Manchester

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. Costumes, memorabilia from Moss’s personal collection, and insights into Marlow and Moss’s development process combine with informational boards detailing the lives of the real Tudor Queens and the pop Royalty that inspired their looks within the musical.

New Season

This week, HOME MCR unveiled an exciting lineup of shows for Autumn / Winter 2024. There is a diverse array of productions, with West End hits, groundbreaking new works, engaging family-friendly shows and a festive spectacular. We’ve pulled together our top picks of productions that we’ll be aiming to see over the upcoming months.

My Son’s a Queer, (But What Can You Do?) - 19 to 25 August

Rob Madge is social media royalty, thanks to their hilarious videos showing the Disney parades they created at home. This show is an autobiography of Rob’s life, and takes the audience on a journey through Rob’s experiences growing up queer, blending storytelling, comedy, and of course the home video clips that Rob is famous for. This is a celebration of individuality, but also a touching tribute to the power of unconditional love and acceptance.

Frankie Goes to Bollywood

★★★★★

Bollywood, the billion pound Indian film industry, is synonymous with high-energy, perfectly choreographed, song-and-dance numbers, elaborate costuming, and melodramatic storylines that convey a deeper moral lesson to the audience. Rifco Theatre Company have now taken these key Bollywood elements and combined them with the experiences of British women within the Bollywood film industry bubble to produce a brand new musical entitled Frankie Goes to Bollywood.

Silence

★★★★★

In 1947, the Partition of India took place. Marking the end of British colonial rule, India was divided into three parts: India, West Pakistan (now Pakistan), and East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). The Partition triggered one of the largest mass migrations in history, with an estimated 10-15 million people crossing between the different countries.

Accompanying this migration came unprecedented violence. Riots, massacres, millions of deaths, and the decimation of entire villages irrevocably changed the social fabric of the region and also shaped modern Britain.

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. The exhibition will ask ‘What kind of Queen are you?’ and will contain a display of all six iconic costumes from the show. This is the first time all six costumes will have been on display in the UK.

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.

Come From Away

★★★★★

Welcome to the Rock, specifically to the town of Gander in Newfoundland, the easternmost province in Canada. The town is small and only has around 10,000 inhabitants, but there is an international airport; a leftover from the days when flying transatlantic involved refuelling mid-flight.

Come From Away tells the story of how this small town in Canada welcomed 38 planes full of people (approximately 7,000 people)when the United States airspace was closed in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. For 5 days, the people of Gander provided food, showers, comfort and friendship to the Come From Aways (a term used in Newfoundland to describe people who aren’t from the island) until the flights could leave again.

2024 Upcoming Shows

Happy New Year!

With a new year comes a new set of productions within the local area, so we thought we’d share details of some of the productions which will be coming to the local area in 2024 that we are most excited about.

With a few productions, particularly those at ATG Theatres, the touring productions are on in both Liverpool and Manchester at different times of the year. This means we’re able to look at what dates work best for us, or to see productions multiple times. We’ll list the dates under each of the venues a tour is visiting, but we may only see them at one of the venues listed. We’ve also tried to group the venues based on the city they’re in, starting in Liverpool and moving eastwards to Manchester.

Wizard of Oz

★★★☆☆

Flying into Liverpool from sell out performances at the London Palladium, musical classic The Wizard of Oz has been given a contemporary twist complete with additional songs by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice.

Starring Aston Merrygold of JLS fame as Tin Man and local legend / RuPaul’s Drag Race UK winner The Vivienne as the Wicked Witch of the West, this is a colourful, technological masterpiece with stunning sets and costumes.

The key elements of the story are all unchanged. Dorothy (Aviva Tulley) and her dog Toto run away from home just as a tornado hits her Kansas farm. Her and Toto end up transported to Munchkinland in the land of Oz, with the only hope of getting home lying with the Wizard of Oz in Emerald City at the end of the Yellow Brick Road. Along the way, Dorothy meets The Scarecrow (Benjamin Yates), The Tin Man (Aston Merrygold) and The Cowardly Lion (Nic Greenshields). Together, they all embark on a journey of self-discovery whilst battling the Wicked Witch of the West (The Vivienne) who wants nothing more than to take the ruby slippers from Dorothy’s feet.