Theatre and performance in Greater Manchester & other places.
Review of Spend Spend Spend at Royal Exchange, Manchester. After winning £152,000 on the football pools in 1961 (the equivalent of over £4,000,000 today), Viv Nicholson famously declared “I’m going to spend, spend, spend”. True to her word, she and her husband Keith indulged in a giddy blur of expensive cars, jewellery, furs and partying. [...]
Review of 42 Balloons at The Lowry, Salford. On seeing an online video of Larry Walters flying in a lawn chair over Los Angeles held aloft by a load of balloons, Jack Godfrey didn’t just think OMG - his overriding thought was “THIS IS A MUSICAL!” Six years later, Godfrey has written that dream into [...]
Review of Lizzie at Hope Mill Theatre, Manchester. Lizzie Borden’s home is no ordinary place. There is no fairy twirling inside the music box that can be glimpsed in the show’s opening moments – just an axe slowly revolving. Tensions abound, with family members living in separate parts of the home, a lock on every [...]
Royal Exchange, Manchester. “It starts with a girl called Elle, she’s not your average leading lady as well, she has a heart the size of the moon, she’s far from been brought up with a silver spoon, in her gob” Centre stage, and swigging from a bottle of beer, Lauryn Redding sets the scene within [...]
Circles & Stalls 