Steve TimmsYou may not be familiar with the 80’s genre known as ‘sophisti-pop’, though everyone remembers bands like The Blow Monkeys, Swing Out Sister, ABC, The Style Council, and Prefab Sprout. What united these apparently disparate artists was a winning...
Simon ButtonCall the Midwife star Helen George talks Cole Porter, corsets and following Grace Kelly as Tracy Lord in High Society, which arrives at the Lowry, Salford, for two weeks from 22 September. Starring in a splashy new production of the classic Cole...
Carmel ThomasonWhen a show has been around for 20 years there are two things we know already: one, it’s an audience pleaser and two, it has a string of fans who’ve already seen it multiple times and still come back for more. I fall into that bracket. Jersey Boys...
It is doubtful that Matthew Bourne’s ‘The Car Man’ could have arrived at Lowry on a better week. For while you might get some respite from the current heat wave in the theatre’s air-conditioned auditorium, things are about to get much hotter on...
Fifty years on, ‘The Rocky Horror Show’ is still the most riotous party in town. At its centre struts Frank-N-Furter, an outrageous role of glam-rock legend. Quays Life caught up with Tottenham’s Stephen Webb, the latest actor to...
Any kid of the 1980s will have a story to tell about their response to ‘The Karate Kid’. It was the ultimate underdog hero movie capturing the same spirit Stallone brought to adults with Rocky. We remember the music too. Joe Esposito’s uplifting...
The story of how white van man, Dave Fishwick took on the banking establishment to become the people’s champion has become the stuff of legend. The Burnley businessman’s quest to open the first high street bank in 150 years has already been told as...
‘There may be trouble ahead.’ In difficult times, people look for an exit. That was the case when the original RKO movie ‘Top Hat’, with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, arrived in 1936 at the height of the Great Depression. Arguably...
Leslie James KerwinA ‘miracle’ to some, a ‘gangster’ to others, the grown-ups around Matilda Wormwood can all agree on one thing: this is a five-year-old far too smart for her own good. Now on its 15th year of touring, Dennis Kelly and Tim Minchin’s ‘Matilda: The...
There’s a true sense of the hero returns as Operation Mincemeat opens its first ever world tour at Lowry’s Lyric Theatre. Now a West End and Broadway hit with numerous awards, it is hard to imagine the musical’s humble beginnings in front of an...