You’ll Never Walk Alone, Theatre Review. Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool.

Cast: Pauline Daniels, Chris Grahamson, Howard Gray, Jamie Hampson, Adam Keast, Dan McIntyre, Mark Moraghan, Anthony Watson, Lenny Wood.

It seems to anyone from outside the city of Liverpool, that whenever they come here for their shopping trips their days out or just to catch the ferry to Ireland that all Liverpool folk talk about is football.

From little old ladies waiting for the bus in Queen’s Square, to the bars and clubs of the town centre and even discussions in barbers and hairdressers from Aigburth to Bootle to Kirby, it’s either red or blue and nothing else matters.

What they fail to understand and what everyone else in the city and Nicky Alt appreciates, it’s not just the support of Liverpool or Everton that is talked about, it’s the sense of community that so very few places left in the U.K. outwardly demonstrate and are keen to make sure stays beating.

In Nicky Alt’s new musical play You’ll Never Walk Alone, we see that spirit, that defining community through the eyes of two families, one who go to Anfield week in week out to support the club they love and the bigger family, one of the two big clubs in British football history, Liverpool F.C. From the very beginnings when the split came with Everton and a new club was born in a team made up entirely of Scotsmen. Through to the glory daysof the 1970’s and 80’s, the coming of King Kenny to the tragedy of Heysel and injustice and horror of Hillsborough, the respective families had seen it all.

The casting of this show was going to have to be spot on to portray the elegance and humour. To deal with the weight of history that comes with the story and it is credit to the Royal Court, Nicky Allt and Director Bob Eaton that they got such a strong and fantastic set of musicians and actors. With Pauline Daniels, Adam Keast, the irreplaceable Mark Moraghan, the comic talent of Anthony Watson and the sensational Jamie Hampson amongst them it had everything you want for a play set in Liverpool, of Liverpool and about Liverpudlians.

There are moments when you find yourself transported to the playing fields of Melwood, dreaming of kicking a ball around with Billy Liddell, Roger Hunt, Kevin Keegan and King Kenny. It takes seriously good writing to achieve that, it takes humility and a sense of expectation to deal with two of the darkest days in the club’s and city’s history and Nicky Alt gets the point across of loss so well that it’s impossible to watch without shedding a tear, a quiet sob as the city remembers the injustice of the time.

Ian D. Hall.