Review: 1968 Corrie at The Lass O'Gowrie, Manchester

We've blogged already about the 3 Coronation Street episodes from 1968 by Jack Rosenthal which are being staged at The Lass O'Gowrie in Manchester and at last here's a review of one of them, courtesy of Twitter follower Emma Cameron-Pryde:

Corrie 1968 Episode 788 – the Ogdens

Stepping through the saloon doors of one of Manchester’s oldest award winning pubs, The Lass O’Gowrie, felt like stepping back into the Rovers Return 1968. The scene was set for a quality night of live theatre where the audience got up close and personal with the actors.

All the cast put on an awesome performance, but it was Russell Dixon as Ena Sharples and the fabulous Joan Kempson as Hilda Ogden who’d perfected the “Hilda cackle” to a T, who really stole the show. The only thing that would’ve made my night complete would be the infamous quote… “Woman Stanley, Woman” and I’d have been punching the air!

I saw Corrie! the play by Jonathan Harvey last year at The Palace and thoroughly enjoyed it, and this was a great opportunity to experience live theatre in such an intimate setting. I wish I’d known about this show earlier as I would have booked for every night! I would definitely recommend it to any Corrie fans – Corrie is a real Manchester institution which I have grown up with and to see it live in a real Manchester pub is an experience not to be missed!

Roll on March and “The Street of Dreams”!


Many thanks to Emma for that review. Some of your dedicated blogging team are going to see the omnibus edition on Sunday so expect more on the blog about this later.


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Listen: The new Elsie Tanner reveals all

Jeni Howarth-Williams (Elsie Tanner), David Crowley (Dennis Tanner) and Emma Edmondson (Lucille Hewitt) were interviewed on BBC Manchester today about starring in classic Coronation Street episodes - live on stage in a Manchester pub!  

It's an excellent interview with actors who are obviously very happy about playing such classic Corrie characters.

Jeni recounts as a child meeting the real Elsie Tanner, actress Pat Pheonix and also as an actress, playing Bet Lynch in The Things We Did For Love.

Emma, you'll remember, played Mel Morton on Coronation Street. She's playing Lucille who she says is very funny and very cheeky and she would have loved to have played her on Coronation Street.

And as a fan who is making a special weekend trip to Manchester to see this play, I'm very excited about this, especially as the audience are part of the play - we're the extras!
Find out more about the Lass O'Gowrie festival and read the full cast list here.

Get your tickets here.

Listen to the full interview here. The Corrie bit starts at approx. 1 hour 32 mins in.

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Cast announced for Coronation Street 1968 stage play

The cast has been announced for the players in the 1968 version of Coronation Street to be staged in Manchester. 

Three classic scripts by Jack Rosenthal are performed in the Lass O’Gowrie pub in Manchester in January 2012.  We've got our tickets already!

It's all part of the LassFest and you can find out full details here.

Some interesting choices of characters and actors have been announced today as follows:

Dave Dutton - who has been on Corrie in at least eight different roles already - stars as Jack Walker.
Emma Edmondson, who played Mel Morton in Coronation Street, is Lucille Hewitt
Joan Kempson, who played Rovers Return cleaner Edna Miller in Coronation Street is Hilda Ogden
Christine Barton-Brown plays Annie Walker
Russell Dixon is Ena Sharples
David Crowley is Dennis Tanner
Colin Connor is Len Fairclough
Geoff Dignan is Ray Langton
Kathryn Worthington is Emily Nugent
Tom Burroughs, who played the tram driver in the Coronation Street tram crash is Jerry Booth
Jeni Howarth Willianms is Elsie Tanner. Jeni played Sheila Hayes on Coronation Street (mother of Wayne Hayes who stayed with the Croppers).
Jo Mousley is Linda Cheveski
Val Tagger is Minnie Caldwell. Val has been on Corrie before as a hotel guest.
Terry Naylor is Ernie Sutton

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Three Coronation Street live stage plays for 2012

Coronation Street fans are in for a treat in 2012 with not one, not even two, but three live plays on stage.

In January 2012, you can see a rare production of Coronation Street in the Lass O'Gowrie pub in Manchester.  More details here.

In March 2012, you can see the Street of Dreams Musical at the Manchester MEN Arena. This stars Julie Goodyear as Bet Lynch and Kevin Kennedy as Curly Watts and is inspired by the Coronation Street album which was released last year.  More details here.

And in April 2012, you can see Steve Huison live on stage in Harrogate as Fat Brenda in the play "Fat Brenda: My Flamin' Story"  More details here.

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FInal chance to see Corrie! the stage play

Corrie! the stage play is absolutely wonderful. I've seen it, some of our  bloggers have seen it and we've all agreed that if you're a fan of Coronation Street you must see this show on stage because it's just wonderful.  I'm not going to harp on about it any more as we've done a lot of blogging about the play over the last few months, but this really is your last chance to see the show in the UK.

The play moves to Malvern Theatres from Monday 27th June for its final week.  Let's just hope they bring it out on DVD.  Book tickets to the Malvern Theatres show here.

See also: Corrie! the play - Jonathan Harvey blog exclusive interview

Watch video trailer for Corrie! The Play

This year, the Coronation Street stage play Corrie! is on tour around the UK.  Watch a short trailer above and check out the tour dates here. Corrie writer Jonathan Harvey has recently updated the play to include the Corrie tram crash.

Corrie! The Stage Play - tickets now on sale nationwide

Tickets are now on sale for Corrie! The Stage Play.

Venues all over the country are putting on the play so if you missed it earlier this year when it received rave reviews in Salford, now's your chance to see it. The play's written by Coronation Street writer Jonathan Harvey.

Check out the tour dates here.

Corrie! The Stage Play - Major tour announcement

Corrie! The Stage Play is going on tour.

There's a tour announcement just been revealed on their Facebook page - more details will be blogged as they come in.

Keep updated with the Coronation Street play tour announcement via Facebook

Corrie! stage play in London's West End?

The Sun reports today that Corrie! the stage play will be moving from Salford to a larger venue in London's West End. I do hope it's true.

If you haven't seen the Coronation Street stage play yet and you'd like cheap tickets for next Friday night, 27th August, book now at http://www.thesuntickets.co.uk/ or call 0844 412 2956, quote 'CORRIE50'.

Pictures: Corrie cast at Corrie! stage play

Coronation Street cast members were out in force last night to the press night of Corrie! the stage play in Salford. Even some ex-Corrie actors turned up for the event too.

There's loads of pictures here and another picture gallery here.

There's a review of the play right here.

Corrie! the stage play - £10 tickets

You can get top price tickets to Coronation Street play Corrie! for just £10. They're usually £25 so you're saving £15. The offer's valid for all performances, excluding Saturdays. The play's only running Thurs 12 - Weds 25 Aug.

To get them, call 0843 2086005 and quote Rovers Return. You'll have to pay a £1.75 booking fee per ticket. If the top price tickets sell out, the offer will be valid on the next best available ticket.

The play celebrates Coronation Street’s 50th anniversary and condenses five decades of much-loved storylines and characters into a two-hour show at The Lowry Theatre in Manchester.

The deal: £10 top price tickets. Valid: Mon-Fri & Sun performances. How: Call 0843 2086005 quoting. Rovers Return. Expires: Wed 25 Aug. Excludes: Saturday performances. Cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer. Offer from: Corrie! Restrictions: Subject to availability.

With thanks to Corrie fan Martin for sending this in to the blog.

Video: Jonathan Harvey on Corrie! the stage play

There's a great interview with Coronation Street writer Jonathan Harvey on the BBC website.

Jonathan talks about his upcoming play Corrie! which starts at the Lowry theatre in Salford this Thursday, 12 August.

Watch the video here.

Corrie! stage play competition winner announced

Congratulations to our latest competition winner here on the Coronation Street blog. It's Allan Smith of Cardiff. Allan wins two tickets to the opening night of Corrie! the stage play at The Lowry theatre in Salford. The answers to the questions posed in the competition are as follows:

1. Who is the writer of the Corrie! play?

A: Jonathan Harvey
2. What anniversary is the Lowry Theatre celebrating this year?
A: 10th anniversary
3. How many changes of wallpaper in the Rovers Return will you see in the play?
A: Two changes of wallpaper

Find out more about the Corrie! live stage play here.

Last chance to enter to win Corrie! stage play competition

The deadline for entries to win 2 tickets to Corrie! the Coronation Street stage play is 5pm today - Friday 30 July.

Enter the competition here.

Corrie stage plays comes to Toronto, Canada

It may be debuting at the Lowry Theatre in Manchester in August, but it looks very much like it will make its Canadian debut in Toronto starting September 28, 2011. There's a teaser on YouTube here that says so! It will be showing at the John Bassett Theatre, at the Toronto Convention Centre. No word yet whether it will be the same cast as Manchester or when tickets go on sale but I can see a trip to Toronto in 2011 in my future!

WIN! Tickets to see Corrie! – live on stage

We are over the moon to be able to offer this wonderful competition, exclusive to the Coronation Street blog. With thanks to some very lovely people, we have two tickets to give away in a special competition to see Corrie! live on stage at the Lowry Theatre in Manchester. The play promises 50 years of Corrie in one evening. Sounds great!

The prize of two tickets are for the show’s opening night on Thursday 12th August so to enter this competition, you’ll have to be free on that evening as you’ll need to collect your tickets from the Lowry box office in person if you’re the lucky winner.

To win this very special prize, all you have to do is answer the following questions and email the correct answers to me. The deadline for entries is Friday 30 July at 5pm.

1. Who is the writer of the Corrie! play?
2. What anniversary is the Lowry Theatre celebrating this year?
3. How many changes of wallpaper in the Rovers Return will you see in the play?

Find out more about the Corrie! live stage play here.

Tickets now on sale for Corrie stage play

Just click on the picture above to take you to the Lowry Theatre website to find out how you can buy tickets to the Coronation Street stage play, starting in August and written by Corrie writer Jonathan Harvey.

Corrie stage play to go live in August

Finally, there's some news on the long-awaited Coronation Street stage play which we mentioned many months ago here on the blog.

News in today from the official Corrie site is that the play is going to be written by Jonathan Harvey and will be called Coronation Street Abridged Live! It will bring 50 years of Coronation Street to life in one single stage production- this includes 115 deaths, 37 births and 86 marriages, in under two hours! No mean feat.

The play launches this August at the Lowry Theatre, Salford, before embarking on a nationwide tour. The actors haven't yet been cast. Watch this space for more!