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Philip Key

Auditions at the Liverpool Empire Theatre for the lead child roles in "Our Benny"

Liverpool Empire is beseiged by dozens of young hopefuls in bid for a star role in Our Benny musical

YOUNGSTERS from across the North West went through their talented paces at the Liverpool Empire on Saturday, in a bid to win roles in one of Liverpool’s best-loved musicals. Read

Jim Sturgess from the film thriller, 21

Film Review: 21

IS IT possible to beat the bank playing blackjack in a Las Vegas casino? Apparently it is, and all was re- vealed in the book Bringing Down the House, telling the story of a group of American students who did just that. Read

Geoff Hogarth, who opened the Iron Door in Temple Street, in 1960, with partner Harry Ormesher

A new era opens as Liverpool's Iron Door revived

LIVERPOOL’S Iron Door club may be no more, but its name lingers on. Today, it is busy organising nostalgia events. Read

John Williams, World-famous classical guitarist

Guitar greats play opening concert at jazz festival

GUITAR giants John Williams and John Etheridge will open this year’s Southport International Jazz Festival. Read

Phil Hayes outside The Picket on Jordan Street, Liverpool

Musical gets a Liverpool makeover

EIGHTY years after it was first staged, Bertolt Brecht’s musical, The Threepenny Opera, will be getting a makeover in Liverpool tonight. Read

Arts and Entertainment

Key Liverpool Arts events

FRINGE: The play Veil attempts to explain what goes on behind the veil in a story set in colonial and present-day Iraq. Read

Members of the Birkenhead Operatic Society Trust involved in the production The Scarlet Pimpernel, at Liverpool Academy of Arts, Seel Street. Members of the cast Nicola Carvelly, Collette Clare, and Linda McKay, are having a laugh with celebrity hairdresser Herbert

Broadway extravaganza at the Empire Theatre

IT WILL be one of the most expensive shows ever staged by the Birkenhead Operatic Society, costing an estimated £120,000. Read

Benedict Fogarty as Romeo in Northern Broadsides' production of Romeo and Juliet

THEATRE REVIEW: Romeo and Juliet, Liverpool Playhouse

YOU know just what you are getting with a Northern Broadsides production, although it might be even clearer if renamed Northern Broad Strokes. Read

Plated up houses in Kinmel Street, one of the Welsh Streets faces with demolition

Mystery poets hit Liverpool streets

POEMS are starting to appear on derelict houses in Liverpool 8, part of a mystery project by the self-styled Unknown Poets. Read

Jazz musician Howard Alden

Guitarists help jazz make mark in 2008

DESPITE its popularity in Liverpool, jazz features remarkably little in the city’s cultural celebrations for 2008. Read

bluecoat

Return for the man who brought Yoko to Liverpool

DAVE CLAPHAM, Liverpool artist and film-maker, has been back in the city for a rather nostalgic reunion. Read

Arts and Entertainment

Northern take on Romeo and Juliet

THEATRE: Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet gets the usual robust treatment from Northern Broadsides. Under Barrie Rutter’s direction, the story is clearer, the dialogue, in Northern accents, more relevant. Tonight, 7.30pm, Liverpool Playhouse. Tickets £8 tonight, £12- £19.50 for rest of run. Until Saturday. 0151 709 4776. Read

Benedict Fogarty as Romeo in Northern Broadsides' production of Romeo and Juliet

Theatre: Unpredictable Shakespeare with a common touch

HOW do you cope when your first stage role is the lead in Romeo and Juliet? Philip Key finds out Read

Detail of Mick Jagger portrait by Pamela Mitchell

Exhibition: Art of portraits and their sitters on show

PORTRAIT sitters will take centre stage in a major new exhibition to celebrate Liverpool’s year as European Capital of Culture. Read

The Magnet on Hardman Street

Music: Tongue twisting band’s Liverpool gigs

IT HELPS to have a gimmick in the music world and the band appearing at The Magnet in Hardman Street, Liverpool, tomorrow night have two. Read

Music: Jazz diva heads for resort for an evening with Ella

WHEN Anita Wardell first heard Ella Fitzgerald sing, she knew that she wanted to sing jazz. And that’s what she did. Read

South Pacific at the Liverpool Empire

Theatre Review: South Pacific, Liverpool Empire

DURING the golden age of the Broadway musical, few writers could match Rodgers and Hammerstein – Oscar Hammerstein provided strong stories and intelligent lyrics while Richard Rodgers wrote memorable tunes. Read

Detail of Split Table by Chistine Watson

ART EXHIBITION: Catherine Watson, Williamson Gallery, Birkenhead

CHRISTINE WATSON is a Chester-based artist who uses a technique apparently practised in antiquity but now fallen into disuse. Read

Tony Cain as Billy Fury

THEATRE: Sound of Billy Fury is back again

SINGER Tony Cain looks set to reproduce his success as Billy Fury in the musical drama, Like I’ve Never Been Gone, at Port Sunlight’s Gladstone Theatre. Read

Chester Mystery Plays

University offers courses on the Chester Mystery Plays

IT IS usually not necessary to take a university course on a stage production before going to watch it. But the Chester Mystery Plays are something different. Read

Author Profile

Arts Editor Philip Key spends his week attending and reporting on the numerous live arts events in Liverpool. Plays the banjo ukulele, collects classic true crime books and performs (badly) magic tricks. Tel: 0151 472 2499

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