The Lowry

Queens: The Exhibition

★★★☆☆

While many may be familiar with The Lowry’s theatre space, the venue also boasts numerous gallery spaces that host a range of temporary exhibitions alongside a permanent exhibition of LS Lowry’s work. The latest temporary exhibition curated by The Lowry combines history, musical theatre, and the modern world to ask, ‘What type of Queen are you?’ Produced with the support of Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss, the co-creators of the hit musical SIX, Queens: The Exhibition primarily celebrates the show.

SIX Exhibition

Global phenomenon SIX has arguably some of the most iconic costumes of modern musical theatre. The rhinestone clad, Tudor influenced, outfits effortlessly combine the pop princess element with actual royalty for each of the Queens, and are without a doubt one of our favourite elements of the musical. The Lowry have today announced that between 20 July and 3 November 2024, a new exhibition entitled Queens will be run in the Galleries of the Salford venue.

Cluedo 2

★☆☆☆☆

Iconic murder mystery boardgame Cluedo has already been adapted into a film (a cult classic with Tim Curry no less!), multiple television shows, musicals and in 2022 a play directed by Mark Bell who is best known for directing The Play That Goes Wrong. Now, Cluedo 2 is following the success of the 2022 play with a semi-sequel written by Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran, with Mark Bell returning as the director.

Noises Off

★★★★☆

A play within a play performed across three acts, Michael Frayn’s Noises Off is the original “goes wrong” play. Following the on and off stage antics of a touring theatre company as they perform ‘Nothing On’, Frayn’s work is timeless and this latest touring production directed by Lindsay Posner is brilliantly bad. The show begins with the cast of ‘Nothing On’ completing a final rehearsal before opening night. The cast are woefully underprepared; Dotty (Liza Goddard) is constantly getting lines wrong and misplacing sardines, Frederick (Simon Coates) keeps finding plot holes, and Brooke (Lisa Ambalavanar) is not only extremely inexperienced but has an uncanny ability to lose contact lenses.

The Crown Jewels

★☆☆☆☆

Based on the true story of 17th Century Irish Rebel Thomas Blood (Aiden McArdle), and his attempt to steal The Crown Jewels from King Charles II (Al Murray), a play written by the person behind Men Behaving Badly and featuring some of Britain’s most critically acclaimed comedy performers should, in theory, result in an outstanding stage show full of satire and humour. In reality, this production is the antithesis of this.

Buffy Revamped

★★★★★

Buffy Revamped is a one man show by Brendon Murphy that covers all 7 seasons of the cult classic Buffy The Vampire Slayer in just 70 minutes. With Murphy taking on the role of Spike, the exploits of The Slayer, the Scooby Gang, plus various bad guys are re-told. We had no idea what to expect ahead of the show, but I (Jo) am a massive Buffy fan and re-watch the entire 7 seasons (The Body episode aside!

Showstopper! The Improvised Musical

★★★★★

Most musical theatre writers spend years perfecting their work, testing out with audiences, and undoubtedly scrapping a fair few drafts along the way. Showstopper The Improvised Musical does away with all that, and instead produces a brand new musical at every performance using suggestions from the audience. They’re not just good at this, they’re Olivier award-winning good, so when we saw that they were performing at The Lowry there was no question that we had to go.