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

Imagine…a festival for young people with colourful, theatrical splendour. A place where children of all ages will be amazed and entertained and will wish their summer holidays could last forever. The Imagine festival takes place from 1 until 10 August and will end with a bang with The Liverpool Children’s Festival on 10 August. Read more »

SAMANTHA BARKS, the hugely popular finalist from the hit BBC series ‘I’d Do Anything’, has been cast in the prestigious role of Sally Bowles for the forthcoming UK tour of award-winning musical Cabaret, which runs at the Liverpool Empire from 22-27 September.

Barks, from the Isle of Man, which was aptly renamed ‘Isle of Sam’ for a day in celebration of her success in the BBC reality show, will be the first of the ‘Nancy’ finalists to perform in a major role following the TV show. She joins a cast which includes world renowned dancer and TV favourite WAYNE SLEEP, who reprises the role of Emcee. Samantha, who received rave reviews from judges including Andrew Lloyd Webber and Denise Van Outen, spoke of her delight at being cast in the role. Read more »

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 »