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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
Theatre
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
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
Review: Sleep Can Wait! at the Unity Theatre ****1/2
There’s no more delightful and heart-warming sound than the joyful giggle of a small child. And little voices are given a big platform in the Unity Theatre’s seasonal family offering Sleep Can Wait! which offers lots of gigglesome moments. After being missing in action for several years, it’s great news that a proper Christmas show for young ones has returned to the Hope Place stage. And I’m happy to report it’s as enchanting as you’d expect. It’s Christmas Eve and Steph, Sam
Review: Stocking Fillers at the Royal Court Studio ***1/2
Upstairs, a swearier than usual Mr Scrooge is being taught the error of his ways by three mysterious ‘ghosts’. Downstairs in the Royal Court Studio on the other hand, there are veteran fir tree fairies, megalomaniac elves, secret Santas, disastrous office parties and, above all, a reminder that this is the season of goodwill to all. The annual Royal Court Stocking Fillers is a chance for some who attend the theatre’s writing groups during the year to showcase their work in su
Review: Sleeping Beauty at the Floral Pavilion ***1/2
Deck the halls with boughs of holly – and a thicket of thorns so fiendish it will take a handsome prince to hack through. ‘Tis the season to be jolly. And there’s plenty to be jolly about in the Floral Pavilion’s seasonal offering Sleeping Beauty, which delivers the classic story with a good sprinkling of the songs of the year including Chappell Roan’s Pink Pony Club and – seemingly unavoidable if you go to any panto anywhere this Christmas – K-Pop earworm Golden. There's als
Review: Cinderella at the Epstein Theatre ****
It is, according to Andy Williams, the most wonderful time of the year. And Cinderella is the most famous fairytale of them all. So put the two together and you already have a winning combination. Inject plenty of high energy and hi-jinks into the proceedings and resistance is futile, even for the biggest Christmas curmudgeon or the grinchiest Grinch. That’s certainly the maxim of Regal Entertainments, purveyors of festive tomfoolery for over quarter of a century and the team
Review: Dick Whittington at St Helens Theatre Royal ****
Dick Whittington may have been Lord Mayor of London three times – but this panto version of his real-life story is a first for Regal Entertainments at St Helens. Because it turns out that despite having a quarter of a century of panto productions directly under their belt, mother-and-daughter team Jane and Chantelle Joseph have never staged the story for audiences before. In fact, among all the festive shows on offer across the city region , this is the only Whittington among
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
Review: Matilda the Musical at the Liverpool Empire *****
It recently entered its 15 th year on the London stage, putting it in the top 10 of longest-running West End shows. But when the RSC commissioned the stage musical version of Roald Dahl’s children's book Matilda back in December 2008, it was a leap of faith for a company best known for presenting the works of Shakespeare to generations of theatregoers. Not only that, but they enlisted musicals first timer Dennis Kelly to adapt the book, and kohl-eyed, wild-haired Aussie come
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
Review: Stella at the Unity Theatre ****
Robert Farquhar’s sharply scripted, comi-tragic one-woman play Stella charmed audiences when it was given an initial outing at the Unity Theatre’s Up Next Festival earlier this year. It sold out then and it’s practically sold out again on its pre-Christmas return to the Hope Place stage with the kinetic Kalli Tant reprising her role as the lead (in fact all the play’s) character(s). Pleasingly for a story about a young woman on a tumultuous journey of self-discovery, the audi
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
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