The staging is simple: four straight-backed chairs, a backdrop for projections and, overhead, two rows of clothing hung on lines (theatre is a place for costumes and dressing-up, but also, we are reminded, the theatre we are here to pay our respects...
Following a sell-out tour in 2022, Stephen Daldry’s multi award-winning National Theatre production of JB Priestley’s An Inspector Calls is back touring the UK for 2024-25. Since 1992, Daldry’s production has won a total of 19 major awards...
Christmas, wouldn’t be Christmas for us without a trip to the Stockport Plaza panto. If you’ve never been to the Plaza, you may well have spotted the gorgeous art deco style neon sign from the A6 as you head through Stockport town centre. It’s a...
The standing ovation said it all really. I was on my way up anyway, but my nine-year-old positively wrenched me the rest of the way out of my seat at the end of A Christmas Carol The Musical. He’s watched a good bit of theatre over the years, but I...
A story as well-known as, ‘Miracle on 34th Street’ has a lot to live up to in a stage-show retelling. Many will know it from the classic 1947 movie starring Natalie Wood, in which Santa Claus finds himself in court on Christmas Eve having to justify...
Immersive art shows have a chequered reputation, but Lightroom’s collaboration with David Hockney is something of a triumph. Perhaps it is that Hockney often works in light (quite literally, given his now famous iPad “paintings”). Or perhaps it is...
A story about the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the US doesn’t sound like a topic for either your typical feelgood musical or Christmas production. But ‘Come From Away’ is far from your average show. It tells the true story of what...
The Smiths remain one of Manchester’s most beloved bands. The musical alliance between Morrissey and Marr gifted the world a catalogue of melodic pop songs with lyrics which spoke to those on the margins of life: the lonely, depressed and...
It’s a mad, mad world – and sometimes feels increasingly so as we head towards the festive season – but none more so than in Wonderland, the magical underworld kingdom created by Lewis Caroll more than 150 years ago. Caroll’s classic tale has been...
The BBC Philharmonic Orchestra: The Sound of Gaming was an ambitious and innovative classical musical event catering for three separate audiences simultaneously. The first, of which I was a part, was the in person audience in the BBC Philharmonic...
Martin Thomasson
Carmel Thomason
Nic Dowling
Steve Timms
Dave Porter
Paul Thomason