens audiences a wicked Easter. The singer and actress is set to play baddie Baroness von Vippemall in Goldilocks and the Three Bears at the Theatre Royal this April. She will join Rebecca d’Lacey as the titular porridge eating interloper who enlists the help of the Three Bears to try and save her big top from a rival circus owner. The cast also includes Conor Barrie as The Ringmaster, Reece Sibbald as Silly Billy, and panto veteran Jamie Greer

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Arts City Liverpool

Review: Woke at Liverpool Playhouse ****

Liverpool museums reveal new autumn exhibitions and gallery reopening

Tate Liverpool stages Lucy McKenzie retrospective this autumn

Without Walls offers £100,000 Liverpool outdoor events boost

Dream Team reunited for Vasily Petrenko's final RLPO concerts

Wirral Food and Drink Festival postponed again

Joe Lycett brings new UK tour to Liverpool auditorium

Victoria Gallery & Museum reopens to the Liverpool public

HandleBards presents Macbeth at Calderstones garden theatre

Williamson Art Gallery and Museum to reopen to visitors