Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
Cast: Coleen Nolan, Liz McClarnon, Pete Price, Pauline Daniels, Billy Boyle, Shaun Mason, Kieran Jae, Edward Griffith.
The Empire Theatre always has the reputation of hosting the most sumptuous and glistering pantomime productions and this year has been no exception as the cast for Cinderella provided a fantastic evening’s entertainment for the assembled audience.
Cast: Graeme Henderson, Francesca Loran, Adam Howard, Mathew Quinn, Chris Coxen, Christopher Wheeler, Tristan Pate, David Ribi, Josh Little, Samantha Dorrance, Katie Birtill, Anna Campkin, Ben James-Ellis, Christopher Fry, James Nitti, Robbie Durham, Emily O’ Keefe.
The past is a foreign country, as the saying goes. However the early sixties is still fresh in our minds as it bought the fashions, the music and the second wave generations of teenagers ready to find their own way, their own style and stamp their time on the following decades and those that would follow them.
Originally published by L.S.Media. August 7th 2009.
It is testament to the Liverpool Empire Stage Experience that a musical of this calibre is not only performed by the children of the area but it is done well and with more than a sense of style. From the moment you arrived at the Theatre you were greeted with the sight of the period costume from the Twenties and a fine Rolls Royce parked up upon the pavement.
This production took in over 120 children and all performed admirably and had the packed out audience in the palms of their hands from the opening number.
Originally published by L.S. Media. September 8th 2009.
Cast: Lydia Tunstall, Su Pollard, Michael Morgan, Chris Molloy, James Muller, Gemma James, Gareth Heesom, Simone Craddock, Lorinda King.
A story about an orphaned girl, the depression, 1930’s American society and the undercurrent of child beating doesn’t spring to mind the plot of a heart warming musical that combines some of theatre’s best known songs with some feisty one liners and cheekiness, but in the hands of director Roger Hannah and produces Chris Moreno this classic of film and theatre has been given new life.
Originally published by L.S. Media. October 9th 2009.
Cast: Pauline Daniels, Mark Moraghan, Emma Vaudrey, Emma Grace Arends, Ciaran Kellgren, Colin Connor, Anthony Watson, Marie Ekins, Joyce Greenaway, Annie Walker, Gordon Hall, Ronnie Orr.
It is easy to see why the local papers announced before the play started its current run at the Empire that Twopence To Cross The Mersey had taken in over two million pounds at the box office over the last few years. With such talented performers on stage taking the various parts from the author’s life and an excellent musical score to match, there was nothing for the packed out audience to not like.
Originally published by L.S. Media. March 23rd 2010.
Cast: Shaun Williamson, Daniel West, Nicholas Lumley, John Conroy, Peter Alexander, Richard Syms, Claire Andreadis, Andrew Scott Butler, Jon De Ville, Jolana Lee, Mark Pearce, Barrett Robertson, Alex Tanner, Matt Weyland, Ryan Winston.
Not that long ago, a sitcom took the country by storm, not for its high brow wit, not for snappy one-liners but for the place and its subject matter. There are not that many writers who could make a comedy gold out of the idea of sending a man to prison and the prospect of dealing with the establishment (both in the form of the Prison Officers and the man who actually ran the prison, in this case, the genial Harry Grout).
Originally published by L.S. Media. June 9th 2010.
Cast: Peter Howe, Christopher Robbie, James Hedley, Seb Morgan, Danny Fox, Russell Clough, Antony Gabriel, William St. Clair, Craig Whittaker, Kirk Barker, Paul Chesterton, Christopher Llewellyn.
There are books and stories that are just too epic and grand in scale to try and transfer over to the theatre, The Hobbit isn’t one of them…just.
Originally published by L.S. Media. September 28th 2010.
Cast: Denise Black, Elaine C. Smith, Julia Hills, Rachel Lumberg, Anna Charlston, Jennifer Ellison, Susan Bovell, Joe McGann, Bruno McGregor, Bruno Langley, Mikyla Dodd.
Surely there is no better way to get some of the leading ladies of British theatre and television on one stage that by bringing the celebrated Calendar Girls to the Liverpool Empire.
Based on a real life story, Calendar Girls tells the tale of a group of Women’s Institute members attempt to create a piece of work that will raise much needed funds for a hospital sofa, the same hospital in which one of the member’s husbands had been treated for Leukaemia.
Mike and the Mechanics. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.
Originally published by L.S. Media. May 22nd 2011.
Mike and the Mechanics have been away a long time. At one time the band was the epitome of good music, thoughtful, creatively intelligent lyrics that would make the heart ache and the soul sing. Now seven years after the last album Rewired, they can officially be thought of being back to their best and amongst the highlights of the AOR scene to come to Liverpool this year.