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Review: Drop the Dead Donkey: The Reawakening! at Liverpool Playhouse ****
Soon after I joined the Echo 20-odd years ago, its then editor asked me if I had any media role models. I didn’t, but felt I had to say...


Review: Showstopper! at Liverpool Playhouse ****1/2
Over on social media, everyone is raving about 42 Balloons – the uplifting new musical doing brisk business down the road at the Lowry....


Review: The Independent Socialist Republic of... at Royal Court Studio ***
If a week is deemed a long time in politics, then the five years since parts of the traditional northern Red Wall ‘turned blue’ is surely...


Review: Life of Pi at Liverpool Empire ****1/2
First it was a book, then a film. But Yann Martel’s allegorical tale of a shipwrecked Indian teenager adrift in the Pacific with only a...


Review: Alberga and Shostakovich at Philharmonic Hall ****1/2
When Kazakh Alim Beisembayev won the Leeds International Piano Competition three years ago, part of his extensive prize package was the...


Review: The Legend of Ned Ludd at Liverpool Everyman ****
Times may change, centuries may pass, politics may intrude and geographical locations may shape it, but work, that exchange of time and...


Review: I Should be So Lucky at Liverpool Empire ***1/2
The number and range of jukebox musicals has exploded since they first became a fixture of the theatrical scene – and particularly over...


Review: Sheku Kanneh-Mason performs Weinberg at Philharmonic Hall ****1/2
While Philharmonic Hall has, it seems, become a happy home-from-home for several of the talented Kanneh-Mason family over the past few...


Review: 2:22 A Ghost Story at Liverpool Empire ***
It seems we humans have always loved to scare ourselves – and each other. From tales of spirits told around the fire in ancient times to...


Review: My Beautiful Laundrette at Liverpool Playhouse ***1/2
When My Beautiful Laundrette burst on to the big screen almost 40 years ago, it was an invigorating and influential cinematic moment....
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