Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss’ incredible Tudor girl band wow a jam-packed audience at The Lowry.
Six the musical, created by a budding pair of Cambridge students back in 2017, is now a world-conquering smash hit, with productions springing up all over the world.
From Broadway to South Korea, the West End to Australia and eventually The Lowry in Salford, it’s a slick 80-minute musical that is unlike any you have seen before.
Styled like a pop concert, Six the musical is concise and tight – with every wife having their own turn in the spotlight.
I’m not going to spoil it for you, because that would simply be unfair, but what I will say is the cast is bursting at the seams with raw talent.
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Image: Supplied
From the opening introductory number to the confessional balled that takes place in the middle, there is no weak link throughout the entire performance.
The six powerhouses dance together in their bedazzled boots throughout, consistently in time and always reacting to the witty remarks taking place on stage.
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The live band on stage adds to the electric concert atmosphere and encourages the audience to interact as if they were catching their favourite set at Glastonbury.
Image: Supplied
At one point, some audience members couldn’t resist standing up and dancing to the epic tunes that the historic girl band were harmonising effortlessly before our eyes.
A stand out moment was Catherine Parr’s soulful plea to the audience, where for the first time during the evening you couldn’t hear a ‘woo’ or cheer serenade through the auditorium.
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Overall, Six the musical rewrites your GCSE history books in the best way possible, encouraging young women to consider Henry VIIII’s iconic story in a different light.
Six is playing at The Lowry up until Sunday 1 September, and you can get your tickets here.
Extra date added for festive screening of The Holiday with live orchestra in Manchester
Emily Sergeant
You can watch The Holiday on a big screen with a live orchestra playing the soundtrack in Manchester this Christmas.
The Holiday is one of the best-loved Christmas films of all time.
In case you haven’t got around to watching it before, the 2006 romcom directed and produced by Nancy Meyers stars Cameron Diaz, Kate Winslet, Jude Law, and Jack Black, and tells the story of how two women, who have never met and live 6,000 miles apart, find themselves in the same exact place in life.
They meet online through a home exchange website, and impulsively switch homes for the holiday.
Shortly after arriving at their destinations, both women find the last thing either wants or expects – a new romance.
An extra date has been added for a festive screening of The Holiday with live orchestra in Manchester / Credit: Universal Pictures
Since its release nearly two decades ago, watching The Holiday has become an annual tradition for millions worldwide every time the festive season rolls around – but how would you like to watch this classic in the most magical way possible? Streamed live onto a big screen in the theatre with a complete concert orchestra playing its soundtrack by the legendary Hans Zimmer? Well now you can this Christmas.
After a sell-out run in 2023, The Holiday In Concert will be going on a 16-date tour across the UK again this November and December, and will be taking place in the some of the country’s greatest concert halls – including The Bridgewater Hall here in Manchester.
The in-concert experience with a full orchestra and cinema-size screen is described as being an “incredibly unique” and “immersive” way to experience this cult-classic film.
JUST ANNOUNCED // Due to popular demand, The Holiday in Concert returns to the Hall on Monday 23 December for an extra date! Enjoy Hans Zimmer's score played live-to-film by a stunning full concert orchestra 🎼 Tickets on sale Friday 13 September 10am. ℹ https://t.co/TslToqd32Apic.twitter.com/5WpA6X5vQ2
Due to overwhelming demand for the Manchester show on Friday 6 December, a second date in our city has now been added to the tour’s run on Monday 23 December, and tickets for the new show are on sale at 10am tomorrow (Friday 13 September).
Liverpool, York, and Sheffield are some of the other northern English cities forming part of the tour, while the show will also be staged in London, Edinburgh, Birmingham, Swansea, and more.
A murderously funny and thrilling take on an Agatha Christie classic – Murder on the Orient Express at The Lowry
Danny Jones
Let’s start off by making two things clear: nailing a tried and true classic well is no mean feat and, two, fans are very precious when it comes to adaptation – Murder on the Orient Express at The Lowry, rather fittingly, barrelled through those obstacles not like a luxury liner but like a freight train.
Yes, the iconic Agatha Christie tale and quintessential ‘whodunnit’ may have ironically been done to death at this point (most recently resurrected on the big screen by director and Hollywood’s Hercule Poirot, Kenneth Branagh), but this new stage production felt much more refreshing than the blockbuster.
Put simply, merely going where many have gone before and expecting results or similar success isn’t a given. Written and adapted by Ken Ludwig and directed by Lucy Bailey, this latest Murder on the Orient Express now on at the legendary Lowry Theatre is a must-see as far as we’re concerned.
What the creators, along with the whole cast and crew, have done with this treasured text is elevate it not just to a play that will leave any theatre-goer walking away satisfied but also restore the true light and shade to the textbook murder mystery that has more high points than we can squeeze into 1000 words.
Credit: Manuel Harlan (press images supplied)
A small but stunning and dynamic set
First and foremost, we can’t begin anywhere else other than applauding what they’ve managed to achieve with the set alone.
It was one of our first big questions going into the performance. How are they going to pull this off and create that sense of motion around the actors on stage? Is it going to look any good? Turns out we had nothing to worry about whatsoever.
Combining nothing more than three movable train cars donned in full Edwardian decor, a few tables for breakaway scenes and clever use of an overhead screen to portray elements like snowdrift weather and even wheels chugging along the tracks, much like the plot, it always felt like things were on the move.
Twinned with excellent use of music and sound effects – both ambient and authentic in the case of Christine Kavanagh as the delightfully devilish Mrs Helen Hubbard, whose late-night sing-song felt like genuinely peaking into someone’s cabin after a few tipples – the whole surround just works so well.
They did a great job of creating these little vignettes within each train window, almost like sitting across from an apartment block and peaking into the living rooms of each flat, people-watching as their stories play out, only with the bonus of these strangers being mic’d up so you don’t have to fill in the blanks.
But let’s not beat around the bush here: even if you’ve seen it a dozen times before, you come for the murder mystery and you stay to see the moustachioed “magician” at work.
The entire supporting cast was wonderful, in truth – we particularly loved the aforementioned Kavanagh and her ‘just the right amount of chaos’; Bob Barrett’s energy as Monsieur Bouc and the permanently frantic Greta Ohlsson, done so well by Rebecca Charles – but Maloney is absolutely masterful as Poirot.
To be honest, besides a couple of accent slips here and there (podody’s nerfect), everyone up on that stage was a joy to watch embody these timeless characters and made for a well-balanced ensemble, but this might be our favourite portrayal of the talented detective since the almighty David Suchet himself.
Whether it be in the expertly delivering lengthy monologues, the many moments of self-deprecation, mourning his youth and always remaining the wittiest player on stage, or breaking up those moments of levity with rare but sudden flashes of frustration that actually catch you off-guard, he was flawless.
Similar to how he keeps every one of the suspects in his pocket from minute one, he had the audience in the palm of his hand for the entire duration and the timbre of that French—sorry, Belgian* dialect barely dips for even a second.
Michael Maloney is the pure embodiment of everything Poirot is and should be. (Credit: Press Image/Manuel Harlan)
The drama is great but where it truly shines is in the laughs
Lastly, speaking of that levity, perhaps the thing we loved most about the whole approach to this version of Murder on the Orient Express is that it isn’t so much a tense tragedy as it is a dramatic comedy.
The chances are that almost everyone in that theatre knows the synopsis of this long-loved tale virtually inside and out, so it was always going to be hard to build really pulse-raising suspense and intrigue, but they manage it by lulling you into those lighter moments and letting the performances shine.
And then BANG: suddenly a big twist, a volta; the crescendo after a period of precisely paced and carefully crafted conversation. It hits you like a gunshot echoing throughout the carriages, a sudden stab to the gut stifled in a quiet train compartment yet still somehow felt from the comfort of your seat.
Everyone gets their handful of one-liners, those comic pauses that dwell just a half-second too long and then some, but it never feels forced or overdone. The full spectrum of emotions is packed into just under two hours and it’s nothing short of a triumph from start to finish.
Without spoiling too much, there is one sound – not even an actual line of dialogue per se – from Maloney when conversing with the Countess (Mila Carter) that we’re still chuckling about now.
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We won’t be sold bold as to give this a star rating but let’s just say we wholly recommend visiting what is without a doubt the best thing on at Salford Quays right now.
The applause following Murder on the Orient Express was rapturous and we dare say there’ll be a fair few returning customers.
Clementine Hall -
14th August 2024 
