Debbie Isitt, writer and director of Nativity! The Musical, tells Quays Life about bringing the much-loved festive movie to the stage. For anyone who hasn’t seen the hit Christmas film, what is Nativity! The Musical about? It’s a classic story about...
When the founders of a theatre night are writers on the country’s top serial dramas, it’s not surprising JB Shorts is a formula that runs and runs. Now in its 18th season, the evening of six new 15-minute plays by top TV writers, has become a...
Declining Solo is a new multi-media show, written and performed by Katherina Radeva and Alister Lownie. The show explores questions of identity, belonging and culture by focusing on the emotional impact of geographical separation on the parent-child...
Anyone who ever visited Hartlepool will know the tale of the Hartlepool Monkey. Legend has it, during the Napoleonic Wars of the early nineteenth century, a French ship got caught up in a storm off the north-eastern coastal town. The ship’s mascot...
Hedda Gabler is a gift of a part that can be played by a star name or make one of the actor playing her. The last time I saw it staged, Amanda Donohoe was Ibsen’s anti-heroine in Braham Murray’s production at The Royal Exchange. I remember the...
Have you seen the Stick Man? I must be the only person in the theatre who hadn’t, which is why I massively under-estimated this character’s popularity when the show first visited the Lowry a year or so ago. As I was to learn from my nephew – his...
The music of The Band needs no introduction – covering three decades of Take That hits, each one instantly recognisable. Neither do its young stars, the winners of TV talent show Let It Shine. So far, so predictable. Then Gary Barlow throws a curved...
MTA first reviewed this production from Manchester comedy duo, LipService when it premiered at Oldham Coliseum in January. I missed it that time around, so was delighted to catch it at the Lowry, where Maggie Fox and Sue Ryding kick off their autumn...
Arriving into York to temperatures of 26 degrees and clear skies, it felt like nature knew we were here to enjoy two days of luxurious travel and was already spoiling us. Over the past five years, I’ve visited this city many times, having worked on...
When Edith Nesbit was four-years-old her father died suddenly, ending the idyllic security of her childhood. In many ways, The Railway Children is the story of her life as she would like it to have worked out. Written at the turn of the 20th...