Corrie (Tour - Manchester)

When I saw the premiere of this deeply affectionate and funny soap satire last summer, I laughed so much it hurt. I wasn’t in quite as much discomfort last night but this updated version is still a hoot.

To really appreciate Jonathan Harvey’s mickey take on 50 years of the world’s most famous soap, I suppose you really do need a liking for the show itself and some knowledge of its storylines over the years. But if you haven’t and you don’t, you probably won’t be at the Palace this week anyway.
 
A cast of six – plus Sherrie (onetime Corrie’s Maureen Naynor, now a Loose Woman) Hewson as narrator – play 55 Street characters including such legends as Bet Lynch, Elsie Tanner, Ken and Deidre Barlow and Jack and Vera Duckworth, not to mention a whole series of serial killers.

With split second costume changes and wigs and an astonishing ability to nail the main character traits of their victims with killer vocal inflections and mannerisms, the cast conjure up their Coronation Street counterparts with uncanny success.  

Updated since its first outing last July – it now includes the mayhem of the recent tram crash – the problem preventing total audience hysteria last night was the sound. With only sporadic amplification, too much was too difficult to hear, which is a shame because virtually every line is a gem.

- Alan Hulme