Saturday Night Fever burst into Chester this evening, taking over the main stage at the Storyhouse. With huge disco balls, brilliant lighting, live music and an audience ready to party, we were ready to see how this well known 1970s film would unfold on stage.
Moira Buffini has been writing plays professionally for 25 years. Born and bred in Cheshire she has challenged the theatrical establishment to open their eyes to female writers. Never a writer to shy away from strong storylines, she has tackled warring brothels in 18th Century London in her TV drama ‘Harlots’. In another historical drama she wrote about a same sex couple in medieval England called ‘Silence’ at a time when this type of play was not universally accepted, and she struggled for years to find a theatre who would produce it. ‘Dinner’ was one of her earlier plays, achieving success at the National Theatre in 2002, then transferring to the Wyndham Theatre in 2003.
Firstly an admission, I am not a newcomer to this production and first reviewed it three years ago and was blown away by Paul Metcalfe and his band as they performed and paid tribute to Rod Stewart.....so how have things progressed?
Unfortunately, I never had the opportunity to see Elvis live, however with so many tribute artists across the world I have been fortunate enough (depending on your feelings for tributes) to attend a great number of these shows. I know tributes are not everyone's cup of tea, but I do enjoy them and even now, 42 years after Elvis's death his popularity is immense and these tributes play a role in keeping that memory alive.
From a rather grey evening in Crewe, the Acton Amateur Operatic Society’s second evening of Showstoppers (the first took place in 2018) stopped the world, just for the evening, and transported us all on a journey of pure imagination. From Willy Wonka to Fagin and his band of street kids, from Calamity Jane to Evita, and from Barnum’s circus to the world of Dr Seuss, the members of Acton AOS sang and danced us through a variety of stage and screen musicals, with different members of the company leading each number.
On The Mark Youth Theatre return for their Summer show at Christleton High School with an evening of showstoppers from the musicals. Magic of the Musicals celebrate modern and classic stage musicals with this wonderful cast of 60 working their socks off to give a thoroughly enjoyable evening of entertainment.
Vincent Simone was in his element, the ladies certainly outnumbered men in the audience and to him it was obvious they had come purely to see him perform......surely no one was here to see fellow Strictly Come Dancing star Ian Waite? Or their beautiful and elegant dance partners Ksenia Zsikhotska and Crystal Main and not forgetting the talented vocalist James Lomas?
Written by Martin McDonagh, this pure Irish play was first performed at the Royal National Theatre in 1996. It was then taken Off Broadway in 1998 at the Joseph Papp Public Theatre and in the same year it was performed in Los Angeles. After a return to Off-Broadway in 2008 it re-appeared in the West End in 2013 for a sold out run starring Daniel Radcliffe in the title role of Cripple Billy, transferring to Broadway in 2014 where it received six Tony Award nominations.
I'm probably a comedy shows nightmare as I rarely laugh out loud although inwardly I can be, tonight was a first for me and joining those laugh out loud moments were tears of laughter. This stellar cast worked their tiaras and veils, Stetsons and boots off in this fabulous laugh a minute musical comedy. Cleverly written by Emma Culshaw and David Paul to incorporate many country classic songs known to the audience, it couldn't fail to have everyone clapping and singing along from the start.
The great British Summer is officially upon us and what better way to spend a weekend than at a local family festival.
Cheshire Fest returned to Cheadle Hulme today for a two day event which featured three stages and lots of family fun.
I have never seen a Centenary Theatre Company production before but do know of the outstanding work that Kit Phillips and Dan Ritcher do as directors of First Act, so my son and I were very excited to see this performance (us both being mad musical fans to boot!).
Page 4 of 11
