Manchester Theatre Awards

> Independent informed reviews by the region’s most experienced critics

What's on

Manchester gets Dirty all over again

Dirty Dancing is returning to the Palace Theatre in Manchester this week two years after it first wowed the city

Manchester gets Carnaby Street

Several familiar faces front a new musical coming to Manchester Opera House this week

Waterside's summer attractions

Waterside Arts Centre in Sale, Greater Manchester, has a variety of events and activities coming up over the summer

How to Succeed for The Company

Award-winning youth theatre, The Company are returning to The Lowry in Salford with their latest production How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying, the musical and satirical look at cut-throat corporate life and office politics

Tina Turner musical heads for Salford

The Lowry in Salford stages the life of pop legend Tina Turner in a new musical Soul Sister from June 3-8

Carrying a torch for Piaf

The final show of the Octagon’s 2012-13 season of plays in Bolton is the Pam Gems classic Piaf

Pinter's Birthday Party for Exchange

The classic Harold Pinter play The Birthday Party continues the current season at Manchester’s Royal Exchange Theatre from June 5 to July 6

Sue backs Bolton fundraising

The Octagon in Bolton has announced that TV favourite Sue Johnston is lending her support to the Theatre’s 2013 fundraising campaign

Sherwood Foresters sought

The Octagon in Bolton is looking for local young people, aged 10-15, who would like to audition for the upcoming festive production of Robin Hood

Not Another Festival for Manchester

Not Another Festival in partnership with PlatformMCR is a new event bringing together some of Manchester’s key artistic organisations (Contact, Royal Exchange Theatre, Gorse Hill Studio and Z-arts) and young people’s organisations (Old Trafford and ME1 Youth Group) to showcase the creativity of the city’s young people

Happy Birthday to Rocky

Still fabulous at 40 - Richard O’Brien’s Rocky Horror Show is set to celebrate its 40th Anniversary at the Palace in Manchester in June

Drama in the charity shop

Oldham’s Hard Graft Theatre Company has come up with a novel way to give one of their town’s empty shops a new use

Ghost comes back to Manchester

Ghost the Musical, based on the Academy Award winning film, is returning to the Opera House Manchester – where it enjoyed its world premiere and a seven-week pre-West End run

Brilliant Adventures for Exchange Studio

The world premiere of Bruntwood Prize-winning play Brilliant Adventures comes to the Studio at Manchester’s Royal Exchange Theatre to May 25

Queen tribute show for Opera House

Bohemian Rhapsody The Hits of Queen comes to Manchester Opera House from June 4-8

Cush Jumbo is in the House

Olivier Award and Manchester Theatre Award nominated actress Cush Jumbo is set to star in a major revival of Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House at Manchester’s Royal Exchange Theatre from Wednesday to June 1

Octagon aims for a perfect 10

The Octagon Theatre artistic director David Thacker will be celebrating his fifth year in the role with 10 home-produced productions – the first time in its history

More collaborations for Exchange

A co-production of a landmark play by Arthur Miller, a major revival of a Stephen Sondheim classic (in partnership with West Yorkshire Playhouse), a new production of a Victoria Wood play with songs and the world premiere of the latest Simon Stephens play are among the highlights of the newly-announced Manchester Royal Exchange 2013 / 14 Season

Library books out with final four

The next four productions, from Manchester’s Library Theatre Company, will be the final ones under the Library banner prior to the move with Cornerhouse to their new Manchester city venue, Home

Elementary for the Opera House

An original theatrical thriller arrives at the Opera House in Manchester in June when Sherlock Holmes embarks on a gripping new case in Sherlock Holmes – The Best Kept Secret

Pirates heave to at Opera House

Gilbert and Sullivan’s best loved operetta The Pirates of Penzance will play at the Manchester Opera House in June when the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company return to the stage after a 10 year absence with a historic collaboration with Scottish Opera

Ladies Day out in Oldham

Ladies day comes to Oldham Coliseum in May

Enough said in a double bill

The Enough Project: a double-bill of new plays from leading Northern voices seeks answers to the question ‘what is enough?’ It’s the starting point for works directed by Alan Lane (Slung Low Theatre Company) coming to The Lowry in Salford June 20-22

Fringe on Top in July

Greater Manchester Fringe Festival is back in July

Sound and fury for city premiere

A number of Manchester’s most exciting young actors are in the cast for the Library Theatre Company’s third and final site-specific production, Manchester Sound: The Massacre

Not quite so grim up North

In Northern Spirit’s new theatre production A Wondrous Place, four young writers challenge the ‘it’s grim up North’ clichés and offer four fresh perspectives on contemporary Northern cities: Liverpool, Newcastle, Sheffield and Manchester

Summer arts project at Octagon

This summer the Octagon in Bolton will be running a creative two-week performing arts project for two groups, aged 10-15 and 16-25 at Bolton College

Buxton Festival

Launching Buxton Festival 2013, Artistic Director Stephen Barlow, just back from an extended stint of conducting in Beijing, unveiled a three-week programme offering 140 events

Kingston in Branagh Macbeth

Alex Kingston is to appear alongside Kenneth Branagh in the Manchester International Festival production of Macbeth, which has already sold out

Jodie set for Manchester panto

Britain’s Got Talent winners Ashleigh & Pudsey team up with Jodie Prenger, Ben Faulks (aka Mr Bloom from CBeebies) regular Manchester panto favourite Tam Ryan and Eric Potts for the city’s Opera House family pantomime Dick Whittington

Dreamcoat for Stockport Plaza

Stockport’s restored Plaza welcomes Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, as part of its  national tour from July 1-6

Alzheimer's through eyes of a child

Belinda Lazenby, artistic director of the newly-formed Az2B Theatre Company based in Penryn in Cornwall has written and produced Grandma Remember Me which looks at the wider impact of Alzheimer's disease on a family and is written through the eyes of a child

More than Everage for 2014

Barry Humphries is to extend his Farewell Tour of the UK into 2014

Rain forecast for Manchester

The award-winning revival of Singin’ In The Rain will tour the UK and Ireland later this year starting at the Opera House in Manchester on November 13

Joey gets a run out at Lowry

The Lowry welcomed Joey, the life-size puppet horse to Salford to celebrate the launch of the North West premiere of War Horse, which comes to the Salford venue in November

Mysterious Skin stage premiere in city

Following a critically-acclaimed sold out extended run of their original play M the award-nominated Vertigo Theatre Productions switch gear to present the controversial drama Mysterious Skin written by Prince Gomolvilas and based on the bestselling novel by Scott Heim

Many happy returns for Dick Whittington

Stockport Plaza has announced the cast for its family pantomime Dick Whittington

Manchester International Festival 2013

With performers ranging from Massive Attack to Kenneth Branagh, from Maxine Peake to pianist Martha Argerich and featuring such novelties as a biospheric mill on the banks of the River Irwell, the programme for this year’s Manchester International Festival is nothing if not diverse

West Side Story for Christmas

West Side Story will be at the Palace in Manchester, from December 10 to January 4, as part of a national tour that follows a season at Sadler’s Wells in London

Ghost comes back to Manchester

Ghost the Musical, based on the award winning film, is to return to the Opera House in Manchester – where it enjoyed its world premiere and a seven-week pre-West End run

Lisa heads home with Strictly spin-off

Manchester’s own Lisa Riley headlines when Strictly Confidential, another spin-off from the hit TV reality contest, comes to the Lowry in Salford from July 8-14

Read more...

Latest reviews

The Count of Monte Cristo
Caroline Faber as Piaf
Ian Tilton Take Five 
Roy Smiljanic (l-r) Rayyah McCaul, David Crowley and Mark Whiteley
Company Jill Winternitz and Paul-Michael Jones in Dirty Dancing
Alastair Muir The cast of Carnaby Street
La Traviata from Opera UK
Benjamin Ealovega Mugabeland
A scene from SUTRA
Hugo Glendinning (l-r) Annie Sawle, Laura Aramayo and Sue McCormick
Andrew Billington Photography

The Count of Monte Cristo

Dumas/Loizou/Mann/Tolson
Thunder Road Theatre at Buxton Studio Theatre
(reviewer: Philip Radcliffe)

Piaf

Pam Gems
Octagon Theatre, Bolton at Octagon Theatre, Bolton
(reviewer: Carmel Thomason)

Mixed Bill

Various
Birmingham Royal Ballet at Buxton Opera House
(reviewer: Philip Radcliffe)

I Love Oldham

Mark Whiteley
Hard Graft at Albion Street (shop unit) Oldham
(reviewer: Paul Genty)

Dirty Dancing

Eleanor Bergstein
Karl Sydow and Joye Entertainment at Palace Theatre, Manchester
(reviewer: David Upton)

Carnaby Street

Carl Leighton-Pope
Carnaby Street Promotions Ltd in association with Hackney Empire at Opera House, Manchester
(reviewer: David Upton)

La Traviata

Verdi/McCulloch
Opera UK at Buxton Opera House
(reviewer: Philip Radcliffe)

Mugabeland!

Justin MacGregor
Come As You Arts Northwest at The Lowry Studio
(reviewer: Alan Hulme)

Sutra

Sidi Larby Cherkaoui and Antony Gormley
Monks from the Shaolin Temple at The Lowry
(reviewer: Alan Hulme)

Ladies' Day

Amanda Whittington
Oldham Coliseum company at Oldham Coliseum
(reviewer: Paul Genty)

Latest articles

"Am I right, sir?"

The 39 Steps, still packing them in at the Opera House and all over the world, might be one of the most unlikely stage successes of the decade. We talk to its adapter Patrick Barlow.

Kevin Bourke

The Max Factor

How do you make To Kill A Mockingbird at the Royal Exchange relevant for a contemporary audience and for those who grew up loving the book?

Kevin Bourke

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