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Review: Inspector Morse at the Liverpool Playhouse ***1/2
Inspector Morse was a TV staple in the 1980s and 90s, regularly pulling in audiences of up to 18 million and spawning not one but two successful spin off series – the latter, Endeavour, starring Liverpool’s own Shaun Evans. Morse's star John Thaw was just 45 when the first series was screened, albeit he wore middle age in worn-in fashion, which suited Colin Dexter's curmudgeonly character. Tom Chambers, who takes on detective duties in this first stage outing, is currently 48
Top musicals coming to Liverpool in 2026
The news may feel unremittingly gloomy, so what better distraction from real life than the chance to immerse ourselves in the Technicolor world of stage musicals for an hour or two? The UK is rich with triple threat talent and a range of all-singing, all-dancing shows, and lots of them are heading for an auditorium near you over the next 12 months. Some – like Legally Blonde, Dirty Dancing, Little Shop of Horrors and Mamma Mia! - are dependable favourites, some are sheer musi
Comedians coming to the Liverpool Playhouse in 2026
Mike Wozniak heads for the Liverpool Playhouse to kick off a busy year of comedy at the Williamson Square venue. The Bench is a new stand-up show in which a story about a bench will be prominent. Previous experience of or strong opinions about benches not required. Catch Wozniak on January 23 and again on September 11. It’s Nameste from Omid Djalili on February 12 when he peacefully bows to his inner anger and unleashes a torrent of comedic vitriol upon the current state of
Cracking comedy to catch in Liverpool in 2026
Is everyone in Liverpool a comedian? If not, the UK’s unofficial ‘capital of comedy’ certainly punches way above its weight when it comes to knowing how to enjoy a good laugh. So it’s perhaps no surprise funny men and women from across the country – and beyond – are always keen to bring their live shows to the city. Along with bespoke comedy clubs and regular comedy nights, star names and rising talent also perform at mainstream venues like the M&S Bank Arena, Liverpool Playh
Review: Young Frankenstein at the Liverpool Playhouse ****
It’s five years now since the Liverpool Playhouse last staged an overt ‘Christmas’ production – Dickens’ A Christmas Carol for a socially distanced season mid-pandemic. Since then, while they’ve continued to rock ‘n’ roll up the road in Hope Street, the Playhouse has experimented with its festive offerings, from Fantastically Great Women and fantastically feisty female monarchs (SIX the Musical) to the spookily supernatural (The Woman in Black) and the outrageously camp in th
Brilliant shows heading for Liverpool in 2026
Liverpool venues have lined up a brilliant 12 months of entertainment to see the city’s theatre lovers through 2026 from start to finish. Despite the ongoing financial challenges being faced in the arts – as in the country at large, Liverpool theatre world has if anything upped its game even further with a whole host of must-see productions heading our way between January and December. Whether it’s old friends, first time visitors, acclaimed touring productions, re-visited cl
Review: Little Women at the Liverpool Playhouse ****
Those Little Women have been on a big journey over the course of 2025 with this sprightly new production of the classic coming-of-age tale crisscrossing the UK. But it’s apt the tour of a story which opens amid the brutal upheaval of the American Civil War should finish here in Liverpool, and in this week too. While it officially ended six months earlier, the American Civil War finally concluded on November 6, 1865, when Captain James Waddell sailed up the Mersey in the CSS S
Review: Breaking the Code at the Liverpool Playhouse ****
When playwright Hugh Whitemore wrote Breaking the Code 40 years ago, Alan Turing may have been a huge cheese in the development of computing, but his wasn’t a name commonly known among the general public. Consider how much has changed since then, and indeed from 30 years earlier than that when Turing’s life was snuffed out aged just 41 in desperately sad – and still contested – circumstances. Along with Andrew Hodges’ book Alan Turing, The Enigma and Whitemore’s play, there h
Review: Lost Atoms at the Liverpool Playhouse ****
When a trio of Swansea university students formed a theatre company there in the mid-90s, little could they have imagined that they themselves would one day be studied in turn. But 30 years on, Frantic Assembly is on not one but several curricula, as the huge number of young people in the audience at the Liverpool Playhouse on opening night revealed. The company has a long association with Liverpool. One of its earliest successes was Wirral playwright Michael Wynne’s Sell Out
Pantomimes and Christmas shows in Liverpool City Region for 2025
On the first day of Christmas Liverpool region's theatres gave to me...three Cinderellas, two Beanstalks and Beauty and the Beasties and a host of other shows to entertain everyone from three to 103. It's true the 'greatest fairytale of them all' appears to be the most popular choice for Christmas 2025, but away from pumpkins, glass slippers and clocks striking 12 there's a lot of choice out there this year - whether you want full-blown panto or something a bit different. In
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