Reasons to be Cheerful at the Liverpool Everyman

If you enjoyed Eric’s at the Everyman back in 2008, the chances are you’re going to love the show coming to the Hope Street theatre next week.

Reasons To Be Cheerful celebrates the music, energy and anarchy of the late, great punk prince Ian Dury who rose to fame as the frontman of The Blockheads.

The show, at the Everyman from October 17-21 as part of a national tour, also marks a return to Liverpool for the brilliantly inventive Graeae Theatre, who audiences will have last seen when they brought Blood Wedding to the city in 2015.

And it features not just all those best-known Ian Dury and the Blockheads hits, including Sex and Drugs and Rock n Roll, Reasons to be Cheerful and Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick, but also a new song – If It Can’t Be Right Then It Must Be Wrong – penned by the Blockheads together with cast members.

Set in 1979, the story follows the journey of die-hard Ian Dury fans Vinnie and Colin, and their quest to see their hero at a sold-out Hammersmith Odeon gig.

Reasons to be Cheerful. Photographs by Patrick Baldwin

Without a ticket, but with the determination and desire of true fans, the pair’s journey to Hammersmith throws more at them than they could ever expect.

Jenny Sealey, director of Reasons to be Cheerful and artistic director at Graeae Theatre Company, said: “I’m beyond thrilled our Reasons to be Cheerful gang are dusting off their Dr. Martens and going back out on the road one final time in a new production of our hit show, thanks to support from Arts Council England's Strategic Touring Fund.

“We’ll be well and truly raising the roof up and down the country with the brilliantly anarchic music of Ian Dury and the Blockheads, whose punk sentiment speaks louder than ever.”

Reasons to be Cheerful is at the Everyman from October 17-21. For tickets visit the website HERE.