A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE at theRoyal Exchange, Manchester until June 25

NEW YORK’S docks, its longshoremen, powerful and corrupt unions, proud and vulnerable immigrant workforce living in close-knit communities with inviolable mores are all the stuff of film and legend - they are as real to those who have never even crossed the Atlantic, let alone the city’s dock gates.

Despite all that it is the individual, human, personal stories which tell the real tale and few, if any, tell it more powerfully than Arthur Miller‘s classic stage drama, A View From The Bridge. There is an undeniable empathy, an understanding that steers straight to the humanity of it all and never allows sentimentality to colour the tale. It is truly a masterpiece.

It is also a demanding play to stage and perform and last night I believe the audience witnessed one of the most powerful pieces of drama to hit the region’s stage in many a year.

Sarah Frankcom’s direction is taut, lean and incisive and the staging is deceptively simple but, above all that, this excellent cast is visibly drawn into Miller’s rich, emotive, sometime fragile, often threatening dialogue.

Con O‘Neill is simply superb as New York-Italian longshoreman Eddie Carbone drawn by love and loyalty into an inescapable dramatic maelstrom. You feel the power and insecurity in his every word, you will him to alter course while knowing that he can‘t, you share is affections and his suffering. Excellent. It is a fine - award-winning - performance, I predict.

That said, this is not a one-star show and this richly talented cast is strong from top to bottom. Leila Mimmack is a wonderfully delicate Catherine, the niece overly protected by Eddie. Ronan Rafferty and Nitzan Sharron match dramatic strength with vibrant performance as the two immigrant cousins, Marco and Rodolpho, who test Eddie’s loyalty to the point of tragedy. You are as seduced by Rafferty’s naiveté as Catherine surely is.

Anna Francolini is undeniably believable as Eddie’s loving wife - you feel for her when her life and love begin to fracture - and then there is the excellent Ian Redford as lawyer Alfieri who narrates the tale superbly with Miller’s eye and voice.

It was a standing ovation from many in the audience and you could not argue with their enthusiasm - they had seen a superb piece of drama superbly performed - I suspect that if Arthur Miller himself had been around he would surely have joined them.

Evita, The Opera House, Manchester, until Saturday 28 May.

ALMOST six decades since her death Maria Eva Duarte de Peron remains an icon of post War Argentina and its peoples’ struggle to find a new, more egalitarian identity.

For the last four of those decades Eva’s body has remained buried in an armoured coffin deep in a Buenos Aires cemetery, protected by guards, sophisticated locks, alarms and steel walls.

In a perverse way all this gives testament to the story of a poor B-Movie actress who slept, schemed and clawed her way to power and held on to it, becoming the most loved and most hated woman in Argentina - the perfect ingredients to create stories, sculpture myths, produce films and, of course, to inspire a musical.

Time Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s multi-award winning and seemingly ageless tale Evita, has, no doubt, played its own part in the Eva Peron story over the past 30 years and more - with probably more people outside Argentina basing their knowledge and history of the Peron years on their telling - but now, this smash hit piece of dramatic musical theatre is in danger of losing some of its invincibility.

The tale is still as strong as ever, the songs resonate with power and fragility and the staging is impressive but last night’s opening half lacked sparkle and some of the usual dynamism. In truth, the second half not only picked up where it had left off but was once again filled with the force which has made this one of the stage’s favourite musicals.

Former Hollyoakes favourite Abigail Jaye is a powerful Eva with a tremendous voice and great stage presence aided ably by Earl Carpenter has her husband Juan Peron who handles the whole affair with a dictatorial, yet manipulated gravitas. Shasha Ransley, as Peron’s mistress, grabs her opportunity with a superb performance of one of Evita’s best songs, Another Suitcase in Another Hall. Mark Powell’s Che is less convincing sometimes appearing just a tad too mischievous.

Yet, perhaps the best indication that this Evita was eventually going to hit the heights came from the strong ensemble cast showing their full value in the first act closing number, A New Argentina, which acquired a near anthem quality and had the audience heading for the barricades at the interval. Great stuff

The slow start apart, Evita is always capable of captivating new and old fans and last night was no exception, with the cast leaving the stage to a reception Eva and would probably have enjoyed.

Malcolm Handley

A Passionate Woman, Oldham Coliseum until June 4

Mamma Mia!   The Palace Theatre, Manchester until 18 June

A tongue-in-cheek warning before curtain up warned those theatregoers of a nervous disposition that Mamma Mia! contained high platform shoes and some dodgy 60s clothing - it set the scene for a musical nostalgia-fest and a story which refuses to grow old.

The Abba inspired musical just continues to spread a sun-kissed feel good atmosphere almost a dozen years since it first hit the stage.

The secret is simple. The songs - more than 20 Abba hits - fit comfortably into the story and the story fits seamlessly into the songs. Add to that a bowl full of self-deprecating humour, a slice of soul searching, a pinch of irony, a generous sprinkling of love and gallons of good fun and sunshine and you have the perfect recipe for a wonderful piece of entertainment.

 All that’s needed to make the show complete is a great cast and this International Tour production has just that - good voices and tons of energy.

 For anyone who doesn’t know the story - there may be a few - it is set on a small Greek island where former rock chick Donna owns a taverna with her daughter Sophie who is getting married. Sophie decides - without a word to her mother - to invite her father. Fair enough, except that at the height of her in her rock chickery, Donna was rather generous with her favours and any one of three former suitors could be the one and, yes, you’ve guessed it, Sophie invites the feckless trio.

 Sara Poyzer is superb as Donna, aided and abetted with tremendous fun and energy by Jennie Dale and Kate Graham - the other members of Donna’s former singing group. Individually they are sublime, together they are ridiculously great fun - reliving past glories, creating new havoc and finding future passions, Superb.

Charlotte Wakefield is the charming and delightful Sophie who has a great voice and a mischievously winning smile.

 With such a well-balanced, talented and boundlessly energetic ensemble cast it is perhaps unfair to single out  individual performances. It is a great evening of entertainment - just ignore those in the audience who can’t stop themselves from singing along - you may well want to yourself.

 If you are wondering just how Abba’s music fits into this laughter and chaos. Grab yourself a ticket and bask in the stage sunshine. I defy you to come away without a  spring in your step, a smile on your face and a dozen Abba songs spinning round your mind.

It is far better than the film and arguably more fun than that other wedding this week.

5 @ 50 , The Royal Exchange, Manchester, until May 14

Life, so the saying suggests, begins at 40 - if Brad Fraser’s latest offering is any indication there is a long and eventful journey of discovery in store during the next decade.

The intriguingly but accurately titled 5 @ 50 - being given it’s world premiere at the Royal Exchange - follows the fortunes of five life-long friends as each one approaches, reaches and celebrates their 50th birthdays.

On the surface, having an quintet of opinionated, diverse women celebrating each other’s half century milestone, may not seem the most enticing of plots but this is Brad Fraser and rarely does he allow the surface get in the way of a maelstrom of revealing nuances.

In truth, nuances are not always his way. Sometimes these subtle changes are revealed to be chasms and their effect on each character can be shattering and invariably bringing a sense of turmoil. It is, by the way, outrageously funny.

Led by Wirral-born actress and award-winning impressionist Jan Ravens, the girls cuss, mock, bitch, cuss some more and cajole each other across the 50th threshold - and it is not always done gently and lovingly, yet there remains a bond of warmth holding them together, sharing a strength to fight the good fight against the enemy of age.

Ms Ravens is excellent as fun-loving Olivia, a woman hurtling toward alcoholism and the loss of that fun. She is strong, bitchy, obsessive and vulnerable and throughout her journey she is compelling. Teresa Banham is her partner Norma and Candida Gubbins, Barbara Barnes and Ingrid Lacey make up the finely balanced coven of friends each with their own tale to tell and each with their own way of telling it, living it and sharing it with each other.

The five have a way of delivering - with an entertainingly delightful delivery - what can be best described as “salty” dialogue. Not that those of a nervous or gentle disposition should be too worried - but, hey, the odd health warning is never wasted.

Nor is the dialogue. It simmers, crackles and explodes with a pace that is seductive and irresistible, as first one character than another takes centre stage then in couples, trios and quartets as their stories and the play develops to what becomes an inevitable climax - but one where that inevitability hits the stage in an unexpected explosion of emotion.

There are fine performances, tautly directed by Braham Murray, with everyone seeming hell bent on enjoying every line of Fraser’s sharp, incisive dialogue and well structured plot. It is both thought-provoking and funny. Highly entertaining.

        

Satin 'n' Steel, Oldham Coliseum, until May 7

                                                    

Playwright Amanda Whittington asks a lot from her actors in this newly updated and relocated version of this six-year-old play first written for Nottingham Playhouse.

Anne Louise Jones, who does the casting for the Coliseum had a tall order to find male and female actors who could not only lead but carry the whole thing off on their own – over seven years. Oh, and they had got to be able to sing too.

But, boy, did she do well!

Make no mistake, in finding former Emmerdale favourites Matt Healy and Roxanne Pallett, the Coliseum has come up with one of Greater Manchester’s major theatrical events of the year. The author has personally littered the script with local references to wrest it from the East Midlands where it was born to this neck of the woods.

The last time I watched Emmerdale, it had a farm in the title so I know nothing of either’s previous dramatic talents. I caught fleeting glances of Pallett in Dancing on Ice and thought her a bit of a flibbertigibbet. I apologise unreservedly.

She plays Teena, the initially reluctant club singer who embraces the life and falls in love with her bisexual mentor and singing partner, Vince. He reckons they can go all the way. While not wanting to give away too much, let’s just say, it does not quite work out as he plans. 

Pallett is quite simply superb, switching from plain Jane care worker to glamorous cabaret star at the flick of a scene. The Oldham venue is small enough for everyone to examine her emotional credentials at close quarters and she demonstrates a fine ability to bring a lump to the throat.

She says that she set out as a singer and moved away from the plotted career path to act. So it is fun to try to work out whether the occasional flatness in her otherwise impressive renditions of the many pop songs on offer are genuine or simply good acting. You don’t really expect club singers to be 100 per cent on key.

But she cannot have all the glory because Healy plays his part to perfection too. He is exactly right as the old stager who knows thinks he is better than he is. And his performance reaches moments of true tragedy.

There is plenty of opportunity to sing along, Mama Mia style, and I suspect the pair were a little disappointed that we did not take part with gusto. Thunderous applause at the end may have made up for that. 

Ghost the Musical, Manchester Opera House until May 14 

It was a night filled with expectation, excitement, glamour and more than a whiff of spray tan as the Manchester Soap-arati, fans, followers, celebs and paparazzi swooped on the Opera House.

Glam frocks, celeb-shabby jeans and ankle-threatening heels were there aplenty, understatement was a no-show and the atmosphere was heavy with the chatter of stage and TV insiders and a full-on competition for the best air-kiss.

It was Gala Night for the most eagerly awaited stage event of the year, Ghost The Musical, and - just as it should be on these occasions - no-one who was even remotely anyone would be missing.

The Opera House has been closed for some time while technicians, musicians, arguably some of the finest stage, special effects innovators, musicians and actors have worked to create a magical experience - and it shows.

It can be a precarious journey from screen to stage especially for a film with an iconic status still fresh in the mind of many cinema-goers - but if there was any uncertainty with Ghost The Musical it didn’t show and was dispelled within seconds of curtain up.

True, last night’s gala performance - with more soap stars in the audience than you could reasonably shake a stick at - was always going to receive universal approval and a standing ovation - there was all-round applause and cheering when the title came up.

Yet, let nothing take away from this new stage show. It is superbly staged with outstanding visuals, a non-stop array of stunning special effects, excellent settings and a stage design which had last night’s - and will have its eventual West End - audiences wide-eyed. And there are some quite superb performances from a finely balanced cast.

Stars Richard Fleeshman and Caissie Levy are a magical pairing. They look the part, have great stage presence and voices just made for the new songs, written by former Eurythmics front man Dave Stewart and six-time Grammy Award winner Glen Ballard.

The stage play has been written by Bruce Joel Rubin who wrote the original film script and there is no hiding the fact that these collaborations, along with award-winning director Matthew Warchus at the helm, are the genius behind Ghost The Musical.

Despite all that, last night was the performer’s night and they rose to the occasion. Former Corrie star Fleeshman visible grows into the part of Sam, whose murdered soul is trapped between worlds and Ms Levy, his wife Molly, haunted by her love and his spiritual presence, is both powerful and fragile and a sheer delight to watch.

Sharon Clarke is wonderful as the larger than life quack psychic drawn into the plot to help solve the murder. She is big, bold, brassy and threatens to steal the show with a tremendous performance.

There are other fine performances too all round the stage. Andrew Langtree’s Carl and Adebayo Bolaji’s subway ghost help frame this love story, murder mystery but this a stage show with a compelling list of stars and attractions - a magical musical.

You have missed the chance to whoop it up with the celebs but you still have a month or so to catch it in Manchester and then it will be, one might suggest, a West End scrum for tickets later in the year. Who knows, maybe those southern luvvies from the Queen Vic may try to put on a show. I suspect it will need to go a long way to outshine and out-kiss the Opera House at its most enthusiastic and entertaining.