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12 Oct 10 to 16 Oct 10
The Lowry

Craig Revel Horwood (Strictly Come Dancing) and Sarah Travis’s production won a 'best musical' award last year for The Watermill.

It follows the rags to riches to rags story of Viv Nicholson’s a coal miner’s wife from Castleford, who won £152,319 on the pools in 1961, at that time the biggest sum ever won.

[Craig Revel] Horwood returns with another artistically brilliant and engrossing production... energetic and well thought out choreography... Sarah Travis’ stunning orchestrations shine as one of the shows strongest elements... excellent performances from all... Graham Kent... has plenty of gravitas... Neil Ditt is splendid in his array of smaller cameo characters... Greg Barnett as husband Keith gives a well tuned performance... Karen Mann is beautifully cast as the older Viv ...it is the sensational turn from Kirsty Hoiles as the Young Viv that really steals the show... the songs and material written by Steve Brown and Justin Greene lack a certain level of depth...
The Public Reviews (Rating: 4/5)
Karen Mann as the brash, older Viv... Kirsty Hoiles as her bouncy younger self... are well-matched and a highlight is when they perform a fantastiic duet "Who's Gonna Love Me?"... the versatile 12 strong cast become the band as well as dancers, singers of 25 songs, and actors and their versatility is a joy to witness... this excellent musical will make you cry.
What's On Stage (Rating: 4/5)
...some interesting scenes and some very funny moments, but any emotional depth is dissipated by the episodic nature... isn't helped by imposing the growing 'actor-musician' style on the piece... The songs are pretty unmemorable but they certainly work... the lyrics range from funny right through to rather trite... the stunningly good Kirsty Hoiles... Karen Mann is also very good... but she does resort to some over-the-top arm waving... The duet between the younger and older Vivs, though, is quite powerful... Revel Horwood's direction keeps everything moving at a fair old pace, but there are some stand-out moments... Diego Pitarch's set has some nice touches... but it all seems a little cramped... While not a great show, this is a very good production of an interesting piece of theatre that's actually really good fun to watch.
British Theatre Guide