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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Kuchipudi is an incredible form of dance. What drew you to it?

Payal: “So I started training in Kuchipudi when I was four. I did not have much of an understanding of what the dance style was at that time; I got started into it by my parents. But it’s a South Indian classical dance form. If I were to draw a parallel with something you may be familiar with, it would be ballet — not stylistically, but in terms of its structure and the discipline it requires.

“It’s replete with footwork and hand gestures. It’s a way of communication and storytelling. We use a lot of facial expressions to communicate ideas and tell stories, really using the whole body. Rhythm forms the backbone of it, and it’s very rich musically — they go hand in hand, of course. I mean, music and dance naturally go together, so that’s essentially what Kuchipudi is.”

What inspired you to create this work around motherhood and miscarriage?

Payal: “It’s a combination of several factors. I’m at that stage where I’ve been contemplating motherhood myself, but I’ve also watched others on their own journeys. The work I make usually stems from a place of curiosity — that’s my entry point into any project. It comes from feeling like I don’t know enough about a particular idea or subject, and wanting to explore it further. Motherhood is not just a simplistic term. It is a landscape of emotions. I make work that I feel needs to be spoken about.

“For me, dance is the medium I choose because it gives me a way to discover and better understand that subject matter. Then I invite people onto that journey with me — I share it with the audience, who can take part either as spectators or participants, depending on how the work unfolds.”

Do you think it’s easy to cover powerful topics through art and dance?

Payal:“I don’t know if it’s easy, but I would certainly say that it’s my way. It’s my medium, it’s the medium that I know best, it’s the medium where I can express myself to the best of my ability. So that’s my medium. Dance helps me express myself best. I think there are a lot of things that remain unsaid. Art is a great way of telling people things. I think art remains with you, even when you leave a performance. The performance stays with you for a long time. And that is the beauty of art. That is the impact that art has on people.”

How long have you been working on ‘Just Enough Madness’?

Payal: “It was born, I think, somewhere around 2019. So, it’s been a long, long time. There were gaps in between, but it was always there in my mind. Even while I was working on other productions, there would be times when I would revisit it and then just let it simmer in the background and then come back to it. It’s been through different phases. It’s been re-researched and redeveloped, and now we’re finally doing this pilot tour with hopefully a more extensive tour next year.”

How can you convince someone to come watch?

Payal: “I think everyone has either been a witness to motherhood or experienced it themselves. You know, we’ve either seen our own mothers or watched a sister, a wife, or a friend go through the journey of motherhood. And if you are someone who has witnessed it or been on that journey yourself, I would just say: come see a glimpse of yourself in it, and come to recognise the emotional labour, the rigour that a woman goes through. I’m not talking about the physical aspect so much — I mean the more unsaid truths of motherhood. Yeah. So I think it’s really a way of celebrating motherhood in the truest sense of the word, not just superficially.”

Just Enough Madness & Caught in the Net of Rebirth is at Lowry, Salford on Tuesday 31 March 2026.

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Four years on, and this revival is firing on all cylinders, giving both the company and the audience the performance it deserves.

In the programme notes Acosta describes Don Quixote as “a ballet for virtuosos”. It is technically challenging as well as requiring strong acting and comic timing from its dancers.

For the audience, however, it is pure escapism, like riding the breeze of a spring morning.

In this sense it is a fantastic entry ballet because it is a straightforward story with terrific classic dance. And this lavish production gives us everything we could ask for – a wonderful live orchestra, colourful sets with some lovely flower arches, dazzling costumes and outstanding dance.

Acosta’s production emphasises the Spanish roots of the story, so we see bustling village scenes, fiery flamenco, caped matadors and live acoustic guitarists on stage among the dancers. Dream sequences provide a space for a wonderful showcase of sparkling tutus from the corp. And, of course, the spectacular solos and pas de deux full of fun, romance and energetic air-splits and high kicks.

Cervantes’ famous knight, Don Quixote, here danced with wit and presence by Dominic Antonucci, may be the title character, but it is the young lovers, Kitri (Beatrice Parma) and Basilio (Enrique Bejarano Vidal) who capture our hearts.

The whole performance feels like a celebration of youth, as we admire not simply the technical skill on display but the stamina to keep this high energy going for a three hour show.

Under Thomas Jung’s baton the Royal Ballet Sinfonia keep Minkus’ score bouncing along with the joy of a child’s skip. It’s an uplifting evening of some of the best classical dance that will no doubt delight seasoned ballet fans and newcomers alike.

Carlos Acosta’s Don Quixote is at Lowry, Salford from 5-7 March 2026.

Read our interview with Carlos Acosta

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By Diane Parkes

When choreographer and dancer Michael Keegan-Dolan was creating his production MÁM, he turned to the music and landscape of his native Ireland for inspiration.

“I was born in Ireland in 1969. There was a lot going on politically and economically. I think much of the work I make comes from where and how I was formed,” he says.

“I perceive the world through that history, our native language, the landscape and our musical tradition – and MÁM is very linked to that. When I made the piece in 2019 it was an expression of my relationship to many of these things – from land to history to folklore to mythology to music to religion, to spirituality.”

Having moved to Irish-speaking West Kerry in the year he created the work, Michael says the spirit of Ireland is inescapable in the land and its people.

“The foundations of the making of the piece were my moving to the West Kerry Gaeltacht,” he recalls. “When I stand in my garden in West Kerry, I can see Skellig Michael, the iconic island, a UNESCO site, kind of floating in the distance in the Atlantic Ocean. And we grow some of our own food here, in that ancient West Kerry soil, so when we eat our carrots, broccoli or cabbage, we are kind of imbibing Kerry!

“When I go to the supermarket and I talk to the people there, they might speak with a particular rhythm and they might make a joke about something West Kerry. When you speak in the Irish language your brain is functioning in an entirely other way. So it’s a powerful place to reevaluate who you are in an ancient landscape where people have been living for a long time. It has endured conquest and famine and war but people are still here – living, breathing, talking, making music and celebrating life.”

Musicality is an integral part of MÁM which features the music of Irish traditional concertina player Cormac Begley and European music collective s t a r g a z e performing live on stage alongside 11 dancers and a young girl.

“My relationship to the traditional music in MÁM is through the lens of Cormac, through the ancestry and connections that Cormac has,” Michael says. “Then my aspiration was to put around his sound a European classical/contemporary sound. It could be from any time – they play some Telemann, 17^th century German music, in the show also, so there’s a European tradition around an Irish tradition in conversation.

“Through that, we made a piece that feels direct, immediate and visceral, poetic and imaginative.”

Michael was artistic director of Fabulous Beast Dance Theatre between 1997 and 2015 before founding Teaċ Daṁsa in 2016. The company features dancers from across the globe performing works strongly grounded in Ireland’s heritage. The company’s first production, Swan Lake/Loch na hEala in 2016 combined dance, storytelling and live music in a new interpretation of the classic ballet.

This was followed by MÁM which was nominated for an Olivier Award for Best New Dance Production when it performed to sell-out audiences at London’s Sadlers Wells in 2020. MÁM has toured to venues in Europe, New Zealand, Australia, North and South America and Taiwan and Michael says audiences everywhere respond to it well.

“MÁM creates an experience for the dancers dancing it, connecting, releasing and breathing in these rhythmical ways. And there’s this lovely collective truth about MÁM – it was made collectively and is performed collectively and I think that’s a beautiful thing to behold.”

The show is coming to Lowry on 3 and 4 February, the first date of a 9-venue tour presented by Dance Consortium, a group of 24 large-scale venues aiming to bring the best contemporary dance from across the world to local audiences in the UK and Ireland. And Michael says each audience member will have their own unique response to the production.

“An important aspect about dance is how it can connect you to your being, to reality. It kind of forces you into life. I’ve made work built around stories like Swan Lake and they are exciting but ultimately what we probably need most as a species just now is to switch our brains off a bit more and to allow ourselves to feel a bit more. That’s what I’m working on with the dances I’m making.

“It’s challenging sometimes because audiences’ expectations have been conditioned over time. We go, we sit, we get impressed and we think there is something to ‘get’ and if we haven’t ‘got’ it then it hasn’t been a good experience.

“But I think we also need to work a little bit more to empower audiences that whatever you take is valid. It’s yours. If what you feel is really strange and nothing like the person next to you that’s really exciting for me – and to own that and to feel empowered by your own imagination and your own perception of reality, I’m all for that.”

MÁM is at Lowry, Salford on Tuesday 3 & Wednesday 4 February at 7.30pm. Tickets: 0161 876 2000

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A far cry from the usual hushed theatre experience – but Tom Fletcher, one of the UK’s bestselling authors and chart-topper with pop-rock band McFly, is not your usual writer. As his new play, There’s A Monster in Your Show leaps from page – in the beloved ‘Who’s in Your Book?’ series – onto musical stage, he’s adamant he wants a high-energy, 50-minute play to cement a love of theatre in pre-school children’s hearts. 

“I want kids to feel this is a show that they are a part of, not just coming to watch,” Fletcher says. “This isn’t a ‘sit down and be quiet!’ kind of show. There’s a lot of mischief in the book, and the show is not to go according to plan either! Certain monsters will require the audience’s help getting the show back on track. This might be some children’s first trip to the theatre, and I want no other theatrical experience to ever live up to it!”

The musical play sees Little Monster joined by his friends Dragon, Alien and Unicorn, learning about the joy of books and friendship – and the power of a great story. The production comes from the makers of hits including Twirlywoos Live, Sarah & Duck and The Very Hungry Caterpillar Show – with many of the brilliantly catchy songs in the show composed by Fletcher too. 

Tom first found fame with McFly’s hit 5 Colours in Her Hair in 2004; his bestselling books, meanwhile, have been translated into forty languages. So fans might be surprised to learn that There’s a Monster in Your Book, the inspiration for his new play, was actually the first book Fletcher ever wrote. “I sketched out a version of it years ago, and then made it into an interactive book which I gave to my bandmates,” he remembers. “I wish I’d filmed their reaction, because as I watched them say, ‘ooh look there’s a monster!’ and then shake the book and turn it over to find him, they all cracked up laughing. 

“I figured that my 20-something bandmates had the same sense of humour as three-year-olds, so it was probably going to work!”

The book idea sat on Fletcher’s shelf for a while – and now he’s thrilled to see his words come to life again in theatres. “I still remember going to see Sooty and Button Moon when I was little and often went to my local community theatres. Then I went to see Jason Donovan in Joseph [and the Technicolour Dreamcoat] when I was a bit older, and it changed my life. I decided then and there that I was going to be on stage doing what the children in Joseph were doing – and within a few years I was playing Oliver! on that stage in the Palladium. Theatre trips definitely set me off on the course of my life.”

Directing the action in There’s a Monster in Your Show is Miranda Larson. Writer of TV hits including Fireman Sam, Bob the Builder, and Thomas the Tank Engine, she has also adapted Fireman Sam and the YouTube phenomena Little Baby Bum for stage, as well as Fletcher’s previous book-turned-play hit, The Christmasaurus. “The Who’s in Your Book series is so mischievous and cheeky, with a huge sense of humour, and we’ve brought that to the stage,” she explains. “There’s a fun chaos to it all, slapstick humour, and the puppets have such a wow factor.”

Parents who struggle to keep their children sitting down for a single meal might worry how a pre-schooler will stay captivated for a play lasting almost an hour – but Larson, like Fletcher, is very relaxed: “the show is so engaging, with lots of interactive moments, songs to lift everyone up – plus the monster story just brings out giggles – the children will be laughing in the aisles.”

The theatre, both Larson and Fletcher believe, has never been more important for young children, with creativity being squeezed out of curricula. “There seems to be way more pressure on children these days, even really young kids are so much more aware of stresses than when I was a child,” Larson adds. “The great thing about theatre is they just get lost in this magical moment, the stage is a bubble where the audience of every age can escape their worries and have fun and smile.”

Fletcher reveals that his packed schedule saw him record demos of some of There’s a Monster in Your Show’s songs in the back of a car during a six-hour drive from Leeds to Margate during McFly’s UK tour. He’s famously a hands-on dad to his three kids with wife Giovanna Fletcher, as well as having achieved 10 UK number-one singles with McFly, written scores of books and he often pops up on TV, currently sharing a chair with his bandmate Dannny Jones as a judge on The Voice – how does he do it all? 

“It’s full on,” he grins. “The second they are in bed I’ll be in my studio writing until I fall asleep at my keyboard. But I feel so lucky to be able to do it all – if that means I sacrifice sleep and have bad blood pressure and feel slightly stressed then I’ll just eat lots of broccoli and hope for the best! Monster is an amazing show, I just can’t wait for everyone to see it.”

There’s A Monster in Your Show is currently on a UK Tour coming to Lowry, Salford from 27 May to 1 June 2025.

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The show, with music and lyrics by Maury Yeston, features the songs, ‘Be Italian’, ‘Unusual Way’, and ‘Cinema Italiano’. It tells the story of movie director Guido Contini who finds himself struggling to find meaning, purpose, and a script for his latest movie endeavour.

With only a week left before shooting begins, he desperately searches for answers and inspiration from his wife, his mistress, his muse, and his mother.

As his chaotic profession steadily destroys his personal life, Guido must find a balance between creating art and succumbing to its obsessive demands.

The story is based on the Federico Fellini film 8½. But after the musical’s Broadway success, winning two Tony Awards for Best Musical and Best Original Score in 1982, the musical went on to become a big screen hit of its own. And most will remember Nine for the 2009 star-studded film version featuring Daniel Day-Lewis, Nicole Kidman, Penelope Cruz, Kate Hudson, Fergie, Sophia Loren and Judi Dench.

Given that it is a show that doesn’t tour often, Hope Mill have once again set an ambitiously high bar.

“As expected, the talent that we have assembled is truly remarkable,” says Hope Mill founder and co-director of Nine, Joseph Houston. “Ramin was born to play the role of Guido, and I truly think this will be a defining performance for him. The exceptional women we have on board are also outstanding, each of them bringing so much to these complex and wonderful roles. All of this including an ensemble of 24, a top tier creative team and a 24-piece orchestra, and I believe this will be an unforgettable night of theatre.”

These rehearsal photos give a peek behind the scenes of what promises to be a sensational two performances from Hope Mill at Lowry on 1 and 2 February, where the company recently staged its muscial version of A Christmas Carol. We can’t wait to hear what plans come next for birthday number 10.

The post Ramin Karimloo and Ruthie Henshall Celebrate Nine years of Hope Mill Theatre appeared first on Quays Life.

Those things that ON, almost without exception, do well, were a triumph. The singing was splendid, the orchestra (conducted by Garry Walker) superb.

As for the set and costumes. Well, interesting. The forest is represented by hanging strips of translucent Perspex. Towards the summit of these strips we have an moveable array of transparent Perspex balloons – the shifting clouds? The swaying arboreal canopy?

Their fairy majesties, Oberon and Tytania (in Britten’s version pronounced like ‘titanic’), are bedecked like giant glitter balls, the metallic chain mail of their costumes reflecting the spotlights back at the audience as they move. It’s magical to be intermittently dazzled by their glory, or irritating to have to squint so regularly – take your pick.

Puck – a speaking not a singing part – fawns like a doting pet around his master Oberon, as often at his feet as at his side. Vocally and physically Daniel Abelson plays the mischievous fairy like some hybrid of Keith Allen and Caliban. Not so much the “gentle Robin,” Oberon addresses.

For the greater part of the performance, audience laughter is sporadic. The humour is forced, heavy-handed even occasionally vulgar (the bewitched Lysander leg-humping Helena like a randy spaniel is a bit too Joe Orton). That said, the crowd is enthusiastically behind the Mechanicals’ play, later on.

Britten’s score recognises that the play is both funny and touching. When, in Act Three, the young Athenian lovers finally get their emotions unscrambled the music and the singing cascade beautiful sounds out into the auditorium. If only direction had enabled us to care more about Helena, Hermia, Demetrius and Lysander up to that point. Having performers, intentionally or inadvertently, stripping down to their underwear is no guarantee of sending the laugh-o-meter into the red zone. True, these four young lovers are ludicrous in their passions and their antics, but they must also be loveable. The production falls short on that latter requirement.

Similarly, when Tytania dotes on Bottom the Ass, the intimacy between this grotesque and ridiculous hybrid and the narcotically-demented yet magnificent fairy queen should simultaneously amuse and disturb us. The staging of this episode is stilted and so lacking interaction between the two characters as to undermine any sense of either emotion.

Shakespeare’s playful presentation of the Mechanicals, whilst making merciless fun of them, also recognised the truth in their hopes and fears (such a performance before the great and the powerful could make or break these simple men). The cavorting, fumbling, desperate enthusiasms of tonight’s group only occasionally offer unfamiliar delights; they may be clowns in our eyes but we also need to see them as vulnerable, inadequate but sincere. (The group hug they share when their play is ‘preferred’ is original, affecting and funny – if only we could have had more of this kind of creativity).

My companion for the evening says, “you can just close your eyes and listen to the music.” Wise words, indeed.

Henry Waddington booms compellingly as Nick Bottom, a veritable steamroller of excess enthusiasm.

Of the young Athenians (each of whom grabs her or his own moment to shine) Peter Kirk’s Lysander snatches the bouquet by his fingertips from the other three, though I look forward to future roles for Camilla Harris (Helena), Sian Griffiths (Hermia) and James Newby (Demetrius).

It was an inspired choice of the composer to make Oberon a counter-tenor. James Laing’s natural physical presence adds an other-worldly quality to his performance. Britten also set Tytania’s voice in the higher range. Daisy Brown aces her high C# (“Come now a roundel”) with apparent ease, and moves through the evening with regal command.

An utter treat for the ears, less so for the eyes, but, on the whole, well met.

Opera North – A Midsummer Night’s Dream was at Lowry, Salford on 13 November 2024.

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The fact this ambitious dance show is touring for the second time in as many years hopefully tells you otherwise. While some might say there were few better ways for the Rambert to fill seats, there certainly would have been easier ones.

Peaky Blinders: The Redemption of Thomas Shelby is Rambert’s biggest show in its near 100-year history and it feels epic in scale.

There’s always a challenge when bringing something new to the familiar, but fans can be reassured their favourite characters are in good hands with a story written by the original series creator, Steven Knight.

Set as a prequel to the BBC show – how Thomas Shelby and his brothers came to be the men we know – it opens in 1916 with graphic scenes of fighting in the trenches of the Somme. Rambert’s Artistic Director and choreographer Benoit Swan Pouffer holds nothing back from the audience, giving the action a filmic quality which moves at pace.

We’re taken from the horrors of war to the heady atmosphere of a 1920s nightclub, where Tommy (Conor Kerrigan) falls for singer Grace (Naya Lovell) and a tragic love-story begins.

Fans of the show will recognise central characters like Arthur (Dylan Tedaldi), Polly (Simone Damberg Würtz) and Ada (Adél Bálint), but even if you’ve never seen a single episode the essence of the story is easy to follow with the use of some explanatory narration voiced by the late poet, Benjamin Zephaniah, who played a street preacher in the TV show.

An immersive, contemporary score by Roman GianArthur played live on stage, provides an added layer driving the action. There are also recognisable songs from the Peaky soundtrack from Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds, Radiohead and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. It’s not until the curtain call that we realise this rock gig sound has been created by only three musicians: Yarron Engler (drums, percussion, vocals), Joe Downward (Cello, bass, vocals) and Mitchell Emms (vocals, guitar, keys).

There is so much happening on stage at any one time that you can’t take it all in. But striking throughout is the strength and grace of Rambert’s talented dancers whose performances bring both emotional intensity and a highly stylised edge to this visual storytelling.

It’s a thrilling ride with carousel race horses, punk police dogs, gun weilding women, blazing buildings and centre of it all the iconic Thomas Shelby.

If you like Peaky Blinders – go. If you like Rambert – go. Or just go anyway – it’s a helluva spectacle.

Peaky Blinders: The Redemption of Thomas Shelby is at Lowry, Salford from 22 to 26 October 2024. Age recommendation 15+

The post Peaky Blinders: The Redemption of Thomas Shelby – Dance Review appeared first on Quays Life.

“Birthmarked” offers up excellent musicianship, catchy songs, some beautiful vocals, some laughs, some tears, and lots and lots of fabulous campness.

Less a musical, more a ‘new concept gig’, “Birthmarked” is Tate’s account of life as a young gay man raised as a Jehovah’s Witness. Delivered in direct address with humour and panache, punctuated with some fine original compositions, the telling, as you might imagine, is not just one of self-discovery, but of cruelty, poignancy and loss.

Cleanliness may be next to godliness but, in the view of the three Elders who “de-fellowship” him, on the scale of debauchery, homosexuality is right next to bestiality. Once ‘de-fellowshipped,’ the sinner must not be spoken to – even by friends and close family members – no matter that in Brook Tate’s case, he was still living with his family. He gives a heart-rending account of helping his sister unpack her shopping in mutually tearful silence.

The artsy scene of Bristol and renewed contact with uncle Adrian (himself long de-fellowshipped) provide Tate’s first steps along his own road to a kind of salvation.

Gayle the Whale (voiced by excellent percussionist, Eva Redman) is both nemesis and foil for Tate’s narrative, eventually tempting this gay Jonah (and the rest of his band) into her belly – from which they will emerge… even more fabulous and outrageously camp (of course!)

Tate is not afraid to ad-lib and improvise – nor should he be, he does it with verve and shameless wit. The 90 minute (no interval) show is good value for money. Stick around for the tap dancing zebra (in platform heels).

Along with Redman, the other four musicians (Tom Bonson, Samuel Fox, Sam Fox – yes, two of them – and Eddie Benfield) clearly buy into the project, playing with passion and unafraid to be more than a little fabulous in their own right.

Although there is a reference to sex in China (Tate was there for religious reasons) it’s done with a nod and a wink (and no jokes about missionaries and positions). Parents will, of course, use their own judgement, but there’s nothing here remotely like Olly Alexander’s Eurovision bump and grind.

The encore song (dedicated to his Grandma Maude) is the most touching and most beautifully sung number of the evening. Tate has a truly lovely tenor voice that can soar into a countertenor reminiscent of Jeff Buckley.

He finishes the night by clambering down to chat to the audience (in full regalia). A little boy on his birthday and his even littler sister are rightly thrilled by this close encounter. Charm and human warmth ooze from him, even done-up as a mohican zebra.

Two shows to go at the Lowry. Go see!

Birthmarked is at The Lowry, Salford from 29-31 May 2024.

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Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss’s histore-mix look at Henry VIII’s wives has become a global phenomenon since its early days as a student production at the 2017 Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Earlier this year the show was regularly playing to sell-out houses in London’s West End, on tour across the UK and Australia. And it was about to make its Broadway debut when the Covid-19 pandemic struck, causing the show to be cancelled just three hours before curtain-up.

Now despite likely financial losses producers Kenny Wax, Wendy and Andy Barnes, and George Stiles are keen to bring the Queens back to life, opening productions in both London’s West End and on tour, coming to The Lowry, where it played to sell-out audiences last Christmas for another festive run.

“We accept that with social distancing it is unlikely to be economically viable,” says Wax. “We also understand that restarting productions, particularly musicals, remains impossible for most producers for reasons of scale, finance and lack of cancellation insurance. But we have the opportunity to give work to 100 or so actors, musicians, technicians, stage managers, production managers, costume makers, marketing, press, ticketing and office staff across the two productions. And we hope to entertain many thousands of theatre goers who have been starved of live entertainment since March.

“We are sure that opening SIX will help to build audience confidence and bring business back to the local economy. And we continue to look forward to the day when social distancing is removed and theatres can play to 100% capacity”.

The London production will temporarily move from its West End home at the Arts Theatre to The Lyric on Shaftesbury Avenue for a limited 11-week run beginning on 14 November through to 31 January 2021.
Meanwhile, the touring production starring Lauren Drew (Catherine of Aragon), Maddison Bulleyment (Anne Boleyn), Lauren Byrne (Jane Seymour), Shekinah McFarlane (Anna of Cleves), Jodie Steele (Katherine Howard) and Athena Collins (Catherine Parr), will restart at The Lowry on 27 November, playing 8-shows a week in the venue’s large Lyric Theatre. Capacity has been reduced from 1730 to approximately 740 seats inside the auditorium (depending on the booking number in each party) with one metre+ distancing between each group of seats.

Temperature checks will be taken for all audience members before entering the building. Government face covering policy at the time that the show opens will be followed. Hand sanitising stations will be available around the theatre. Theatre staff will undertake a thorough cleaning of the auditorium between shows.

Family favourite, The Gruffalo based on the children’s book by Julia Donaldson is also going ahead with socially distanced performances at The Lowry from 12 December 2020 – 10 January 2021.

SIX the Musical is at The Lyric Theatre at The Lowry from Friday 27 November 2020 – Saturday 10 January 2021

Read our review of Six on a previous run at The Lowry.

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