Opening: Flashdance, Tony & Twizzle, Elizabeth and Raleigh
September 8, 2008
Manchester’s theatre scene is finally back to business as usual following the Summer slowdown, when productions are farely thin on the ground.
This week sees the arrival of the new musical Flashdance, based on Adrian Lyne’s movie of the same name. The 1983 film of Flashdance starred Jennifer Beals as Alex Owens, a Pittsburgh welder and exotic dancer who dreams of winning a place at a prestigious dance school and becoming a professional ballet dancer. Along the way, she has a passionate affair with Nick, the rich boss of the steel mill where she works. The film featured the songs “Maniac” and “Flashdance… What a Feeling”, which won an Academy Award for Best Song – it also launched a fashion frenzy for torn sweatshirts.
Fresh from his success in A Taste Of Honey and Romeo and Juliet, Coronation’s Street’s Todd Grimshaw; aka Bruno Langley is getting ready to return to Manchester in the World premiere of Flashdance, the musical based on the smash hit Eighties movie. The show recently launched its national tour at the Theatre Royal Plymouth on 19 July and arrives here tonight.
Relative unknown, Victoria Hamilton-Barritt has also been cast as the lead, Alex, the welder by day and dancer by night, played by Jennifer Beals in the film.
Hamilton-Barritt and Langley will also be joined by Bernie Nolan, of the Nolan Sisters, as dance mentor Hannah Owens and ex Hear’Say member Noel Sullivan. Flashdance is directed by Kenny Leon, designed by Paul Farnsworth and choreographed by Arlene Phillips, with lighting is by Jason Taylor. The production is presented by Christopher Malcolm, David Ian and AEGON in association with Theatre Royal Plymouth and Paramount Pictures.
Also opening is Tony & Twizzle, Lipservice’s latest comic spoof, which focuses on the two hosts of Celebrity Wheely Bins and their showbiz tales. This comic creation follows in the footsteps of Jane Bond, Withering Looks, Horror For Wimps and Very Little Women and promises to be twice as zany. Tony & Twizzle also opens tonight, in it’s premiere at the Lowry.
Finally, the Library Theatre launch their new season with three performances of Elizabeth and Raleigh - Late But Live, which was one of the hottest tickets at the Edinburgh Festival. Written by Stewart Lee, who co-wrote the Olivier Award-winning Jerry Springer: The Opera, the show stars top stand-up comics Simon Munnery as Queen Elizabeth I and Miles Jupp as Sir Walter Raleigh. Elizabeth and Raleigh - Late But Live is at the Library between Thursday 11 - Saturday 13 September 2008.
-Glenn Meads
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