115 stories by "Chris Bartlett"
The Theatre Royal's decision to go beyond its usual local talent pool for casting this year's panto has mixed results. Importing two
Anthony Hopkins Theatre, Clwyd Theatr Cymru, Mold: What usually shines through in any new version of Shakespeare's often performed revenge thriller is the protagonist's very modern…
Grange, Northwich: There may be no Baron Hardup or Dandini and only one ugly sister, but this modest production makes up for what it lacks in cast members with vim, energy and sheer hard wor…
St Mary's Centre, Chester: With so many stage and screen adaptations of Lewis Carroll's beloved adventures with Alice crowding our consciousnesses, Theatre in the Quarter deserve huge p…
Plaza, Stockport: The Plaza has scored something of a coup for the under-12s crowd in its casting this year. Because joining Gary Damer from CBBC's Hotel Trouble - who returns to likeab…
Anthony Hopkins Theatre, Clwyd Theatr Cymru, Mold: Peter Rowe's tried and tested formula of pairing traditional pantomimic shenanigans with rock'n'roll standards - all deliver…
Emlyn Williams Theatre, Clwyd Theatr Cymru, Mold: So much of what we know about the First World War - the sights, the sounds and the first-hand horrors - has come to us through the prism of …
The Brindley, Runcorn: Any fresh attempts to bring the horrors of the First World War to life have to work hard to stand out among the current barrage of programming and events marking the c…
Anthony Hopkins, Clwyd Theatr Cymru, Mold: For a decade-long run that straddled the 1940s, Tommy Handley's radio series It's That Man Again kept Britain laughing, broadcasting, as …
Clwyd Theatr Cymru, Mold: If he were plying his trade today Henrik Ibsen would not be out of place on the writing staff of Coronation Street or EastEnders. Emma Lucia's solidly mounted …
Cutting Room Square, Manchester: Last year the temporarily homeless Library Theatre Company brought its season of site-specific productions to a climax with Manchester Sound: The Massacre, a…
Royal Exchange, Manchester: It is perhaps fitting that one of the greatest poems in literary history has been adapted by one of our best-loved living poets. And while it is a little verbose …
Palace, Manchester: Critics were not kind to this mid-1980s LA-set, hair metal-inspired jukebox musical when it transferred from Broadway to the West End in 2011, largely dismissing it as pu…
Royal Exchange, Manchester: When theatre descends from its lofty position of comfort to wallow in the lives of society's most deprived and most vulnerable, the results, however well int…
Phones 4u Arena, Manchester: The past few years has seen a meteoric rise for the south-west London raised son of former theatrical agent Michael - now a willing sidekick/stooge - culminating…
Royal Exchange, Manchester: Towards the end of this sparky and fleet-footed adaptation of Virginia Woolf's gender-bending comic 1928 novel, the central character is described as being &…
Clwyd Theatr Cymru, Mold: Dylan Thomas famously had a love-hate relationship with the land of his fathers. Never is this more evident than in this, his dramatic masterwork - celebrating its …
Palace Theatre, Manchester: Although it has never quite matched the success of Ben Elton's previous jukebox musical - the world-conquering We Will Rock You - this love letter to the son…
Albert Halls, Bolton: You know what you are getting with the Albert Halls panto, with its old-school approach and jokes and routines as old the hills. It can seem a little cheap and cheerful…
The Plaza, Stockport: It is a pleasure to see this beautiful old listed building being used, let alone filled to the rafters with a noisy and appreciative audience. And Extravaganza Producti…
Royal Exchange, Manchester: This unnassuming little number from Victoria Wood - a play with music as opposed to a full-blown musical, as the press information and the author herself takes ca…
Clwyd Theatr Cymru, Mold: After the triumphs of previous years, writer/director Peter Rowe's glorious hybrid of panto and rock'n'roll jukebox musical has become something of a…
Octagon, Bolton: There have been so many near-identical versions of Robin Hood that the Octagon deserves credit for trying to do something different with the legend. The twist here is to add…
Lowry, Salford: The hitherto unexplored emotional consequences of organ donation are at the heart of this new work from the Manchester-based Box of Tricks. And former Paines Plough writer-in…
Clwyd Theatr Cymru, Mold: It is hard to make your mark when reviving a play that is so fresh in living memory. And it doesn't help that Michael Frayn's cerebral 1998 drama - a rumi…
