Eleanor (Clancy Ryan), Theodora (Sophie Lenglinger) and Luke (Robin Morrissey) have been invited to stay at Hill House by Dr Montague (Jasper Britton), to explore the possibility of ghosts. Eleanor and Theo have interesting talents connecting to their supernatural experiences that Montague feels would be beneficial to his studies. Also, they are the only two that replied. Luke is there to keep an eye on things as he is the somewhat reluctant heir to the house.

Curmudgeon and wise old maid of the house Mrs Dudley (Sian Howard) will NOT stay after dark, as she knows the secrets of the place and protects both the house, the late family, and herself. She is also worried for the party, particularly Eleanor, who she sees as vulnerable due to being consumed with grief for her own mother who recently died. Jemma Churchill completes the cast as Mrs Montague whose role and purpose is left for Shirley Jackson to explain, I guess. But she is a great flighty character nonetheless and appears a short time into the first act to help with the paranormal stuff, as she was missing Dr Montague.

Without giving a lot away, the story is a bit like the book, nothing like the Netflix series. But it does carry some of the queer themes for the novel, kickstarting this with Theo flirting with Eleanor and Eleanor clearly taking this to her heart.

Later, Eleanor makes a desperate bid to live with Theo gives casual hints of interest in her and a kiss on the cheek. Theo cuts this dead by telling Eleanor that she doesn’t want her. As the tension, grief and yearning Eleanor experiences crank up, so do the supernatural occurrences. This ends in tragedy for poor ‘little Nell’ and the horror of being rejected and abandoned by the whole party and the loss of her mother are all wrapped up in the house’s family history. Eleanor’s yearning becomes something horrifically tangible, and the house feeds on it.

The story, though simple, is really elevated by the choices Stef Smith has made in the adaptation. And the crux of the horror is forced gender roles. Which is an added bonus to the fact the audience are really there for the frights – of which there are many.

The set design by Ti Green, lighting design by Chris Davey and video design by Duncan McLean are incredible and high spec. They are done in such a way that the scenes have a fluid nature, reflecting the gothic trope of the house as a character and the metaphysical creaks and cries. A movement is created as if the spirits of the house have marinaded the walls. The house is cleverly made to respond to the fears and desires of the characters sometimes with terrifying force. 

You are left with more questions than answers plot-wise, but this doesn’t tarnish the evening for you, as the cast and production are superb. Under Constantine’s direction, this is an atmospheric and technically accomplished piece of theatre that delivers the frights while leaving some unnerving thoughts lingering in the darkness.

The Haunting of Hill House is at the Palace Theatre Manchester from 27-31 October 2026.

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Christie’s parallel career in theatre is less celebrated than her fiction. She penned over a dozen stage plays, including The Mousetrap, which has been running in the West End for 75 years. Why has it endured? Because of a verbal contract between writer, cast and audience: that nobody should reveal whodunit after the curtain comes down. Judged against the rarefied company of Murder on the Orient Express, or Ten Little Indians, The Mousetrap is a category B work. That said, this new touring production still makes for a fun night out.    

As the radio broadcasts regular updates of a murder in London, a group of seven strangers find themselves snowed in at a remote country guesthouse, run by married couple Mollie and Giles Ralston (Emily Laing and Jack Hardwick). Guests include budding architect, and possible OCD sufferer, ‘Christopher Wren’ (an enjoyably manic Thomas Barrett), plus tetchy old lady Mrs Boyle (Susan Penhaligon). Aloof and glamorous, Miss Casewell (a steely Claire Duffy), makes vague reference to a childhood trauma, one which forced her to start a new life in Majorca at age twelve. Garrulous, stereotypical Italian Mr Paravicini (James Peake) may as well enter with a giant neon sign that reads ‘Red Herring’; ‘I am the unexpected guest’, he trills with an air of pride, ‘the guest you did not invite … a man of mystery!’ Yes, we get the point. Plodding copper Sgt Trotter (Alfie Richards) arrives in surprisingly debonair fashion, on a pair of skis. Trotter swiftly informs the guests that the killer is in the area; a revelation which forces each character to reluctantly air the skeletons lurking in their closet. 

It’s an intricate plot. The dead woman in Paddington was Mrs Lyon (real name, Maureen Stanning). What became of her three children? Trotter has come to Monkswell Manor because the address was one of only two featured in the dead woman’s diary. We are told the killer is a homicidal sex maniac; well, everyone deserves a hobby. The next, on stage murder is a long time coming, though staged with great spooky atmosphere by director Hannah Chissick.

We’ve seen characters like this many times before. Drawing room thrillers teeter perilously close to parody. However, there are no weak links in the cast, which is why this production works. I’ll always have time for Susan Penhaligon, thanks to her flighty performance in WW2 drama ‘Soldier of Orange’, a pre Hollywood Paul Verhoeven movie in which she played a British intelligence officer with a perverse penchant for squashing house flies. Penhaligon is clearly relishing the opportunity to play The Mousetrap’s sourest character, hobbling about the stage and making reactionary statements like ‘The working class have no idea of their responsibilities!’ It’s not much of a leap to picture Mrs Boyle attending a REFORM conference, and whacking a protester over the head with her stick. Nicholas Bailey is an engaging presence as the plummy toned Major Metcalfe, good enough to leave a vacuum when he occasionally exits. Laing and Hardwick have an easy chemistry as the lead couple, whilst Richards brings the right degree of humourless efficiency to Sgt Trotter.  During the curtain call, the cast politely ask the audience to keep the ending to themselves. Fair enough. When I came out of the theatre, I overheard a woman blabbing the killer’s identity to a passing stranger. It’s hard to understand such a peevish, killjoy attitude. Clearly, she doesn’t understand that the Christie estate don’t take prisoners. Is it worth the risk? You have been warned.

The Mousetrap is at the Opera House, Manchester from 26-31 October 2026.

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At the curtain call on opening night for musical ‘Sylvia’ at Lowry, Beverley Knight can be seen mouthing to her co-star, “I love Manchester”. We’re in Salford, but that’s splitting hairs because the emotion on show is clear.

Knight has been involved with this musical since its earliest workshop days. To bring it to a theatre a few miles from where the Women’s Social and Political Union was founded feels significant. From the reaction it is obviously important to the cast that this musical is successful with audiences in the city. And the cheers and standing ovation at Lowry were welcomed with visible heartfelt thanks.

Needless to say, this relatively new musical is a crowd-pleaser. If you fought for a ticket to Hamilton, fight just as hard for one to see this. There are many similarities, not least in reimagining an historical, political true story through a modern lens of hip-hop, funk, soul, and R&B music.

Spanning several decades including the Great War the storyline has a lot to pack into an evening’s entertainment. The result is an array of broad-brushed, in some cases caricaturist figures. What carries it above this weakness is Josh Cohen and DJ Walde’s strong score and powerhouse vocals from Beverley Knight as Emmeline and Naomi Katiyo as daughter Sylvia.

Kate Prince, a whirlwind of writer, choreographer and director, injects plenty of visual humour to lighten the heavy topic. ‘Suffrajitsu’, which kicks off Act II, is a joyous anthem to feisty feminism packaged in high energy, street dance attitude.

Prince sets the mother and daughter relationship at the heart of her story. Emmeline gets a less than sympathetic reading, which might put some people off. But it means there is plenty to talk about on the journey home. And if it leads to more people looking up the real history of these women, so much the better.

Sylvia is at Lowry, Salford from 19-24 October 2026.

Read our interview with Beverley Knight.

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From the moment we step into the Contact building to the moment we step back out into rainy Manchester, a sense of community fills the space. While waiting to be called into Space 1, people laugh, mingle and enjoy a drink.

Inside, a DJ welcomes guests into the theatre, where dimmed lights create a calm but captivating atmosphere. R&B grooves have people dancing their way to their seats, whether alone, in groups or alongside people they’ve only just met.

Host Inua Ellams engages the audience with his vibrant energy as he brings the party together. He explains how the night will work, introducing the interactive GAR (Ground stomp, Applause, Rupture) method of responding to performers, and keeping the audience involved, making the stage a safe space for the artists and drawing everyone into a celebration of old and new art.

A RAP party follows a structure where each artist is assigned a ‘Brown Sugar’ song to inspire them for their piece. Each artist has to write a poem and choose another song to complement their work. This creates a great way to celebrate the album and D’Angelo’s achievements as an artist.

Hearing poems from artists based in Manchester and neighbouring cities allows a close network which was demonstrated through hugs and excitement people show when greeting each other.

Keisha Thompson took her job as quite literally and decided to use her designated song ‘Cruising’ as inspiration for her poem ‘Cruising’ to talk about the concept of hopping on a cruise. Without being too literate, she discovers how to use her talent to look at cruises as a way of moving into a different period of calm when meeting someone. Her work shows how artists can use a person’s work as inspiration and create something new and meaningful of their own.

Walking onto the stage, each artist carries the strength that D’Angelo brought to this community and allowed for this space to emerge. Segun Le French uses his designated song, ‘Me And Those Dreamin’ Eyes Of Mine’, to express his timeline in love and meeting new people. Sharing his story of how he met his son’s mother and what advice he gives to him now, he shares the deeper meaning behind regrets and past.

Hearing these voices and fresh new poems makes for an inspiring, inclusive evening, with stories and styles of every kind. Many artists share what the album has meant in their own lives, showing just how far D’Angelo’s work has carried the neo-soul movement.

I leave feeling RAP parties are a great way to be introduced to a new community or find inspiration for your work surrounded by other people’s art and pure passion.

The Brown Sugar RAP Party was at Contact on 15 October 2026 as part of Manchester International Festival.

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The original idea from creator, producer and director Nic Doodson was born over a pint with friends. What if he could capture the camaraderie of a group of ordinary blokes chatting and singing in a traditional pub, creating an experience unique to the time and place and people who were there?

I don’t know in how many traditional pubs you’ll find a man tap dancing across the bar or a group breaking into a tightly choreographed routine, chinking glasses in time to the music. But that’s just being picky, because while these scenes are definite crowd pleasers, it is the inclusiveness of the everyday that makes this show a winner.

The setting is The Jungle, an on-stage pub that the audience is invited to treat as its own local by joining the cast for a drink before the show and at the interval. Once the lights dim, nine men gather around the bar, and for the next couple of hours they sing, drink, tap dance and talk to us. It’s a simple format and one that’s hard to resist. Find me someone who can hear “Da-da da da” from The Proclaimer’s ‘I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)’ without echoing “Da-da da da” right back?

While there is ongoing debate about audience members singing along to musical theatre, ‘The Choir of Man’ unashamedly encourages it. When we get to second act all inhibitions have gone and everyone is up on their feet belting out Bon Jovi’s ‘Living on a Prayer’ at the top of their lungs. It is exhilarating to be in a crowd joining in with such child-like enthusiasm.

From the energetic opening of Guns N’ Roses ‘Welcome to the Jungle’ it is the music and song that carries the evening, with hits from Queen, Adele, Paul Simon, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Sia reshaped for nine male voices.

The weakness is the story. The characters are broad brushed to be typical of a group of men you might find in any pub – the barman, the romantic, the joker, the bore, and the hard man to name a few. Their stories are narrated by Poet (Mancunian actor Oluwalonimi Owoyemi) who quickly charms the audience. But it feels strange that the other performers can’t speak for themselves. And stranger still when the characters get mixed up with the actor’s real stories and we hear with genuine emotion about how Oluwalonimi saw his first theatre show at Lowry as a kid.

Perhaps the random mix of stories and characters all adds to the general confusion of a night in the pub where conversations flow from one topic to the next with no rhyme or reason. The closest I’ve experienced this was in pubs in rural Ireland where locals all seemed to have their turn, whether it be a poem, a song, a card trick or a tall tale.

Some people know each other, many don’t, but for one night we are a community. The overall feeling we’re left with is one of warmth and on opening night this was magnified 100 fold by the joint performance at the end by several community choirs as part of The Jungle Choir Community Project, an initiative inviting local choirs to take part in the production on opening night in every touring city.

The Choir of Man is at Lowry, Salford from 13-17 October 2026.

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Director Matthew Dunster neatly pivots this thrilling production to show it is Lear’s two other daughters – Regan and Goneril – who drive the aged king to the edge of insanity. It opens on a scene of decadent, neon-lit court where Regan and Goneril, their husbands and retinue, drink away the pleasures of the night in anticipation of the heady inheritance of a kingdom divided between them.

David Threlfall as Lear enters upright and regally tailored, not a single eyelash out of place, in total command of himself and his senses. The picture is all the more forceful when we later see him wild-eyed, shirt-strewn, finger-jabbing the air, hair lashing his face, admonishing the elements for their temerity in bringing him so low. It is a fantastically charged performance from Threlfall, daring us not to feel anything but pity for this former monarch who fools now mock and whose cunning children whip him harsher than any wind could.

We are totally gripped by his portrayal of Lear half-drowned in madness. We long for hm to come up for air from under the waves only to see him pulled under again. And we marvel at the lightning switch from lucidity to lunacy which Threlfall is able to conjure up by stepping in and out of Lear’s fractious inner voices. It is an astonishing performance and quite possibly the work of a lifetime.

The storm clouds part occasionally in this tempestuous production to let in a little light: when Threlfall as Lear wakes in confusion after being sedated by a nurse and asks, ‘Oh God, are we in France?’, the audience erupts in joyful recognition. There are many such moments in the show where tragedy cannot quite manage to keep comedy out.

Threlfall is held aloft in the production by some outstanding acting. In particular, Tom Varey as wronged son Edgar is transmogrified into a lurching, tic-ridden ‘mad Tom’ whose writhing and twisted body is in stark rebellion against his mind. His electrifying account of madness is all the more terrifying for being one not brought on by old age but by brotherly betrayal.

This is a brutally visceral production: thunder roars, lightning cracks open the stage, and rain rages for the villainy carried out by the protagonists. When Gloucester’s eyes are gouged out at Regan’s behest, nothing is left to the imagination and we see – and feel – the terror of the times (and perhaps ours where execution is seemingly the norm in some parts). The fights and sexual encounters between characters are adroitly choreographed and designed to hold and shock us at the depravity we’re capable of as humans.

Do I smell a fault? Not in this production, it is near faultless.

King Lear is at The Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester from 2 October to 15 November 2026.

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Mollie Gallagher carries Clarice Starling strongly. Clarice must negotiate the tortuous gap between learning the ropes at the FBI and extracting information from convicted serial killer Hannibal Lecter played vivaciously by John Partridge. Lecter acts as an oracle for the darkest corners of the human mind. At the same time, more is revealed about Buffalo Bill’s victims (alias for the character we discover is called Jame Gumb) played by Sam Jackson. As we get closer to seeing the disgusting nature of his crimes, with the moth – transformation made flesh – becoming the final key that leads Clarice into a deadly confrontation with Gumb, she also rescues the final damsel in distress – Catherine Martin who is played carefully on the knife edge of despair and dark humour by Lottie Amor.

For me, the story is very much about size: physical size, appetite, ambition and stature with the added minimising of women’s stature and the obvious danger and insidious nature of that. Gallagher’s Clarice looks vulnerable to those who underestimate her but is intellectually formidable and highly physically trained to defend herself. There are some interesting moments of that tension throughout.

Oddly though, there wasn’t all that much made of Hannibal actually being a cannibal which…hello?! I said I wouldn’t talk about the original but come one, Harris didn’t make that rhyme for nothing.

The production itself is high spec. Taylor’s set makes clever use of different levels while Hannibal’s glass cell can glide into different positions, allowing scenes and characters to overlap without the stage becoming cluttered. It gives the production a cinematic slickness while still feeling theatrical.

I was far more engaged with the second act, when the battle of wills heightens between Clarice, Hannibal and the FBI, parallelled by Jame Gumb and Catherine. Lottie Amor gives Catherine real survival instinct, she is biding her time, managing Gumb during the worst possible moment of her life and trying to persuade him to see her as a person rather than a pelt.

Clarice is doing a similar thing in a different arena – pandering, accommodating and continually proving herself to the men around her, to get where she needs to go. And balancing this by teasing vital information from Lecter. Ironically, Hannibal sometimes seems the easiest of them for her to manage.

The first half was too angry for me, but one quieter moment I felt worked well was when Clarice was dealing with the body of Kimberly Jane Emberg, the murdered young woman with the glittery nail polish who was the seamstress and instrumental to the plot. She listens, looks at and actually sees the young policemen who brought the body in and how he needed to stay with her.

The Silence of the Lambs at The Lowry is slick, grisly and visually impressive. For me it finds real bite after the interval, when the psychological games finally take control.

The Silence of the Lambs is at Lowry, Salford from 7-10 October 2026.

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This new co-production between HOME, Northern Stage, the Citizens Theatre, and in association with Royal & Derngate is the director’s first Shakespeare play, and he draws us into each character with an intimate eye.

The result is an overwhelming feeling of claustrophobia and paranoia that eventually become the undoing of Othello. Setting the action in an isolated military outpost during the 1980s Falklands War adds to the pressure cooker feel of uncertainty and simmering violence. It adds an element of modern day to this 400-year-old drama and with it a brutal realism of ongoing social battles with racism, class and misogyny. We recognise soldiers under stress of battle, the testosterone-fuelled environment, the harsh authority of rank and the need to let off steam in Cassio’s drunken scene as squaddies party to crowd-pleaser Dexys Midnight Runners’ ‘Come on Eileen’. Knowingly, Almeida notes: “Othello is full of war, politics and public life. Yet the real damage happens between people who love one another”.

When we first meet Othello (Dwane Walcott) he is sharp and assured in the face of military and personal conflict. The love between him and Desdemona (Phoebe Smyth) feels genuine and joyous, as well as a source of strength for them both.

Maanuv Thiara’s Iago unravels their bond with terrifying ease, as if playing a game. Thiara plays ‘honest Iago’ as the conman hiding in plain sight. He is no pantomime villain, but a snake oil salesman who draws people in despite their better judgement. He is the psychopath whose carefree smile keeps us fascinated in this psychological thriller. It is an engrossing performance.

Natasha Jenkin’s sparse set of caged metal and barbed wire amplifies the cold darkness of the unfolding events. This is layered, to mixed effect, by Erin Guan’s video projections which see Roderigo (Matthiew Sys) filming and magnifying parts of the action on screens behind and overhead. This works well for Cassio’s fight scene but feels distracting in others. The menacing bass soundscape from Matthew Tuckey, also feels an unnecessy addition, being both distracting and uncomfortable in its vibration if you’re sitting close to the speakers.

The cast is excellent all round. However, there are two confident stage debuts that warrant special mention. Smyth brings spark and wit to Desdemona that makes us feel for her as more than a mere pawn caught up in man’s power struggle. Will Stanton as Cassio is reminiscent of watching a young Andrew Garfield. His is an assured performance delivered with exceptional clarity.

As with all Shakespearian tragedies we know we are being led to a bloody end, and Almedia delivers this with unwavering violence that is rightly shocking.

Othello is at Home Manchester from 30 September to 10 October 2026 before continuing on tour.

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I mention this because those with modern tastes might feel a musical this old is of no relevance. But Cole Porter’s timeless songs have never gone out of fashion. This Barbican Theatre production doesn’t reach the rarefied heights of the 2021 Anything Goes (also by Porter) but then nothing could. High Society still makes for a fabulous night of escapism.

Helen George (from Call the Midwife) leads a 28 strong cast as glamorous socialite Tracy Lord, joined by musical stalwarts Nigel Lindsay (Kiss Me Kate), Julian Ovenden (South Pacific), and Carly Mercedez Dyer (who made a strong impression in Singing in the Rain at the Royal Exchange a few years ago, and is similarly excellent here). You could write the plot on the back of a champagne coaster: as plans for the society wedding of the year slowly descend into chaos, where old and new flames jostle for attention. All the while, a sharp eyed tabloid reporter sneakily hunts for a scandalous expose at this opulent, waterfront mansion.  

High Society has always been a prestige affair. Its origins go back to the 1940 film The Philadelphia Story – which starred Cary Grant, James Stewart and Katherine Hepburn – widely regarded as one of the best of the so called ‘screwball comedies’ (which were characterized by sexual politics, and fast paced dialogue). The original play was by Philip Barry, and this touring adaptation is by the late Arthur Kopit, for whom I will always have a soft spot, mostly because he wrote Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Momma’s Hung You in the Closet and I’m Feeling So Sad (that was eventually turned into a movie, and featured famed screwball actress Rosalind Russell). The 1956 High Society starred Frank Sinatra, Grace Kelly, Bing Crosby and Louis Armstrong.

All of this pop culture trivia might be squishing your head. The point being that these performers cast a long shadow but director Rachel Kavanaugh isn’t easily fazed. Helen George has been in Call the Midwife since 2012, so there’s an element of letting loose in her performance, after years of being constrained by a signature role. She’s a strong singer and dancer, and brings a smart, controlled physicality to the part which put me in mind of a zany flamingo, if one can imagine such a thing. Freddie Fox has the best name in showbiz is rather good as newspaper snoop Mike Connor. Some directors try and conceal non musical performers in shows like this, sticking them at the back of the chorus to hide their left feet but Fox proves a nifty mover (and ‘You’re Sensational’ is one of the highlight numbers). As Dexter, Tracy’s ex, Julian Ovenden is smoother than a Cointreau latte. And as is usually the case with golden age musicals, the supporting players threaten to steal each scene – Nigel Lindsay almost getting away with daylight robbery as flamboyant Uncle Willie.

The flaw in High Society lies in the script. There’s no escaping the fact Tracy’s fiancé George Kittredge is an underwritten role; he exists as a foil, a living breathing reaction rather than a three dimensional person. David Seadon-Young has drawn the short straw here (though his wedding telegram scene is adroitly played). Ultimately, High Society is a love triangle with one side missing, and that translates into zero dramatic tension.

But everyone is here for the songs, and Porter saved his best for High Society: You Do Something To Me, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. Be A Clown, Well Did You Evah, Just One of Those Things, I’ve Got You Under My Skin – one banger after another. Act Two’s Let’s Misbehave justifies admission alone, a perfect synthesis of music, movement and costume (designer Jon Morrell goes above and beyond for this one). The highest praise a critic can give a show is that they would happily watch it twice. Enough said.

High Society is at Lowry, Salford from 22 September to 3 October 2026 before continuing on tour.

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I fall into that bracket. Jersey Boys is a musical I’ve seen several times and each time it comes around I still can’t wait to see it again. It opens with ‘December, 1963 (Oh What a Night)’ and that’s what millions of people have been leaving the theatre feeling at the end.

This current UK tour is the show’s 20th anniversary production. After two decades does this musical, that has won 57 major awards across the world, including Best New Musical at Broadway’s Tony, London’s Olivier and Australia’s Helpmann Awards, still live up to the hype?

The strength of the story is what sets this musical apart from many others. Writers Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice spent hours with the real men behind the wild stories, merging their recollections to tell the previously unheard true story of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons, using the band’s catchy hits as a backdrop to chart their journey from the back streets of New Jersey to Rock and Roll Hall of Fame heroes.

We all love a rags to riches tale, and this one has so much action along the way. There’s gang crime, links to the mob, gambling, prostitution, family breakdown, drugs, tragedy, and at its core a fiercely held belief in New Jersey loyalty. As Nick Massi wryly comments: “Sell 100 million records and see how you handle it”. It’s heavy stuff in parts but that is just one side. This is a show packed with the roller-coaster of life’s emotions and even the smaller roles such as Aidan Carson as an exuberant young Joe Pesci bring a depth of interest and humour to the overall experience.

If you’ve seen it before, the staging is Klara Zieglerova’s original design. It is a simple set made up of a base of multi-layered steel platforms that easily doubles as the fire escape on a Newark tenement and the rigging of a concert stage which comes realistically to life with huge overhead screen projections as the band take to the stage.

It’s a slick show packed with hit after hit, including ‘Sherry’, ‘Walk Like A Man’, ‘Big Girls Don’t Cry’, ‘My Eyes Adored You’, ‘Let’s Hang On (To What We’ve Got)’, ‘Bye Bye Baby’, ‘Can’t Take My Eyes Off You’, ‘Working My Way Back to You’, and ‘Rag Doll’.

Of course, even such solid foundations could falter without a strong cast to bring the characters to life. Luke Baker wows the audience as Frankie Valli, growing convincingly from a 16-year-old kid conned into crime to a confident, slick-suited superstar; making us believe in and feel for Valli as a world-famous singer with a soaring falsetto voice as well as a human being with all his vulnerabilities and flaws. His star quality shines and rightly gets a full standing ovation at end.

But this is by no means a one-man show, and much of its strength comes from the rich depth with which all four band members are drawn, each telling the story from their unique perspective. Lewis Kennedy as bass-player Nick Massi brings relatable humanity and humour to a figure who could easily be cast into the shadows as the ‘Ringo’ of the band. Carlo Boumouglbay convincingly adds a glimpse into the dark New Jersey underworld as the wide-boy guitarist Tommy DeVito with Mafia links; while Toby Miles captures both the relative innocence and sensible business-head of young whizz-kid songwriter and keyboardist, Bob Gaudio. When the four take to the stage concert-style, the audience erupts as if seeing the real thing and the atmosphere is electric.

There is so much richness in this show, it’s easy to see why audiences come back over and over again. This UK Tour is as good as it ever was. If you’ve not seen it before, go. If you have seen it before, go back. It has all the drama of Hollywood wrapped in constant stream of nostalgic, uplifting hits. Two decades on it is still the hottest ticket in town.

Jersey Boys is at the Palace Theatre, Manchester from 7-19 September before continuing on tour. Age guidance: 12+, parental guidance advised. Jersey Boys contains genuine New Jersey language which may not be suitable for younger audiences. Under 16s must be accompanied by an adult (18+).

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