Tag Archives: Manchester

Concept:  Jerome Robbins Book: Arthur Laurents Music: Leonard Bernstein Lyrics: Stephen Sondheim. Director:  Sarah Frankcom Reviewer: Dave Cunningham Nowadays audiences are accustomed to perceiving West Side Story as a classic musical perfect for viewing on Sunday afternoons so it is hard to accept that, when first staged, its depiction of gang violence was controversial.  Now the UK has become a racially divided ...

Music: Galt McDermot Book and Lyrics: Gerome Ragni and James Rado Director: Jonathan O'Boyle Reviewer: Helen Jones It's 1967.  The US is in the middle of sending more troops out to fight in the Vietnam War. Two actors,  Gerome Ragni and James Rado come across a demonstration against the war in New York's Central Park, and so the idea for Hair is ...

Music: Green Day Lyrics: Billie Joe Armstrong  Book: Billie Joe Armstrong and Michael Mayer  Director: Racky Plews Reviewer: Victoria Morris In an age where jukebox musicals are dominating the theatrical scene, political frustrations are openly expressed within the media and mental health is (and rightly so) an open topic of conversation, Selladoor’s current UK tour of American Idiot seems somewhat surprisingly ...

Writer: Iman Qureshi Director: Hannah Hauer-King Reviewer: Jim Gillespie  The Funeral Director reaches the final stage of a month-long regional tour and plays to a packed auditorium at HOME’s Theatre 2. Iman Qureshi’s play has been garlanded with praise in its early incarnations, and arrives in Manchester with expectations high. Stated baldly, the premise for the drama could easily describe ...

Choreographer: Lea Anderson Director: Scottee Reviewer: Matt Forrest Scottee: Fat Blokes’ poster claims it’s a dance show of sorts, but in reality, it’s so much more than that: a rebellion, a call to arms, call it what you will, but certainly don’t call it ‘brave’. This is a cabaret show like no other: sure, there is dance, comedy, even a ...

Writers: Mary Cooper and MW Sun Composer: Nicola Chang Director: David K S Tse   Reviewer: Dave Cunningham From Shore to Shore has a sense of ‘‘come for the food but stay for the play’’. Even someone with little interest in the niceties of dining out will be aware that Manchester’s Yang Sing Restaurant has a reputation for quality so ...

Creators: Sleepwalk Collective Performers: Iara Solano Arana and Nhung Dang Lighting and music: Sammy Metcalfe It would be fair to say the what I know about opera and Kourtney Kardashian could be written on the back of a postage stamp. Lucky for me Kourtney Kardashian has very little to do with the socialite, businesswomen, and model (thanks Wikipedia), it is, however, ...

Writer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Director: James Brining Conductor: George Jackson Reviewer: Frances Scott The imaginative, operatic world of The Magic Fluteoriginally begins in the middle of a chase following the character Tamino as he is tailed through a forest by an oversized serpent. Here, director James Brining has opted to open the production at a dinner party where we watch an ...