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The Sons of Pitches: SOP TV -The Lowry, Salford
Reviewer: Dave Cunningham Although The Sons of Pitches shot to fame as a cappella singers on TV’s The Naked Choir they seem determined to expand their range from being simply vocalists. SOP TV sees the...
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Sounds of Palestine – Howard Assembly Room, Leeds
Performers: Mohamed Najem & Friends Performers: Nai Barghouti and band Reviewer: Ron Simpson The Howard Assembly Room continues to punch above its size in its programming, with this inspiring...
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Back to the Future in Concert – Millennium Square, Leeds
Conductor: Jessica Cottis Reviewer: Mark Clegg Well done to Leeds City Council for organising their Summer Series: a programme of live events and film screenings held in the beautiful open air...
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Ladysmith Black Mambazo – Howard Assembly Room, Leeds
Reviewer: Ron Simpson Ladysmith Black Mambazo seems to have solved the problem all successful groups have of renewing themselves over a period of time. The 2017 version manages to be full of youthful...
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Little Mix: Glory Days Tour – Echo Arena, Liverpool
Reviewer Helen Patrick The return of all-girl group Little Mix (Perrie Edwards, Jesy Nelson, Jade Thirlwall and Leigh-Anne Pinnock) to Merseyside with their Glory Days Tour, ensure once again that the...
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Marc Almond: Shadows & Reflections – Town Hall, Leeds
Reviewer: Rich Jevons Some two years on since Marc Almond came to Leeds Town Hall to celebrate the release of The Velvet Trail which was followed by a recital of torch songs with the pop orchestra of...
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Keith Jack: Movie Nights – Wild Cabaret, Glasgow
Reviewer: Lauren Humphreys Astonishingly, it’s a decade since Dalkeith native Keith Jack was runner up in the BBC’s search for a ‘Joseph’ in Any Dream Will Do. Only 19 years old at the time, much has...
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Nothing like the Sun – Howard Assembly Room, Leeds
Performers: The Gavin Bryars Ensemble Reviewer: Ron Simpson Nothing like the Sun was commissioned by Opera North and the Royal Shakespeare Company some ten years ago. Now the Gavin Bryars Ensemble has...
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Battleship Potemkin – Howard Assembly Room, Leeds
Director: Sergei Eisenstein (1925) Music: Jan Bang, Matt Calvert Reviewer: Ron Simpson Strictly speaking, the appropriate film by Sergei Eisenstein to commemorate the centenary of the October...
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The Rat Pack Live From Las Vegas – King’s Theatre, Glasgow
Director: Mitch Sebastian Choreographer: Mitch Sebastian Designer: Sean Cavanagh Musical Supervisor: Matthew Freeman Reviewer: Lauren Humphreys Aiming to recreate the heyday of Frank Sinatra, Dean...
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The Wandering Hearts – Broadcast, Glasgow
Having spent weeks at the top of the Country Artist Album chart, the talent and quality of London-based ‘country, folk-pop’ group The Wandering Hearts won’t be confined to intimate venues like...
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An Evening with Jason Robert Brown – London Palladium
Composer/Musical Director: Jason Robert Brown Reviewer: Ava Eldred Probably best known for his cult musicals The Last 5 Years and Songs for a New World, Jason Robert Brown has been contemporary musical...
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Jarrod Dickenson – King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut, Glasgow
Reviewer: Lauren Humphreys It seems silly to label Nashville based, Texan troubadour Jarrod Dickenson a new, rising star, he’s an artist who’s been on the scene since 2010. However, now that the...
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The Mingus Big Band – Howard Assembly Room, Leeds
Leader: Boris Koslov Reviewer: Ron Simpson Opera North has recently announced plans for a major new redevelopment of the Grand Theatre area. This has to be welcome, but already the company goes well...
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Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra | Tchaikovsky, Korngold & Mussorgsky –...
Conductor: Vasily Petrenko Composers: Tchaikovsky, Korngold, Mussorgsky Reviewer: Rich Jevons The first part of this triple bill sees Tchaikovsky looking at forbidden love, notably Francesca’s adultery...
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Opera North Christmas Concert – Dewsbury Town Hall
Orchestra: Orchestra of Opera North Choirs: Chorus of Opera North Opera North Youth Chorus Opera North Young Voices Conductor: Garry Walker Reviewer: Ron Simpson Besides...
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Someone Like You: The Adele Songbook – Theatre Royal, Glasgow
It’s over a decade since Adele burst onto the music scene with her debut album 19. From there the then teenage sensation has matured into a world-dominating megastar. With Adele on a seemingly infinite...
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Russian Spirits – Huddersfield Town Hall
Orchestra: Orchestra of Opera North Conductor: Antony Hermus Soloist: Boris Giltburg (piano) Reviewer: Ron Simpson The latest in the Orchestra of Opera North’s Kirklees concerts, programmed for late...
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Glòir – The Usher Hall, Edinburgh
Led by the Massed Gaelic Choirs of Scotland Reviewer: Dominic Corr Over fifty thousand individuals reportedly speak Gaelic throughout Scotland. As an indigenous language, it’s official status is not...
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Let It Be – The SEC Armadillo, Glasgow
Reviewer: Lauren Humphreys 2019 marks 50 years since The Beatles walked over that famous crossing on Abbey Road, 50 years since they played on the roof of the Apple Corps. building on Savile Row and 49...
View ArticleRod Stewart – First Direct Arena Leeds
Reviewer: Rich Jevons The twelve thousand-strong audience are eager with anticipation for the appearance of rock legend Rod Stewart. He kicks off with Some Guys Have All the Luck which seems...
View ArticleLucie Jones Live at the Adelphi – Adelphi Theatre, London
Conductor: Freddie Tapner Currently taking a six-week break from her lead role in Waitress while the show’s composer Sara Bareilles appears nightly in the show, Lucie Jones just can’t stay away from...
View ArticleVintage Summertime with The Femmes – Turbine Theatre on the Jetty
There are few things more restful than sitting in a deckchair overlooking the River Thames on an unexpectedly summery September Sunday listening to the sounds of yesteryear. Reunited after months of...
View ArticleRoles We’ll Never Play – The Turbine on the Jetty
With gender blind casting increasing year upon year, the ‘never’ in this title should be placed alongside a question mark for in this show female and male performers swap roles, and sing songs from the...
View ArticleThe Barricade Boys – Turbine on the Jetty, London
As the Turbine Theatre’s summer festival draws to a close amid colder nights, the warm-hearted Barricade Boys sing songs from the musicals against the dramatic backdrop of Battersea Power Station, and...
View ArticleGirl Power – Thespie
The third in Thespie.com’s series of concerts (after Unlimited: The Songs of Stephen Schwartz and Oops…I Streamed It Again) sees the original cast of Six come together to sing songs from girl bands...
View ArticleBlack Matter – Fane Online
Writer and Performer: Giles Terera Director: Dan Poole Giles Terera is best known for his role as Aaron Burr in Hamilton, for which he won an Olivier award in 2018, but, as he demonstrates in Black...
View ArticlePreludes in Concert – Southwark Playhouse
Music and Lyrics: Dave Malloy Director: Alex Sutton No matter the talent, the fame or influence, there is one thing we all share in common: fear. Even Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninoff, a composer...
View ArticleMonday Night At The Apollo, London
Monday Night at the Apollo is a concert series featuring many of the West End’s best-known performers. In this penultimate concert, produced by Wild Mountain Productions, musical directors Richard...
View ArticleLucy McCormick’s Life: LIVE! – Battersea Arts Centre, London
Creator: Lucy McCormick with Morven Mulgrew The pandemic meant that many theatres had to redesign their spaces, with surprising results in some places. The Orange Tree ripped out its famous banquette...
View ArticleThe Gondoliers – Festival Theatre, Edinburgh
Libretto & Score: Gilbert & Sullivan Director: Stuart Maunder Conducted by Derek Clark and Jonathon Cole-Swinard With tremendous beliefs comes temptation, and when one of two happy-go-lucky...
View ArticleMozart, Serenade No. 10, Gran Partita – The Great Hall, St Bartholomew’s...
Ensemble: Figure Conductor: Frederick Waxman On hearing the Adagio of Mozart’s Gran Partita, Antonio Salieri, in Peter Shaffer’s Amadeus, finds himself overwhelmed: “This was a music I’d never heard....
View ArticleSix – Festival Theatre, Edinburgh
Writers: Toby Marlow & Lucy Moss Directors: Lucy Moss & Jamie Armitage Last week we celebrated International Women’s Day. A minor, though no less significant slice, of the appreciation,...
View ArticleLillias White Sings Broadway – Crazy Coqs, London
As part of their Americans In London series, cabaret venue Crazy Coqs presents Lillias White sings Broadway starring the Tony Award-winner herself, accompanied by the globally recognised Billy Stritch....
View ArticleHoagy Carmichael & Friends – Crazy Coqs, London
Performers: Lillias White and Billy Stritch Hoagy Carmichael’s melody for his 1927 Stardust embodies so much that is enduring about love songs from the Great American Songbook. The lyrics by Mitchell...
View ArticleLiza Pulman: The Heart of It – Riverside Studios, London
Liza Pulman is on a mission to break your heart or make it sing with her new show playing for a week at Riverside Studios based on the album she released in 2019. This tour show for The Heart of It,...
View ArticleAlistair McGowan: The Piano Show – Cadogan Hall, London
Alistair McGowan is undoubtedly a brilliant impressionist. His highly successful career spans his work on the original Spitting Image and Dead Ringers, through to his BBC One sketch show The Big...
View ArticleLiszt Mosaics – Sadler’s Wells, London
Artistic Director: István Pál Szalonna Choreographers: Gyӧrgy Áfalvi, Gábor Mihályi, Orza Calin and Zoltan Zsuráfszky Jr. More than perhaps any other venue in London, Sadler’s Wells can consider itself...
View ArticleKinky Boots The Musical in Concert – Theatre Royal Drury Lane, London
Music and Lyrics: Cyndi Lauper Book: Harvey Fierstein Director: Omar F Okai Some musicals seem to work better in concert form. Chicago, for instance, gained its huge, record-breaking success only after...
View ArticleQT Presents West End Cast Party – Middle Eight Hotel, London
Performers: Emma Hatton and Nick Shirm Any new cabaret evening has to work out how to differentiate itself, and forge an identity that almost makes the night sell itself. For West End Cast Party, a new...
View ArticleThe Rat Pack at Christmas – Cadogan Hall, London
Music is essential to any celebration of Christmas, be it the famous carols, the 80s and 90s pop songs that are so much a part of modern experience or the 1950s and 60s crooner numbers synonymous with...
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