Category Theatre Reviews

The cast of RAGS at Hope Mill Theatre. Photo Credit: Nathan Chandler

With great performances, a poignant story and a stunning score, Hope Mill Theatre breathe new life into underrated musical RAGS

Just ahead of the highly anticipated opening of it’s Hope Aria Academy, Hope Mill Theatre presents it’s eleventh in house musical, RAGS.

This show has somewhat of a troubled past, first opening in 1986 and closing after just four performances. It has since been revised multiple times...

The Four Tops in MOTOWN THE MUSICAL. Photo Credit: Tristram Kenton

With its goldmine of hits, MOTOWN THE MUSICAL is a feel-good show about this iconic period in music and popular culture history

Mention the word Motown and you’re more likely to think of the US city of Detroit, not the UK city of Manchester. Yet this humble Northern city has more links to the iconic record label than you may think as MOTOWN THE MUSICAL aptly demonstrates.

Based on the autobiography by Berry Gordy Jr...

The cast of LES MISERABLES with ‘The Barricade’. Photo Credit: Matthew Murphy 

From the innovative new staging to its magnificent cast, every inch of this touring production of LES MISÉRABLES will take your breath away

It’s been almost a decade since Cameron Mackintosh’s acclaimed production of LES MISÉRABLES last toured the UK but if the press night at Manchester’s Palace Theatre is anything to go by, it was well worth the wait.

Boubil and Schonberg’s musical tale of redemption and r...

Rowdy and raucous, THE FULL MONTY is the ultimate crowd pleaser and a hilarious adaption of the hit 1997 film

First performed in 2013, the stage production of THE FULL MONTY is an adapted version of the 1997 film about a group of unemployed men who decide to become strippers for a night to raise money. The film was a major success upon release, becoming the highest earning film in the UK until it was outsold by TITANIC.

David Pugh & Dafydd Rogers’s presentation of the Sheffield Theatres produc...

With its zany characters, slapstick comedy and clever, catchy songs, BILLIONAIRE BOY has everything a young child might want from a musical

David Walliams’ impressive library of children’s books have fast become modern British classics, especially with the annual BBC Christmas special adaptations putting them on the map. GANGSTA GRANNY was the first to grace the stage last year, with the play touring the UK, but BILLIONAIRE BOY is the first to get the musical treatment...

The cast of ANNIE UK Tour. Photo: Paul Coltas

Nikolai Foster’s touring production of ANNIE certainly looks and sounds the part but the 40-year-old story is beginning to show its age

Forget the adults, it’s the kids who rule theatre at the moment. From Dennis Kelly and Tim Minchin’s MATILDA THE MUSICAL to Andrew Lloyd Webber’s SCHOOL OF ROCK, the array of young talent gracing the stage in 2019 is certainly impressive as Nikolai Foster’s touring revival of ANNIE clearly demonstrates.

Se...

Four guys, four stories, one unforgettable musical, JERSEY BOYS certainly lives up to the hype

West End and Broadway extravaganza JERSEY BOYS tells the remarkable tale of four ordinary boys from the wrong side of the tracks in New Jersey who went on to sell 100 million records worldwide.

Frankie Valli, Tommy De Vito, Nick Massi and Bob Gaudio take us on a feel-good ride through the trials and tribulations of their lives as they write their own songs, create their own unique sounds and climb to...

Yazdan Qafouri, Curtis T Johns, Nick Carsberg, AJ Bentley & Sario Solomon in THE BAND. © Matt Crockett

Warm, funny and affectionate, THE BAND successfully captures what it means to be a music fan

I remember the day Take That announced they were splitting up like it was yesterday. It was 13 February 1996 and I was 12 years old. I remember seeing girls crying on the TV, not really understanding what all the fuss was about...

Original Drifters member Roy G Hemming’s brings together the sound of three of America’s iconic Labels Motown, the Sound of Philadelphia and Stax Atlantic, in one action-packed show

Ex-Drifter Roy Hemmings has merged three American labels to mix a concert overspilling with a soulful sixties sound...

AN EVENING OF ERIC AND ERN AT CHRISTMAS is a brilliant homage to the much-loved comedy act of Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise

Back in the 1970s, a Morecambe and Wise Christmas Special was as much as a TV tradition as the Queen’s speech. Drawing in audiences of more than 20 million a time, the comedy duo’s end-of-year Christmas shows became some of the highest-rated TV programmes of the era. More than 30 years later, TV may have changed but the nation’s love for Morecambe and Wise clearly hasn’t...