What a treat Husb and I have just had! We have been to see two magnificent shows at the Liverpool Empire...Phantom of the Opera and Sister Act. They couldn't have been more different but both were superb.
I negotiated with Manchester Palace Theatre's "Front of House" Stuart Dornford-May and reserved centre stalls seats for Phantom...they were top price but SOOOOO worth it (they were Husb's birthday present after all.) This was the new vamped up production .. it is on tour and hasn't even made it to London yet and what a treat to have the fantastic John Owen-Jones playing Phantom. He is now the longest "running" Phantom with nearly 2,000 performances to date. He was absolutely amazing (and word perfect (!!) This was a much more atmospheric production, we had more stage smoke and hazy scenes as we delved deeper into the vaults of the operahouse. We both felt on edge watching it, waiting for "things" to "happen" as we knew what was coming- we have seen the story of LOT 666 4 times now... Anyway this one was without doubt the most enjoyable.
The only thing I missed was the candlelit river boat ride which was portrayed in a slightly different way, but that is not a criticism, it was FAB FAB FAB.
AND YES OF COURSE I BOUGHT A MUG =)
Tuesday was a completely different story. A coachful of regular theatre peeps turned up to go to the Liverpool Empire.... same faces every time, I'm sure half the time they don't even know what they are seeing or where I'm taking them.. just paying me money and finding out when they get there!
There were 60 leapyabouters who came to see the dazzling Sister Act. What a feel good great fun show this was! It exceeded all my expectations, especially as Husb said to me on the bus there "We don't know any of the songs you know. There are all new songs tonight, none of the ones from the film." (Oh heck) But I needn't have worried, the songs were catchy and feet tapping, and judging by the number of "OMG Ali, it was brilliant" texts, everyone else enjoyed it too.
Michael Starke, alias Sinbad (Brookside) and a barber in Corrie?? (who watches soaps???) starred alongside Denise Black (Corrie hairdresser and loads more TV credits) (
website here) and both were fabulous but the star of the show was Cynthia Erivo who totally owned the stage. (We would never have known that she, too, was performing in her first main role)
I was so so so so pleased with it. We had seats scattered all over the place, some upstairs, some down, Andy and Phil somehow got the prime centre seats while husb and I were on an end, I had a waiting list, people cancelling on the day and a delayed train for one of the girls going independently BUT IT WAS SUCH A GREAT NIGHT I WAS SO SO PLEASED!!!! Totally deserving of the standing ovations.
AND YES OF COURSE I BOUGHT A MUG =)
