Music

Creator: Adrian Grant Director:  Gary Lloyd Reviewer: John Roberts Almost nine years to the day “The King of Pop” untimely passed, Thriller Live!Lands in Liverpool, A perfect choice considering the city’s rich musical heritage.  The original production landed in London’s West End just short of six months before Jackson’s death and has since then toured the UK many times going ...

Curator: Andrea Parker Music: The Sprawl & Koenraad Ecker Reviewer: Peter Jacobs Inventive is an evening of experimental electronic music and visuals curated by British producer and DJ Andrea Parker and presented as part of The Lowry’s digital performance programme. The two performances presented combine cutting edge electronic music experimentation with striking visuals to create an immersive part-gig, part-art-installation. The Sprawl ...

Reviewer: RL Bartholomew Such is the stature of jazz great George Benson that - should he ever choose – he could walk on stage, mumble the titles of his monumental back catalogue and would, no doubt,  receive an ecstatic standing ovation. There is not, indeed, any such grandstanding at Birmingham’s Symphony Hall where the charismatic guitarist plays a two-hour set that effortlessly ...

Devised by: Gene Lerner Director: Giles Havergal Musical Director: Martin Pickard Reviewer: Ron Simpson Leeds is not short of quality theatre and it’s good to see the level of co-operation between three of the city’s finest. Berlin to Broadway with Kurt Weill is a co-production by Opera North and West Yorkshire Playhouse, staged in the City Varieties, a perfect venue ...

Words, music and performance by RashDash (after Chekhov) Reviewer: Julia Beasley It’s Chekhov, but not as you know it. Actually, it’s not Chekhov at all. Or perhaps it’s Chekhov torn into bits, mashed up, smeared thinly over a feminist diatribe against patriarchy, and then set to live music and dance. RashDash imagines the original three Russian sisters Olga, Masha and ...

Musical Director: Andrew Hopkins Reviewer: Maryam Philpott In less than three weeks’ time, Jeremiah James’ new musical It Happened in Key West premieres in London, celebrating the strength and joy of true love. As a warm-up, James presents his own romantic ‘retrospective’ Choose LoveLive at Zedel, showcasing his vocal talents by uniting some of his favourite love songs as well as ...

Conductor: Howard Shelley Soloists:      Andrew Long (violin)                     Kevin Gowland (flute)                     Richard Hewitt (oboe) Reviewer:   Ron Simpson The first appearance of the Orchestra of Opera North at CAST in Doncaster was supposed to be an occasion, but initially, it ...

They say that, if you remember the Swinging 60s, you weren’t really there. However, perhaps the more pertinent question is whether the era itself, as it has been mythologised, was ever really there. Now, 37 years after Liverpool introduced its highly successful Magical Mystery Tour, London has its own bus tour, Swinging 60s Experience, setting out to find some answers, ...