Venue: Palace Theatre
Date Reviewed: 17th October 2007

This touring hit has been packing them in on tour and, despite its flaws, you can why. Hot Flush follows a tried and tested formula. Take the Menopausal Monologues, throw in songs, some thongs, a vicar and a vibrator and the audience are in stitches, relating the subject of ‘the change’ to themselves, nodding and winking all the way.

Sheila Ferguson really lets her hair down as Sylvia, the Samantha style character from Sex And The City; caustic, sex mad and not afraid to admit it. Rula Lenska shows a real knack for spitting out the odd one liner and is in fine voice as Myra, a successful barrister specialising in divorce and headed for one herself!

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 Television star and friend of Robbie Williams,  Jonathan Wilkes is to star with Natalie Casey in the UK tour of The Wedding Singer. Wilkes has previously appeared in UK tours of Guys and Dolls, Tommy, Grease and The Rocky Horror Picture Show.  

Casey, has just finished performing in the West End in Fame and is well known from BBC2’s smash hit comedy Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps.

The show is based on the 1998 blockbuster movie starring Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore, and comes direct from Broadway.

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The National Theatre and The Lowry continue to enhance their fruitful partnership. Following the success of The History Boys, The Seafarer and Chatroom/Citizenship, Rafta Rafta arrives in Salford on tour.

This hit play starred Meera Syal and Bollywood actor Harish Patel in London. Casting for the UK tour has yet to be announced.  

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The hit West End musical, Mary Poppins  is due to land in Manchester in December 2008, as part of its International tour.

The tale of a nanny and her charges will open at the Palace Theatre on 10 December 2008 where it plays until 7 March 2009. Tickets for Mary Poppins at the Palace will be on sale soon. For more information and to leave contact details for when tickets go on sale please log on to ww.palaceandoperahouse.org.uk or groups of 10 or more can also call 0800 587 5007.

Manchester is one of only five British dates the show can play and is the only Northern date as the show is scheduled to open overseas in late Summer 2009. The show will also visit the Theatre Royal Plymouth, Birmingham Hippodrome, Edinburgh Playhouse and the Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff.

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Venue: The Lowry
Date Reviewed: 10th October 2007

Originally staged at the National alongside Deborah Gearing’s Burn, Chatroom/Citizenship now feature as a double bill on tour, combining the talents of Mark Ravenhill and Enda Walsh. Interestingly, it is Walsh’s dark vision of a cyber community which has the most impact. But the great thing about these two plays is that they do make ideal partners.

Walsh’s Chatroom, a gripping and slow-burning look at the plight of troubled teen Jim (played with real emotional authenticity by Steven Webb), is incredibly involving from the outset. Feeling suicidal and depressed as a result of his father’s neglect, we watch in awe as he seeks solace in an internet chatroom. Waiting for him are a couple of ‘players’ determined to bring him down. George Rainsford and Jade Williams are both excellent as the cyber vultures, picking at the bones of Webb as he naively bares his soul.

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