Theatre, Dance & Performance Archives - Page 50 of 72

19 May

Raising Their Voices in Lloyd Webber Tribute

Sandra Mangan0 CommentsMusic & Gigs, Theatre, Dance & Performance

They've performed at top venues around the country and with such household names as Russell Watson and Aled Jones, but Tideswell Male Voice Choir has never appeared at Lowther Pavilion before. That's about to change when the choir brings its Tribute to Andrew Lloyd Webber to the venue on Sunday September 13. The acclaimed north west choir and guests will perform songs from hit musicals like Phantom of the Opera and Jesus Christ Superstar, along with a range of other contemporary song and musical hits. Under the direction of Dennis Kay, the choir’s principal conductor and director of music, supported by principal accompanist Christopher…

18 May

Review: La bohème

Elizabeth Ward0 CommentsTheatre, Dance & Performance

La bohème. Wow. What more need be said of this powerful and moving production brought to the Grand Theatre by the English Touring Opera? I was lucky enough to have a fantastic seat to watch this extraordinary performance of La bohème last Monday evening. An enigmatic and upbeat story unfolded on Christmas Eve in Paris. La bohème tells the story of the love affair of Mimi and Rodolfo, from their first meeting until the tragic ending of the opera. This opera took on new levels of modernity at Blackpool’s Grand Theatre. Although it is a period opera there was a fresh approach…

18 May

BalletBoyz Amazing TALENT

Blackpool Social Club0 CommentsTheatre, Dance & Performance

The BalletBoyz debuted in Blackpool on Saturday night for a fleeting, one night only performance which left the audience holding its breath at the end of the first half. The Murmering, choreographed by Alexander Whitley, began with a hypnotic electronic bass, like a heartbeat pumping life into the cast of all male dancers, as they came together, wheeling and swooping like the starlings' performance over North Pier every autumn. Stark lighting complemented the score, by digital music duo Raime, as tension ebbed and flowed across the Grand Theatre stage in the form of ten dancers moving as one, or the…

16 May

Review: Gruoch at BFC Theatre

Sean Payne0 CommentsTheatre, Dance & Performance

The venue for Gruoch- the Blackpool and Fylde College theatre – is, sadly, an underused and under-promoted space. It’s a nicely sized, purpose built, hundred seater theatre space and it’s a shame that it isn’t on the cultural touring map for Blackpool. Admittedly, the outer corridor needs soundproofing to stop sound bleed through but other than that let us see it used a bit more, because if the quality of student shows are as high as that demonstrated by Gruoch then it deserves to be more central in the Blackpool scene. Gruoch is a one woman show, written by Melanie-Claire…

06 May

Opera at the Grand

Elizabeth Ward0 CommentsTheatre, Dance & Performance

The English Touring Opera Company is returning to Lancashire for the first time in five years, and bringing La bohème to Blackpool for the first time in a decade. The Olivier Award winning company will be performing Puccini’s opera on Monday 11 May with a rare performance of Donizetti's The Siege of Calais being shown on the Tuesday. This production of La bohème features a twenty-five piece live orchestra and will also introduce the audience to a delightful choir from Blackpool school, St Nicholas’ Church of England Primary. The children will be appearing as a chorus of street urchins. La bohème is performed…

05 May

Preview: Yes, Prime Minister

Sean Payne0 CommentsTheatre, Dance & Performance

Yes, Prime Minister is coming to the Grand Theatre this month. A gem of a play by all accounts and so very vitally topical with the election looming. I was a little worried, but research has put my mind at rest. Why was I worried? Well read on altfaithful and find out. There is always a danger when adapting something that is already beloved by the nation. Comparisons are expected in every aspect. Usually when something like a comedy is reinterpreted the change from the original cast is the most jarring thing. For example, could Fawlty Towers work if it…

04 May

Lightspeed at Lowther

Melanie Whitehead0 CommentsTheatre, Dance & Performance

On Tuesday 23 June, as part of their regional tour which takes in seven venues in the North West over eight nights, Lowther Pavilion in Lytham welcomes relative newcomers on the theatre production front Organised Chaos with their brand new production Lightspeed. Lightspeed is written by one of the company members, Clem Haran, and tells a reverse-ordered story of game-playing Emma who leads unsuspecting Charlie to believe that she is besotted with the ideas of fate, love and him: a story of “ideological fantasies and unrealistic realities”. In their trailer for the show, Charlie says, “everybody’s scared of something,” to…

01 May

Skool of Street Haz Dun Wyre!

Melanie Whitehead0 CommentsTheatre, Dance & Performance

At Marine Hall, Fleetwood on Sunday 26 April over 60 young people aged between 7-16 years and sporting “SOS 15” T-shirts with a graffiti-ed picture of a Jolly Roger on the front jigged onto the stage of this beautiful and aptly situated venue and shook up a storm of urban arts. Samantha Bell and Aishley Docherty started the innovative charitable initiative Skool of Street initially as a one-off summer-holiday project taking place in 2014 designed to pull together a range of urban arts activities for young people to try out and then to showcase these at a culmination event at the…

30 Apr

Unwrapping a Christmas presence

Sandra Mangan0 CommentsTheatre, Dance & Performance

At one time, he was the man of my dreams. Now Paul Nicholas was sitting before me dressed in slippers, a dressing gown and a night cap. Photographer Jill and I exchanged uneasy glances.... where had cheeky chappie Vince gone? Then Paul offered us his trademark twinkling smile and the years melted away. Beneath that decidedly unflattering Scrooge costume was the heart throb that we ladies of a certain age had grown to know and love. Let's give younger readers a quick recap of the guy's career thus far. Back in the late 1960s and early 70s, Paul was a star…

29 Apr

Shakespeare, Rattle ‘n’ Roll

Melanie Whitehead0 CommentsTheatre, Dance & Performance

The 25th Anniversary Tour of Bob Carlton’s Return to the Forbidden Planet crash-landed at Blackpool’s Grand Theatre on Monday night with a brilliant burst of bombast, bastardised Bard and B-movie style. The storyline is loose; a spaceship on a routine flight hits an asteroid field (celebrated by a quick rendition of Great Balls of Fire) and crashes onto an unknown planet where they find the mad Professor Prospero and his beautiful young daughter Miranda who falls in love with the ship’s Captain Tempest. In the meantime the errant Science Officer, who abandoned ship on arrival, returns and reveals herself as G.L.O.R.I.A.…