Theatre Review Of All These Friends And Lovers Hope St Theatre Liverpool

 

This production, from Old Fruit Jar Productions in association with The Hope Street Theatre, revisits February 1964 when Beatlemania was at its height. It explores the close connection forged between John Lennon and Brian Epstein and gives us a glimpse into their relationship. But is it conjecture or fact? Whilst the events depicted in the play are fictional, writer, Alex King, asserts that they are rooted in well-documented historical context and extensive research into the lives, personalities and cultural circumstances surrounding both men. This speculative piece has Jordan Barclay cast as John Lennon and Joseph Winder as manger/mentor Brian Epstein, both encapsulate their characters superbly.

As the audience arrived, Beatles tracks from 1960’s albums played helping get everyone in the mood for the piece.  The set is constant, depicting the hotel bedroom in the Plaza Hotel, New York where Lennon and Epstein were staying during a Beatles tour of the USA. Background screams from fans outside the hotel could be heard throughout the piece and at one point Lennon is terrified upon hearing a loud bang, thinking it’s a gun shot, but it turns out to be a car backfiring, epitomising his fatal demise some years later.

Brian Epstein had taken a leap of faith by deciding to manage the new pop sensation, The Beatles after seeing them play at Liverpool’s famous Cavern Club. Much has been speculated about the relationship between Lennon and Epstein, a covert homosexual who had a secret life of promiscuity with men away from the respectable world of music shop owner and rock and roll band management. It must be noted that homosexuality at this time was illegal and in the early 1960’s homosexuality was widely stigmatised and criminalised across most of the world. In many countries, same-sex relationships were deemed immoral, illegal, and a threat to societal norms. Not long after Epstein’s death, homosexuality was decriminalised.

When Lennon finds himself unexpectedly alone with Epstein at the Plaza Hotel, New York untold emotions and fears spill out from Lennon and Epstein is there to comfort and motivate him. Their close bond is portrayed and Epstein’s attraction for Lennon is evident. With sexual tension and an emotional narrative this production is a moving insightful tribute to both men caught up in a world of drugs, alcohol, fame and new experiences far from the everyday life they once were used to and knew.

The show is 1 hour in length without an interval.

For tickets see https://hopestreettheatre.com/whats-on/

Production runs from 25^th – 29^th August 2026

Reviewer:  Anne Pritchard

On: 26^th August 2026

Album Review Jenius Paul Heaton

Forty years since releasing his debut album with The Housemartins and twenty years since The Beautiful South split, Paul Heaton is back with a new LP, Jenius. The fifteen songs find him writing about those universal themes of love, death and politics, alongside his favourite pastime: drinking.

Joining him on lead vocals for the second time is Scotland’s rising Celtic/country star Rianne Downey. With his own ear for catchy, melodic pop, Lightning Seeds’ Ian Broudie is the perfect producer for Heaton. The opening chords of ‘Can’t Get Next to You’ call to mind the late-70s power pop of The Only Ones. The lyrics focus on romantic frustration and the helpless feeling of being unable to reach or charm the person you desire. That Heaton sings “you’re one of life’s temptations but I can’t get next to you” is a clear indication that the title is a deliberate reference to The Temptations song of the same name.

Downey makes her first contribution on the next track, the impossibly catchy ‘Favourite Kind of Idiot’, a song that celebrates and laughs at her partner’s flaws. This was the lead single from the album, accompanied by a quirky little video. ‘I Want the Job’ is a lush country ballad on which Downey’s vocals have the perfect tinge of sadness and longing for a job she might never have. The string arrangement only adds to the song’s pathos. ‘Sad Songs and Lawsuits’ is almost a ska tune, turning into an uplifting song about the bitter end of relationships. Already, Heaton’s band have had to turn their talents to very different styles of music.

Heaton’s previous vocal partners, Briana Corrigan, Alison Wheeler and Jacqui Abbott, were perfect at the time, but surely Rianne Downey is his best yet. The blend of their voices works beautifully on the likes of ‘She Ain’t Pretty’, ‘One Eye Open’ and ‘Go Upstream’.

But it’s the lyrics on the less straightforward tracks that really shine through, such as the message behind ‘Send in the Clowns’, an acerbic takedown of the political class. ‘Do Not Ask Me’ uses the melody from Sonny and Cher’s ‘And the Beat Goes On’ to tell the tale of a man who seems to have gone missing from his own wedding photos, before Downey steals the show on the lively ‘Don’t Lean on Me’. Declan O’Rourke then joins the pair on the mournful stomper ‘The Whisky Did’.

It irks me that I still have to remind people who he is when I tell them I’m going to see Paul Heaton, and I suspect that lack of recognition, despite such a familiar back catalogue, is behind the album’s title and artwork. The black-and-white cover, with his surname writ large, brings to mind Johnny Cash’s American Recordings album covers.

Towards the album’s end, ‘Good for the Bees’ is a ballad complete with a beautiful waltzing outro, while ‘Go Upstream’ showcases once again how naturally Heaton and Downey’s voices complement each other. Then comes ‘A Son A Father’, a stomping glam-rock swipe at whitewashed eulogies. The line “and when you pass the casket/and he’s lying on his front/remember him/a son, a father, husband/and a c**t” ensures it’ll never pick up much radio play.

It should be beyond doubt by now that Paul Heaton is a genius: a master of contrasting bright, catchy pop melodies with dark, cynical and witty social commentary. Jenius has everything that makes him a national treasure. Forty years into his career, perhaps it’s time we finally learned how to spell genius correctly.

Jenius is available to download on all major streaming platforms and can be purchased here,

https://shop.paulheaton.emi.com/

Reviewer: Adrian Cork 

On: 28/07/2026

Album Review Comes in Waves Carly Simon

Eighteen years after This Kind of Love, her last album of original material, Carly Simon returns with Comes in Waves, a record that feels less like a comeback than the continuation of a conversation temporarily interrupted. Much has happened in the intervening years. Simon has published two memoirs, been inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and largely withdrawn from recording. More significantly, the 83-year-old recently revealed that she has been living with Parkinson’s disease for several years, alongside other health problems.

Inevitably, that knowledge hangs over Comes in Waves, but this is far from an album dominated by illness or mortality. Instead, its twelve songs find Simon doing what she has always done best: examining love, loss, family, regret and resilience with intelligence, humour and painful honesty.

Recorded primarily at her studio on Martha’s Vineyard with a circle of close collaborators, including her children Ben and Sally Taylor and the late John Forté, Comes in Waves has an intimate, almost homemade quality. Simon's voice may now carry the passing of time, but that only adds another dimension to songs in which phrasing and emotional nuance matter as much as the words themselves.

She makes her intentions clear from the opening track, ‘Howl’. Against a jaunty, gently percolating piano melody, Simon urges the listener to “howl like the wind” and “roar like the river”. It is defiant without becoming melodramatic, a declaration that whatever life throws at you, sometimes the appropriate response is simply to make some noise.

From there, Comes in Waves settles into more familiar Simon territory. ‘Maybe I Never Loved You’ is wonderfully ambiguous, balancing bitterness, resignation and lingering affection. Its central thought, maybe she never loved him, although she thought she did, could easily have become straightforward recrimination, but Simon is too subtle a songwriter for that.

It is the way she delivers the final line, hesitating over whether perhaps she always will love him, that changes everything. Is this anger, denial, regret or acceptance? Simon leaves the listener to decide. More than half a century after ‘You’re So Vain’, she still understands the value of not explaining everything. 

The similarly themed ‘The More I Look for You’ continues that exploration of relationships and memories that refuse to behave themselves. Inevitably, there will be speculation about whether former husband James Taylor is lurking somewhere within these songs, but identifying their subject is ultimately less interesting than what Simon does with the emotions behind them.

If romantic love remains complicated, maternal love is considerably less so. ‘Mother of Pearl’, written for her daughter Sally Taylor, is one of the album's most affecting moments. Simon looks back at Sally as a seven-year-old child dealing with her parents’ divorce, mixing apology with an unmistakable declaration of devotion. By the time she reaches the emotional cry of “My girl, oh my girl”, the autobiographical detail has become something universal: a parent looking backwards and wondering what they might have done differently.

Musically, Comes in Waves is equally comfortable moving between styles. ‘Love Has No Ending’, drawing on W.H. Auden’s As I Walked Out One Evening, has a folk character coloured by mandolin and harmonica, while ‘Slowly’ has an almost hymnal quality. It is here that the phrase which gives the album its title appears, and it feels particularly appropriate. Memories, grief, happiness and creativity rarely arrive neatly or in order. They come in waves. 

One of the album's most intriguing moments actually reaches back 55 years. Simon revisits ‘Share the End’, originally recorded for 1971’s Anticipation, with the original versions' producer, former Yardbirds bassist Paul Samwell-Smith, returning to help reshape it.

A song concerned with madmen, false leaders and a world apparently determined to destroy itself has acquired an uncomfortable new relevance. Simon's increasingly visceral vocal towards its conclusion transforms the song from an interesting excavation of her past into something urgent and contemporary. It also provides a reminder that while circumstances change, good songs have an unfortunate habit of becoming relevant again.

Not everything here is quite so weighty. Simon's sly humour, an essential but sometimes overlooked ingredient of her songwriting, surfaces on ‘Four in the Morning’. Written by her late friend Judy Belushi, the song finally receives a proper recording, decorated with bells, keyboards and assorted “weird little things”, with Belushi's own voice woven into the track. It is affectionate, eccentric and charming.

All of which leads to ‘Do It Anyway’, a deceptively simple closing song and perhaps the perfect ending to Comes in Waves. Against acoustic guitar, Simon offers encouragement to keep going even when you are convinced you cannot face another day or win another battle.

Then something lovely happens. As the record fades, Simon's family can be heard clapping, singing and laughing together, described in the sleeve notes simply as “the usual Thanksgiving fun”. After an album filled with memories, loss, fractured relationships and the passage of time, it ends not with a grand statement about mortality but with the sound of people enjoying being alive.

There is an understandable temptation to hear Comes in Waves as a late-career summation, particularly given Simon's age and recent disclosure about her health. But treating it as a farewell would do the album a disservice.

More than fifty years after Anticipation and ‘You’re So Vain’ established her as one of the defining singer-songwriters of her generation, the voice has inevitably changed, but the intelligence behind it has not. If anything, the years have given Simon another instrument to work with. Every hesitation, crack and shift in emphasis carries meaning.

At 83, Carly Simon isn't trying to sound like the woman she was in 1971. She is singing as the woman she is now, looking backwards, looking around her and, crucially, still looking forward.

Comes in Waves is available to listen to on all major streaming services.

Reviewer: Adrian Cork 

On: 15/08/2026

Theatre Review The Librarians: A Very Serious Comedy! Edinburgh Fringe

Cabbage Productions in association with Pleasance.

Cabbage Productions was founded by actors and writers, Matthew Howell, and Jack Michael Stacey, who met during the original London production of ‘The Play That Goes Wrong’ in the West End and began writing together in 2019. In 2024, writer and director Katie-Ann McDonough joined the company as Creative Director, bringing a background in farce, ensemble comedy, and new writing development that has sharpened and expanded the company's artistic vision. The team brought ‘Spy Movie: The Play’ to the Edinburgh Fringe in 2024 and 2025.

This year they bring ‘The Librarians: A Very Serious Comedy!’. Described as “a brand new, laugh-out-loud state of the nation farce for the whole family” the premise is that the staff at Plumstanton Library are clinging to tradition as the shelves collapse around them. The roof leaks, the shelves are bare and they haven’t issued a new library card in years. When a new head librarian arrives, and they learn the building could be condemned and sold, panic spreads fast! Can they save the library and themselves before it’s too late?

Clearly Cabbage Productions’ reputation comes before it – this looked like a sell-out show so the anticipation was high! It’s impossible to describe a play which is deliberately chaotic and relies on that chaos for laughs. The opening was strong with the dead pan delivery of a speech in memory of the late Head Librarian ending in a printer error! Other highlights for me included jokes around cuts to the tea and coffee budget, a slapstick scene involving a burst water pipe and water being squeezed out of Work Experience’s tie to provide a glass of water for the Inspector, and switching the library shelf labels around in a farcical way every time the Inspector looks away to check the different genres on his list.

A few jokes did seem to fall a bit flat though – there was a lull about a third of the way through and the gag involving the stage lights turning off randomly (due to lack of investment in the library building) lost its impact for me after the first couple of times. There was a reference to Mont Blanc pens which seemed to be shoehorned in – I think we all knew where that was going - and it fell flat in the show I saw.

Overall, though, there was a fair amount of laughter and audience seemed enthusiastic. ‘The Librarians: A Very Serious Comedy!’ was written by Matthew Howell and Jack Stacey and directed by Amy Milburn; it is showing at Pleasance Two, Pleasance Courtyard (venue 33), Edinburgh Fringe 15:15 daily (5th – 31st August (not 17th, 24th) Performance length:1 hour (no interval). Age suitability: 12+

https://edfringeguide.com/show/the-librarians-a-very-serious-comedy

Reviewer: Sue Hayward

On: 12th August 2026

Theatre Review Helen Bradley: Painter and Storyteller Edinburgh Fringe

‘Helen Bradley: Painter and Storyteller’ is the sixth painter play that Kara Wilson has written, where she portrays the artist at work and completes a painting in the artist’s style during the show. Previous shows brought to the Edinburgh Fringe include ‘Bloomsbury Bell’ (Wilson’s solo show about Vanessa Bell) and ‘Beryl Cook: A Private View’. This year Wilson performs in the persona of a 78-year-old Helen Bradley (1900 -1979) using the scenario of an art club as a vehicle for engaging her audience and telling her story. We really believe it is Bradley talking to us and she captivates us with her gentle humour and interesting anecdotes.

Bradley paints as she talks - the choice of “Oh, Just Look” as the painting in progress is perfect as it depicts Bradley herself as a 6-year-old child with her brother, George, their mother, Aunt Mary (“let’s give Aunt Mary a face”), and Aunt Frances. It appears natural for Bradley to regale us with stories about them and other family members and friends, as she meanders through her life from age 6 to 78 seemingly effortlessly and pleasingly. 

To anyone who doesn’t know about Bradley’s life (such as me) it’s fascinating to discover that she had been an accomplished pianist and only “took up” painting at 65 when she could no longer play the piano due to cutting the top off her thumb! Bradley attended Oldham Art School aged 13 but “I have to say, I didn’t learn a thing” having been distracted by the social side of college and “rudely interrupted by war”. Inspired by visiting art exhibitions at 65 (where she was particularly interested in Mughal paintings which told stores) and meeting Lowry at an art club she takes the plunge and starts to paint. Bradley finds her forte in painting people she knew; a chance encounter leads to her exhibiting in London where her paintings sell well, and later she brings out some bestselling picture books based on her Edwardian childhood.

Wilson waits at the exit after the show to greet the audience and there’s the chance to exchange a few words, she tells me that some of her monologue uses Bradley’s actual words from various sources including her when she was a guest on BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs in 1975. The monologue certainly comes across as authentic and natural. This is clearly a well-researched and polished show.

‘Helen Bradley: Painter and Storyteller’ was written and performed by Kara Wilson and is showing at Cellar, Pleasance Courtyard (venue 33), Edinburgh Fringe 11:20 daily (5th –30th August (not 19th). Performance length: 55 minutes (no interval). Age suitability: 12+

https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/helen-bradley-painter-and-storyteller

Reviewer: Sue Hayward

On: 12th  August 2026

Theatre Review Adrift Lyceum Theatre Oldham

This is one of the final offerings in this year’s Oldham Arts Festival, performed by a Welsh theatre company called Infinity Productions. The premise is simply that of three men adrift in a boat on the Atlantic after a failed mutiny. It is also simply one of the funniest shows certainly this review has seen in long time. 

The minimalist set comprises of three boxes with a rope marking out the boat, with the movement from the waves and the expanse of the ocean left to the audience’s imagination. What makes the show so entertaining is a combination of the changing dynamics between the three characters, some very funny dialogue and numerous absurd scenarios but none of this would work without excellent acting and great comic timing, which the cast display in abundance. There are several moments of extended silence where the audience is kept in suspense to see how a specific character will ultimately react to certain ridiculous or bizarre suggestion and there is great comedy in watching the facial expression of the character pondering how to react, as if you can almost hear the cogs in his brain working out what to do.

The set sounds almost like a joke in itself, being that of an Englishman, a Welshman and an Australian alone in a boat. There is no attempt to mock racial stereotypes with the premise being that Wilbur, the Englishman, appearing to have some authority, had started the mutiny; Mr. Roberts, the Welshman is an experienced seaman who was coerced into joining it and John the Australian seems to be a man of limited intelligence who just happily went along with the suggestion. There are certainly tensions as to who is blame for the predicament in which they find themselves but ultimately, they are all quite literally in the same boat in a life and death scenario. The men are certainly in the boat for at least a month, though it is never explained what they drink to survive (presumably there is meant to be a barrel of water somewhere!).

The play very amusingly explores various aspects of their shared predicament, from trying to pass the time with petty games to trying to control their emotions (and often failing!), consider ways how they might try to get on a shipping lane and generally how they just get on each other’s nerves. The sole prop is a clothes-peg which eventually becomes of extraordinary importance as the men’s collective sanity starts to disintegrate.

This is a festival-length play of around fifty minutes which packs in an awful lot and delivers a powerful punch. The audience laugh virtually all the way through the performance, though there are moments of real pathos and tension. This really is a genuinely funny play from start to finish, with the audience kept guessing how it will end right up until the final curtain.

Reviewer: John Waterhouse

On:  9th August 2026

Concert Review This is Merseybeat Museum of Liverpool

 

This show, in collaboration with The Cavern Club, is part of The Summer of Sound a summer-long series of special musical events taking place from 24^th July – 29^th August at the Museum of Liverpool. The riverside venue will host a series of acts each Saturday evening throughout the summer, honouring the verve and heritage of Liverpool’s infamous music scene.

This show gave a musical insight into the Swinging 60’s and helped the audience experience and re-live the thrilling birth of the Mersey Sound. The show commemorated the music that launched the British invasion and changed pop music history forever. It featured the Cavern Club’s resident beat combo The Shakers, guest stars portraying pop music icons such as Cilla Black and Gerry Marsden and was hosted by Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse actor Paul Codman. The energetic production recreated the sound and spirit of Liverpool’s most exciting musical era.

Host for the first part of the show, Dale Roberts from the Cavern Club, informed the audience that it will be The Cavern Club’s 70^th birthday next year and that there will be a special exhibition held in the Exhibition Hall where this show took place. He then went on to introduce resident Cavern Club band, The Shakers, who entertained with  various 60’s hits such as ‘Some Other Guy’, ‘Rock and Roll Music’, ‘Love Potion Number 9’ and ‘Love Me Do’. There was also a nod to Buddy Holly with ‘That’ll Be The Day’.

Neil Ainsby entertained with a medley of Gerry Marsden (Gerry and the Pacemakers) hits followed by  Victoria Jones singing as Our Cilla (Cilla Black).

After a short interval, compere Paul Codman introduced the audience to hits of 1963 with The Shakers performing a medley of Beatles hits and ‘Gerry’ and ‘Cilla’ following on with more hits from the exciting musical period.

The show was atmospheric of the Merseybeat era and recreated the Mersey sound which was much appreciated by the audience who sang, clapped and danced to the hits of the 60’s. Hit songs from The Searchers, The Swinging Blue Jeans, Billy J. Kramer and The Big Three were also featured.

The show ended with all acts on stage singing and dancing to ‘Twist and Shout’, ‘Ferry Across The Mersey’ and ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’.

It was a special, nostalgic night for many of those attending who lived through the Merseybeat era and they showed their appreciation throughout.

Full Cast List:-

Compere/Narrator - Paul Codman

The Shakers:-

Tony O’Keeffe - Drums,

Kevin Benson - Bass/vocals,

Tom Benson - Rhythm guitar/Backing vocals/Harmonica

Liam Mannion - Lead guitar/Vocals

Keyboards - Toni Baker

Cilla - Victoria Jones

Gerry Marsden - Neil Ainsby

For more information see https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/summer-of-sound.

 

Reviewer:  Anne Pritchard

On: 8^th August 2026

 

 

 

Theatre Review Everything That Should’ve Been Mill One, 1853 Studios, Oldham

This play by Jake Talbot, is one of various productions taking place across five venues in the second annual Oldham Arts Festival. Featuring essentially new writing and performed largely by Oldham-based actors, this new festival looks set to ensure an on-going platform for emerging dramatic talent from the Oldham area. A quick glance through the listing of events reveals an emphasis on hard-hitting themes and ‘Everything that should’ve been’ is no exception.

The scenario is five women meeting in a hospital treatment room, each one of them in a different decade of life, from mid-twenties to mid-sixties and what follows could be described as existentialism from a female perspective but there is too much raw honesty and energy in this play to simply dismiss it as a feminism rant. The setting is a female hospital ward so the characters have female perspectives but much of what is considered and discussed is universal and this is a play for everyone.

Each character has their own distinct background but coupled with very individual thoughts on life. The twenty-something has a bleak outlook not sure she’ll make it to thirty with her job as a waitress causing her to see all people as like glasses waiting to be broken. The thirty something is finding fulfilment in motherhood and a good marriage. The forty-something regrets several life choices, feeling as she enters middle-age that people are starting to ‘look through her’ in contrast to the fifty-something who looks back a good relationship cut short by her partner’s death. The sixty-something looks forward, contemplating people crying when she dies, humorously saying ‘they’d better!’ whilst looking back on many years of a fulfilling marriage.

There are echoes of ‘Waiting for Godot’ as the characters consider the seeming meaningless of life, both in terms of the span of life when measured in the light of eternity and the daily drudgery of boring tasks such as cleaning, washing and various jobs which just have to be endlessly repeated. There is a lot of consideration also of what might have been if only different choices had been taken at specific key moments. However, there is a lot of balance as well, with the women in different ways finding numerous things they have to be thankful for with even the twenty-something eventually realising the good sense in living for the moment rather than moping about a bad future which may not even come.

Director Miranda Parker takes a minimalist approach with the sole prop being a black block, which double up as one of the hospital beds (the other beds being represented by comfy armchairs). The block also serves as a focal point, to which all the women come for mutual support. However, there is more to this play than dialogue. A blend of mime and dance, choreographed by Jayne Sladen, is used to bring over the emotional backdrop to the setting, with emotive electronic music making is clear that none of the women are in a relaxed state, echoed in their movements which appear either robotic or restricted. The lighting in this studio theatre also serves for various moods to be created.

This is a thought-provoking play that explores the extent to which we need each other and find fulfilment coming from being with and helping others. There is certainly plenty of philosophising but this is contrasted with the joy of finding fun in the moment. After all, you can hardly spend time contemplating death in the midst of laughing with friends! Look out for more offerings from Dare to Know productions.

https://www.1853studios.com/events/dare-to-create

Reviewer: John Waterhouse

On: 07.08.26

Theatre Review Take Me Home County Road Royal Court Liverpool

 

This show, written by Adam McCoy and directed by Emma Bird, is a production which is all heart and combines unrequited aspirations, loneliness, marriage issues and community spirit wrapped around a love story in a kind of adult pantomime fashion where everything comes together and works out well in the end. It has the feel-good factor whilst being entertaining with lots of child-like humour and at the same time highlighting adult themes.

The stage set is constant, Shelly’s kitchen in Liverpool’s County Road, where her family and best friends/neighbours gather to chat and catch up with life events. Shelly’s marriage seems to have hit the rocks and she is being threatened with redundancy from a job she loves.  At the same time her heart is elsewhere, wanting to re-live her singing career and a prime opportunity arises in the form of a TV talent contest, The Next Big Thing.

The cast is made up of five actors, each bringing their own powerful, individual talents to the fore and worthy of equal commendation. Helen Carter (Shelly) delivers effortless vocals and is made for the role delivering fragility with determination and practicality, whilst Adam McCoy plays Anthony, Shelly’s next-door neighbour, delivering heartwarming camp humour with heartfelt warmth. Joan, Shelly’s mum played by Eithne Browne, a Liverpool theatre stalwart, is recognisable as a typical Liverpudlian mum looking out for her daughter and looking back at the relationship she had with Shelley’s dad, whilst also bringing her singing talent to the stage. The main thrust of the comedy is provided by Keddy Sutton as Margy. Keddy has a well-recorded history of providing humour to many local productions and with just one look can have audiences crying with laughter. She is adept in her craft with perfect timing and delivery bearing in mind her facial expressions are worth pots of gold.  She is an added bonus to any production and her skills are to be admired.  Shelly’s husband Mick, played by Lenny Wood, takes on what seems like the ‘baddie’ role but no spoilers here, only to say as his story unfolds, we see a different side to him and he delivers his role with sensitivity and understated accuracy.

The chemistry between the five actors is plain to see, as is the enjoyment they exude whilst playing their roles.

Adam McCoy’s talents are showcased as writer and actor, this being his playwriting debut and he has managed to hit the nail on the head with this heartwarming tale which will appeal to all.

Set and Costume Designer Alfie Heywood centres the narrative in the heart of the house, the kitchen, which is an excellent choice as characters can come and go from two doors in and out of the set and the kitchen window is put to good use by Margy. Additionally, audiences can relate to the kitchen as being the heart of the home creating a sense of familiarity and warmth, both in temperature and emotion.

Take Me Home County Road combines Scouse wit, which local audiences love, and family and relationship issues with well-loved country music foot-tappers. The story is relatable for audiences on many levels and along with lots of humour can also bring a tear to the eye.  This is an extremely enjoyable jukebox musical combining country classics and a story about following your dreams at any age. Take Me Home County Road is well worth an outing for, it is a heartwarming production full of positivity and will lift the spirits of all. As expected the audience were on their feet dancing and singing during the encore and showed their appreciation throughout.

This production runs from 6th-29th August 2026.

Tickets available from https://liverpoolsroyalcourt.com/

Full cast, company and creatives information available at https://issuu.com/iainchristie/docs/take_me_home_county_road_show_programme?fr=sYWEzNjkyMzU1OTQ

Reviewer:  Anne Pritchard

On:  6^th August 2026