tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6546468339418636140.post2912933385750273635..comments2024-01-12T04:58:49.069-05:00Comments on Kyrie, Eleison!: Adventures in England, Part 01Anastasia Theodoridishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16092531121989260111noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6546468339418636140.post-85034038960481792452009-10-14T20:15:03.115-04:002009-10-14T20:15:03.115-04:00We didn't have time for a show, but would LOVE...We didn't have time for a show, but would LOVE to see this one! I wonder whether it will still be running this summer...??? If so, we'll definitely make a point to catch it.<br /><br />Thanks for the tip, and various others, as well!Anastasia Theodoridishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16092531121989260111noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6546468339418636140.post-12736353434269959042009-10-14T09:08:12.085-04:002009-10-14T09:08:12.085-04:00I must have your wrong email, this bounced back to...I must have your wrong email, this bounced back to me.<br /><br />If you were interested in catching a show while in Merseyside, my Uncle Ronnie is in a musical at the Empire Theatre in Liverpool, "Twopence to Cross the Mersey". The review from the Liverpool Echo is below.<br /><br />Christopher<br /><br />Oct 7 2009 by Catherine Jones<br /><br />REVIEW: Twopence to Cross the Mersey at the Empire theatre<br /><br />IT’S grim up north, particularly if your parents are as feckless as Helen Forrester’s.<br /><br />Helen’s autobiographical tale of her erstwhile wealthy family falling on hard times and struggling to survive in 1930s Liverpool is perennially popular - despite the rather depressing subject matter.<br /><br />So popular in fact it’s garnered £2million in box office receipts since it first opened in 2004.<br /><br />The cast may have changed since then, but the central themes remain.<br /><br />Still, this 2009 show has had a makeover from producers the Fennah brothers with, apparently, one eye on the viability of a tour outside its natural stamping ground of Merseyside.<br /><br />While all the songs remain it’s been gently tweaked, shedding a character here and a scene there to make it all together brighter and tighter.<br /><br />It’s a canny move which knocks the running time down to a smidgeon under two-and-a-half hours.<br /><br />But what Twopence - despite having (apologies to Pete Wylie) a heart as big as Liverpool - still needs is a really knock out, hum-it-on-the-way-home song.<br /><br />Butterfly in the Rain, the ballad given a sensitive performance by “older Helen” Pauline Daniels at the start of the second half, is probably the closest the show currently gets, but I’m not sure you’d remember the words without cribbing.<br /><br />Daniels, reprising the role from two years ago, is an engaging narrator of Helen’s tale of woe and also brings some solid vocals to the mix. Her voice blends nicely with that of “young” Helen (Emma Grace Arends) in several duets throughout the evening.<br /><br />It may have been a first night glitch but Arends, who won the role in an open audition and makes a good job of creating a believable young teen, just needs to watch her pitching.<br /><br />In fact, the best voice on stage is that of Emma Vaudrey who plays Helen’s mother. It’s alas for her that Celia Forrester as a character has zero redeeming qualities.<br /><br />Elsewhere there are some amusingly-drawn cameos, with Ronnie Orr’s irate shopkeeper and an entertaining dole queue double act in Anthony Watson and Ciaran Kellgren.123https://www.blogger.com/profile/14514075641944568806noreply@blogger.com