As you stride down the hill from Oxford Road train station you reach the junction of Oxford Road and Whitworth Street where Manchester Palace Theatre is located, situated across the road from the Refuge Bar. The grand old building designed by architect Alfred Darbyshire at a princely cost of £40,500 first opened its doors in 1891, and at that stage was known locally as the ‘Grand Old Lady of Oxford Street’, and the sister theatre The Opera House across town on Quay Street are owned by the same company.
Manchester Palace Theatre. Image Credit ticketsonsale.com
Their first ever production was a ballet version of Cleopatra where they had a seating capacity of 3,675 though that figure has reduced significantly over the years to its current number of 1955. The theatre struggled initially but garnered more success when they had more popular performers playing there. Luminaries such as Lillie Langtry, Charlie Chaplin, Judy Garland, Gracie Fields, Danny Kaye and Laurel and Hardy have graced that very stage.
It had an extensive refurbishment in 1913 and was reopened seven months later by Harry Houdini. It was unfortunately struck directly during the Manchester Blitz of 1940, but then had successful productions of Guys and Dolls, Hamlet and Look Back in Anger running during the 1950’s and 1960’s.
It had a fallow period in the 1970’s and was threatened with closure but the intervention of the Arts Council saved the day. As a result, some further renovations took place before reopening again in 1981 with a production of Jesus Christ Superstar. In 2009 as part of the Manchester International Festival a premiere of Rufus Wainwright’s Prima Donna opera was staged there.
Musicians to have performed there include the Platters, The Kinks, The Rolling Stones, The Who, Pink Floyd, The Smiths, Johnny Cash, Damon Albarn, and the indefatigable Sparks were astonishingly playing there back in October 1975!
Sparks. Image Credit pinterest.com
The current layout contains three tiers of seating in the Stalls, Circle and Grand Tier. On our first visit in the early 1990’s we were sat in the vertigo inducing cramped seats ‘in the Gods’ watching West Side Story where we had a literal vertical view of the stage, but lessons were learned and never again have I ventured back up there! There are a plethora of amenities including the appropriately named Stage Door Bar and the whole venue is available to hire if you had the urge to do so!
I have cogitated long and hard regarding what may constitute a gig and have surmised (at least in my own head!) that in the scenario where bands are essentially part of the story of the theatre production that criteria is fulfilled.
Thus, in September 2022, Gill and I had an outstanding credit note from previous shows that were cancelled during the pandemic so we utilised that in purchasing tickets to go and see the longstanding production of Ben Elton’s We Will Rock You, which had originally opened in the West End in 2002.
For the uninitiated the show was about the band Queen, and it is apparently classified under the category of a Jukebox musical, for which the definition is that it contains an abundance of pre-existing well known popular tunes, instead of songs being written specifically for the musical. Despite all that, the show personally didn’t work for me, and I found it all rather disappointing.
On the converse side, the other musical School of Rock that we saw earlier in that year was on a completely different level. It was an adaption of the original Richard Linklater movie released in 2003, which is an excellent feel good movie with a starring role for the effervescent Jack Black. Jack himself is a talented musician and was one half of Tenacious D who had a big hit with ‘Tribute’ which featured a cameo from Dave Grohl playing Satan.
The movie is based around the premise of Dewey Finn (Jack Black) impersonating a substitute teacher and turning a class of talented kids into a rock band in order to perform at a Battle of Bands contest.
Some of the children have had interesting lives since the movie with Lucas Babin who played lead guitarist Spider going on to be a district attorney in Texas. Miranda Cosgrove who was the agent Summer Hathaway was at the age of 19 in 2012 the highest paid child actor and has also released a few records herself.
Letter to Brezhnev. Image Credit imdb.com
There was also Caitlin Hale and Angelo Massagli who played classmates Marta and Frankie who met years later and subsequently got married 22 years after the original movie. This also brings to mind the two main actors Alexander Pigg and Peter Firth in the 1985 flick Letter to Brezhnev, who married other people but then later wed each other in 2017. I have recently watched the film again and it certainly stands up to scrutiny and my abiding memory from its initial release was the phrase ‘Kirkby Girls’ being uttered by Margi Clarke in a deep scouse accent!
The theatre show was a faithful reproduction with extra gags included, and the child performers were absolutely superb making it a very fun night. It was topped off perfectly with the show finishing in synchronicity with us able to catch the last train home from the station opposite.