Blackpool Grand Theatre Archives - Blackpool Social Club

19 Feb

Theatre review: Single White Female

David Simper0 CommentsTheatre, Dance & Performanceblackpool arts scene, Blackpool Grand Theatre

With vague memories of the hit 90s film version of this psychological thriller, David Simper and his wife, hastened down to the Grand Theatre to catch the world premier stage production of this show. The performance didn't disappoint. This is a radical reworking of the original source material – a 1990 novel by American writer John Lutz and subsequent hit film. The audience finds recently divorced Allie, played by Lisa Faulkner (Holby City), moving into a new home, struggling with motherhood, running a business and worrying about money. She's faced with a new baby coming into former husband Sam's (Jonny…

25 Sep

Theatre Preview: Kym Marsh stars in Single White Female

David Simper0 CommentsGuide, Theatre, Dance & Performanceblackpool arts scene, Blackpool Grand Theatre, single white female

Get ready to become obsessed with TV favourite KYM MARSH as she looks for a SINGLE WHITE FEMALE in the spine-tingling new stage drama at Blackpool Grand Theatre from Tuesday 17 February to Saturday 21 February 2026. The 90s feels like a long time ago, but I do remember the film with Bridget Fonda and Jennifer Jason Leigh, which is the source material for this play. It was gripping, the tension building to a satisfying cinematic climax. This stage production promises to match and exceed that effect; I really do love cinema, but everything's better live on the stage in…

18 Sep

Theatre Review: Kailey by Kerry Wright

David Simper0 CommentsGuide, Theatre, Dance & PerformanceBlackpool Grand Theatre, play, prisons policy, Theatre

This week, David Simper headed to the Grand Theatre studio's intimate surroundings to watch, Kailey, an original play tackling the impact of imprisoned parents on the family they leave behind. While the theme seemed grim, the play was presented in an engaging way. The set consisted of an illuminated square frame as a backdrop to a square table with three chairs. A small lighting rig was standing to each side. Music was playing as we entered the venue and music was to continue to play a strong role in the production. The subject is personal to writer and producer, Kerry…

22 Jul

Review: Chicago brings the razzle dazzle to Blackpool

Stephen Dunstan0 CommentsGuide, Theatre, Dance & PerformanceBlackpool Grand Theatre, musical, musical theatre

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=""] Chicago opened at the Winter Gardens on Monday night. It’s a story grounded in the seedier side of Illinois a century ago, but it remains as big a hit with theatre audiences as ever. [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=""] It’s always great to be in Blackpool when the big productions come to the Winter Gardens. My guest was a bit disconcerted by the level of fancy dress among those gathered in St Johns on a sweltering evening, though it turned out they were headed elsewhere in the building for the World Matchplay Darts. It’s fair to say both audiences were raucous…

26 Feb

Theatre Review: An Inspector Calls

David Simper0 CommentsTheatre, Dance & Performanceblackpool arts scene, Blackpool Grand Theatre, play, theatrical review

David Simper reviews Stephen Daldry’s multi-award-winning National Theatre production of JB Priestley’s classic thriller after a record-breaking, sell-out tour in 2022. With its striking set and stunning performances, An Inspector Calls had a Grand Theatre audience of all ages rapt on opening night. The Blackpool Grand's stage is covered by a particularly heavy drape. The lights dim and a small boy wearing old-fashioned, possibly school clothing, enters the stage, followed by other children. This boy tinkers with a radio set and the theatre fills with the sound of a siren – are we in World War II? Finally the curtain…

23 Oct

Theatre Review: Abigail’s Party

David Simper0 CommentsTheatre, Dance & Performanceblackpool arts scene, Blackpool Grand Theatre, Theatre

An immortal piece of writing from Mike Leigh has new life breathed into it at the Grand Theatre. David Simper may not have seen Abigail's Party before but found plenty he was familiar with in this 1970's cult classic. Having heard so much about Mike Leigh's 1977 play Abigail's Party over the years, including the original Beverley, Alison Steadman, talking about the original production on Radio 4, this was a must see for me at the Grand Theatre. I must have heard the Demis Roussos clip a hundred times, although another artist is substituted here – I knew a little,…

30 Jun

Theatre Review: Thick and Tight present Tits and Teeth

David Simper0 CommentsTheatre, Dance & Performanceblackpool arts scene, Blackpool Grand Theatre, Comedy, social comment, Theatre

This is one of those when you come out of the theatre and walking towards the bus stop, wonder what the hell you have just seen. For one night only on Friday 28 June 2024, a stunning performance of an extended sketch format show with the Thick and Tight ensemble cast of talented and committed people. Singly or in pairs, the cast works through a series of pieces in mime, voice-over and dance based around a variety of historic and not so historic figures. The workshops to determine how these would be handled must have been something to behold, or…

05 Jun

Theatre Review: Moby Dick

David Simper0 CommentsTheatre, Dance & Performanceblackpool art scene, Blackpool Grand Theatre, moby dick

With themes of sustainability and an LGBTQ+ subtext, Moby Dick docked at the Grand Theatre last night for two nights only. David Simper jumped aboard. As a reader of Herman Melville's classic novel of whaling, obsession and leadership and a previous reviewer of a dance version of Moby Dick, also staged at the Grand Theatre, I was keen to see and review this theatrical version of a classic text. Melville's novel presents a surprisingly egalitarian picture of 19th century whaling life (which does not appear to be borne out in reality). The book also has a strong LGBTQ+ subtext. It…

16 May

Theatre review: What the Butler Saw!

David Simper0 CommentsTheatre, Dance & PerformanceBlackpool Grand Theatre, joe orton, play

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=""] The Grand Theatre is presenting 'What the Butler Saw!' from the pen of radical '60s and iconic playwright, Joe Orton. David Simper travelled down to town to see how this play holds up after nearly 60 years. I had last seen a Joe Orton play at the Coventry Belgrade Theatre at the end of the '90s, 'Entertaining Mr Sloane', which I'd enjoyed and found intriguing. Therefore I was keen to catch this play at the Grand Theatre as a follow up, after two decades. Despite this and reading an introduction to the play, I was not quite sure…

20 May

Theatre Review: Julius Caesar

David Simper0 CommentsTheatre, Dance & PerformanceBlackpool, Blackpool Grand Theatre, julius caesar, royal shakespeare company, shakespeare

For those thinking that Blackpool is a cultural desert, which this website disproves, we do have the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) performing Julius Caesar at the Grand Theatre and very good they were too when I attended last night. Attendance was a little low, but enough for a lively house. Come on Blackpool people, this is high art on your doorstep. This is a play that one feels they know without seeing it, but for me at least that was not the case. I had imagined that things would be pretty much done with after Caesar's assassination (beware the Ides…