What do Batman, Kung Fu Panda, and Captain Jack Sparrow all have in common? Music by Hans Zimmer, of course.
I must admit it’s an odd sight seeing 20,000 people seated in the Co-op Live. Manchester is no stranger to a big night out, but this is a different beast entirely. No mosh pits, no flying pints, no one on anyone’s shoulders. Just a full orchestra, a choir, and a wall of screens.
At the centre of it all is conductor Matt Dunkley, steering the Odessa Orchestra & Friends through some of the most recognisable music ever put to film. Zimmer appears on the big screens between pieces to introduce the music and the stories behind it. I was disappointed that Hans didn’t make an appearance but let me tell you this performance was no less impressive.
And in no time at all the gloves came off. Batman is, quite simply, incredible. All menace and muscle, strings sawing away like something is about to go very wrong, brass and percussion hitting so hard you feel it in your ribcage before you hear it.
Gladiator pulls things the other way. Where Batman pins you to your seat, this one lifts you out of it in a big way. Lets face it, if you are some what of a self respecting movie head, you’ll have seen Gladiator and know first hand how ‘Now we are free’ can command your mood. Well imagine that in person.
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If the orchestra is the engine, the Nairobi Chamber Chorus is the heart. When their voices rise for The Lion King, it stops being a concert and becomes something closer to gospel.
Hans Zimmer at Co-op Live. Credit: The Manc Group
Because beneath the scale and the spectacle, there’s something more intentional at play. These pieces of music are part of people’s lives. We are talking first trips to the cinema, films watched with parents, soundtracks that got someone through a rough year.
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And then there’s Interstellar. ‘No Time for Caution’ creates it own suspense. The organ churns, the tempo tightens like a ticking clock, you genuinely find yourself gripping the armrest as if you’re the one trying to dock a spinning spacecraft.
Time, from Inception, is the other side of that coin when it comes to what it emotes during the performance. It’s slow, it’s patient and it’s moving. It builds from almost nothing, layer on layer.
After all that, there’s only one way to send people home. Pirates of the Caribbean closes the night at full tilt. You think everything is drawing to end, Matt Dunkley has already guided you to the apex of nights performance, but no. Hans Zimmer flashes on to the screen one more time and alluded that’s we aren’t at the finish line just yet. Strings galloping, the whole orchestra going hell for leather. Heads nodding, feet stamping, grins everywhere.
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Epic, emotional and beautifully played. This wasn’t just a concert it was a reminder: that a piece of music can take you somewhere else entirely, and that you don’t need a single lyric to make thousands of strangers feel the exact same thing at the exact same time.
Hats off to every musician on that stage. You absolutely smashed it.
Jersey Boys at Palace Theatre, Manchester – Oh, what a night
Amy Williams
20 years, 65 major awards (including Tonys, a Grammy, and an Olivier), and seen by over 27 million people worldwide – it could only be Jersey Boys, and now it’s back at the Palace Theatre in Manchester.
This is one of those shows where you realise just how many songs you know and love by Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons, but may not know the story behind the band themselves. How they started, how big they became, how they fell apart, and how they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
It follows the four boys from Jersey (who each narrate their parts of the story), how it started as just Tommy and Nick and a range of different guys along the way, until they found the one who has a voice like an angel, Frankie Valli, and this started to change the direction of their success.
But they were missing a key part, a good song writer – enter Bob Gaudio, and the creation of The Four Lovers, who then became The Four Seasons.
Mixed with issues of debt, loan sharks, prison time and more, it wasn’t the smoothest of sailing for them, and as they said themselves, they didn’t create a movement like the Beatles. But The Four Seasons were for the factory workers, the dads, the working class people who could relate to them.
One thing we need to talk about, is just how INCREDIBLE the vocal performances are in this tour of Jersey Boys, staring Luke Baker as Frankie Valli, Carlo Boumouglbay as Tommy Devito, Lewis Kennedy as Nick Massi, and Toby Miles as Bob Gaudio.
Jersey Boys is back in Manchester, for a run at the Palace Theatre
A special mention for Luke Baker, because as iconic as Frankie Valli’s voice is, he very perfectly matched it.
The musical features some of their biggest hits including Sherry, Big Girls Don’t Cry, Beggin’, Can’t Take My Eyes Off You, Walk Like A Man, and of course, December 1963 (Oh, What A Night) which had everyone up on their feet dancing at the end.
This show is incredible from beginning to end, and would recommend everyone go to see this.
Jersey Boys is running at the Palace Theatre in Manchester until Saturday 19 September, and you can grab your tickets HERE.
High School Musical at Lowry, Salford – a night spent reliving our childhood | Review
Amy Williams
What a night spent reliving our childhood.
Now, I don’t want to exaggerate or seem biased, considering this is one of my favourite film trilogies of all time, but this could be the best stage show I’ve seen in a long while.
We all know how High School Musical goes, right? Set at East High, we follow Troy and Gabriella (the star basketball player, and the geeky new girl) who meet over New Year, and then become ‘star-crossed lovers’ when back at school as they’re part of two different ‘cliques’.
The duo mess with the ‘Status Quo’ when they audition for the school musical. But will they stick to what they know? Or become stars of the stage? I’m sure you know the ending.
High School Musical is currently on stage at Lowry, Salford / Credit: Matt Crockett (Supplied)
From the costumes and the characters, to the memorable songs (there’s actually 52 songs in this production, including a mega mix at the end), they’ve kept right to the script of the films – and that’s exactly what we wanted to see.
Of course, the biggest throwback of them all is Kaycee Stroh – who originally featured as Martha Cox in the film trilogy – taking the role as Ms Darbus, and she was just as incredible as we expected her to be. And to see her do the iconic dance in the finale was unbelievable, 13-year-old Amy was screaming.
Also featuring Jason Donovan as Coach Bolton, Tobias Turley as Troy, Leonor Correia as Gabriella, Caitlin Tipping Sharpay, and Luke Bayer as Ryan, it was a proper impressive cast all round.
It’s a night to properly relive your mid-00s childhood / Credit: Matt Crockett (Supplied)
There was crowd interaction right from the off, as they taught the crowd a cheerleading routine to be included later in the show, plus for the finale, they had the lyrics on the big screen too so everyone could sing-along.
If we could go and see this show every single night, we would – it is absolutely brilliant.
Lonnie Bowes -
8th October 2026 
