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Britannia Waves the Rules returns to Hope Street
A powerful and poignant play which takes an unflinching look at the challenges faced by working-class young men in Britain today is set to return to the Hope Street Theatre this month. Playwright Gareth Farr’s Britannia Waves the Rules received acclaim when it was staged at the venue last autumn. Now Wirral’s Off the Ground Theatre, which presented the original production, is bringing it back for three nights only, from January 14-16. Carl Jackson is a young man from Blackpoo
Michael D Xavier on Poppins to Pie Jesu ahead of Liverpool Empire debut
He’s been in some of the biggest shows on both sides of the Atlantic – but for Michael D Xavier, his latest role takes him right back to the earliest years of his stellar stage career. In 2003, while he was playing the lovelorn young Freddy Eynsford-Hill in My Fair Lady at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, he spotted a poster inviting people to take part in a reading for a new musical. “It’s more than 20 years ago now, so my memory is a bit vague, but I don’t believe they told us
Kirkby Ski Slope inspires new Royal Court comedy
The real-life story of the infamous Kirkby Ski Slope has inspired a new comedy coming to the Liverpool Royal Court stage next summer. Liverpool playwright Kieran Lynn has written Taking the Piste which will be staged at the Roe Street theatre from June 19 to July 18, 2026. Donald Storm is head of Kirkby Council, and he’s got an eye on creating a new destination for tourists from around the world. And if he can make a few bob in the process, so much the better. Together with h
Liverpool date for The Silence of the Lambs
Crack out the fava beans and pour yourself a nice Chianti – The Silence of the Lambs is springing off the page (and screen) and on to the stage and heading for Liverpool as part of an inaugural UK tour. The world premiere live production of the chilling psychological thriller by Thomas Harris, which was turned into an acclaimed film in 1991 starring Sir Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster, will come to the Liverpool Empire in June 2027. When FBI trainee Clarice Starling is sent
Letter to Brezhnev world premiere at Liverpool's Royal Court in 2026
A new stage version of much-loved Liverpool-based film Letter to Brezhnev will be given its world premiere at the city’s Royal Court next autumn. Frank Clarke, who wrote the screenplay for the 1985 classic, is creating a bespoke new production which will be staged at the Roe Street theatre from September 11 to October 10. Theresa and Elaine are young, beautiful and full of life. But they don’t think that will last long, because it’s 1985 and this is Kirby. Sergei and Peter ar
Paul Nicholas on his Major role at the Liverpool Empire
When Fawlty Towers was first broadcast in the 1970s, the series attracted millions of TV viewers. But it turns out Paul Nicholas wasn’t one of them. Because 50 years ago, the actor and singer was busy building a career on stage and screen and tended to find himself otherwise occupied at night. “I caught bits of it,” he explains, “but I was working a lot of the time, and it was pre being able to record programmes.” So when the he was asked if he was interested in playing the M
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: 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
Review: Syncopated at Liverpool Playhouse Studio ***1/2
One bench, a pair of people, two time periods and four entwined stories. Set both in present day Liverpool and the post-war, just...
Christmas in Liverpool for Mamma Mia! UK tour
Mamma Mia! here they go again - the smash hit Abba-infused musical is back on the road in 2026 and heading for the Liverpool Empire for a...
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