Reviews from Greater Manchester
The glittering ball that awaits audiences at Hope Mill Theatre this Christmas has been a long-time in the making. Owners, Joseph Houston and William Whelton had this show in their sights for four years, and twice its staging was stalled due to Covid...
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Shows about bad acting are nothing new. Tom Stoppard’s Real Inspector Hound probably got there first, closely followed by Michael Green’s Art of Coarse Acting, and later Noises Off, Michael Frayn’s enduring farce within a farce. The irony is that it...
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If I could turn back time, I would have been hot on the phone for a ticket to see Cher’s 2019 Here We Go Again tour at Manchester’s AO Arena. Given the level of audience excitement at hearing the opening bars of one of her hits at the start of this...
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Between Tiny Cities – stopping at Contact on its tour of Australia and the UK – is a truly experimental piece of dance theatre. Choreographed by hip-hop dance artist, Nick Power, it brings performers Erak Mith and Aaron Lim – from the cities...
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Singin’ in the Rain is the musical equivalent of comfort food. We know what we’re getting but it’s so good we never grow tired of it. In many ways it is an easy sell – audiences come because they love the 1952 movie. But once the theatre is...
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The intimacy of Oldham Coliseum theatre makes it the perfect venue for family theatre. So, it is surprising that The Jungle Book is the first family show the Coliseum has produced outside of the festive season for over a decade. Perhaps the growing...
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You know a performance has hit the right note when a 10-year-old spontaneously throws his hands in the air in time with the performers and says: “That looks fun!” And it is. Even if you can’t immediately put a name to the tune, you will likely...
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I recently read Ged Duffy’s memoir Factory Fairy Tales, detailing his time in Burnage’s finest band (no not that one)… The Stockholm Monsters, the nearly men of Factory Records. One of the interesting things to come out of the back is that, yes, the...
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Calling a play ‘The Last Quiz Night on Earth’ is asking for trouble. The latest from Manchester based new writing company, Box of Tricks was originally scheduled two years ago, but a global pandemic put the kibosh on a planned tour. Alison Carr’s...
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Niamh Melody goes to the launch of Moxy, Manchester’s newest hotel, to find out more about this brand-new Marriott concept from KE Hotels Bright pink and purple lights flood the main entrance to Moxy Manchester City, Manchester’s...
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Carmel Thomason
Steve Timms
Georgina Wells
Simon A. Morrison
Niamh Melody