Reviews

Liverpool Echo Arena
Saturday July 19

Dressed in a smart pinstripe suit, pink shirt and dazzling tie, Michael Ball took to the stage as a part of the annual Liverpool Summer Pops Festival for a second time, from the top of a steep black staircase dividing his superb fifteen piece backing orchestra. He then proceeded to entertain the eight or so thousand gathered here, with a style and skill synonymous with Britain’s best known musical theatre star of a generation.

It’s been three years since Ball toured solo and its not just the man’s powerful voice that is impressive – rattling off songs from some of the best known musicals as though he’s just stepped from rehearsals – but also the genuine and instant rapport he builds up with his audience that lingers long in the mind. ‘Its nice to have a night off from wearing high heels and fake boobs,’ he tells them, referring to his current role in Hairspray playing Edna Turnblad, having just ripped out a version of This Is The Moment at full volume, but if this is a night off others should take a leaf from his book on work ethic. Read more »

Liverpool Empire
June 30-July 5

Hello, hello, hello in fact – you could say that somebody ought to be arrested for letting this show go on the road; talk about the devil is in the detail…

So what attracted merry widow, Dolly Levy, matchmaker supreme, to half-millionaire Horace Vandergelder – and why does he keep addressing her as Dolly Gallagher? (see what I mean?) And how will she manage this time, when the plan is for him to marry Irene Molloy, who in turn has fallen for Vandergelder’s lowly assistant, Cornelius Hackl? Read more »

News

The Liverpool Shakespeare Festival is the city’s annual, spellbinding theatre experience inside the majestic Anglican Cathedral and in the beautiful, historic St James’ Gardens which lie adjacent to it. The festival was successfully introduced with an acclaimed production of ‘Macbeth’ in the summer of 2007, attracting many thousand visitors with several shows being sold out already weeks before the premiere. It is presented by Lodestar Theatre Company - a Liverpool-based arts organisation with charitable status which was formed by Producer & Creative Manager Nina Borgner and Artistic Director Max Rubin in 2006. Working with artists and practitioners from Liverpool and the North West only, Lodestar’s work is characterised by a clear, dynamic acting style, innovative design and imaginative use of space. With The Liverpool Shakespeare Festival, they present Shakespeare’s greatest plays as living, breathing texts for a 21st century audience. Read more »

Following last year’s hugely successful production of Summer Holiday, which the Echo heralded ‘A Resounding Success’ and of which the Daily Post noted, ‘They Earned A Standing Ovation’, Stage Experience returns this year with the funky, magical, super soul musical, The Wiz.

Dorothy’s adventures in Oz are set to a dazzling mix of rock, gospel and soul in this spectacular show.  Dorothy, a little girl from Kansas is blown by a tornado into The Land Of Oz. Whilst there, she meets the Scarecrow, Tinman & the Cowardly Lion on the Yellow Brick Road. She defeats the Wicked Witch Of The West and goes to see the Wizard of Oz.

He is able to convince Dorothy that she can do anything she wants if she just believes in herself. Many know the story of the Wizard of Oz, but this new musical version is a fantasy for today – opulent and fanciful.

The project offers young people a fantastic opportunity to be involved in a full scale musical theatre production. A cast of 120 talented teens from all backgrounds will participate in the Empire Theatre’s full scale in-house show.

They will work with a professional director, choreographer and musical director and an expert behind-the-scenes technical team. This is an incredible chance for young people who have dreamt of treading the boards on our famous stage, and the Empire Theatre is delighted to be able to showcase some of the best of Liverpool’s local talent.

Interviews

Andrew Schofield is, without doubt, one of Liverpool’s finest actors. Born in 1958, Andrew came to prominence in the TV adaptation of Alan Bleasdale’s Scully in 1984 for ITV, famously scoring before his beloved Kop in the title sequence, and has since gone on to perform in many other plays and films, not least of which being Alex Cox’s Sid & Nancy in 1986, playing Johnny Rotten alongside Gary Oldman’s Sid Vicious. Read more »

Chris High talks to Matt Baker, The Chester Mystery Plays’ Musical Director, and discovers what it takes to put on a show of this size and spectacle.  

In the 1300’s, the Church discovered a way of teaching the people of England the word of God in layman’s terms. That was, ostensibly, to go out into the individual parishes on the backs of hay carts and perform small, entertainments based on the bible stories.

Now, in 2008 and as it has done every five years since 1951, Chester Mystery Plays Ltd are staging their pageant – on a somewhat grander scale to those of the originals, though using a script taken from the original sources – in the gardens of Chester cathedral, with a stage that is over 30 meters in width and a cast of over 200 performing two individual plays, The Prophesy and The Fulfilment, on concurrent nights. Read more »