Coronation Street: Street of Dreams Musical – ATV Today Review
Maria Brabiner, Salford-based lifelong viewer of Corrie, takes a look at last night’s World Premiere of Street of Dreams the Coronation Street musical which looks back at the best plots over 50 years with song, dance and humour.
Maria told us: I went with a friend last night to the World Premiere, at the Manchester Arena, of the Coronation Street Musical `Street of Dreams‘. Upon arrival, all bags were searched to make sure no knives, offensive weapons or cameras were taken inside. I’m sure no one would want to attempt to murder anyone, other than Richard Hillman; but you can never be too careful.
Looking at the many entrances, we noticed our entrance (according to ticket allocation number) was taped off with red tape. We enquired with a Steward as to which was the best entrance instead, and straight away the Steward took our tickets off us, re-allocated us with different tickets, we were told we had “an upgrade”. Previously we were in the cheapest seats, but now given an upgrade to better ones at no extra charge. It turned out everybody on my row had upgrades..
Talking to people on my row, two ladies were from Leeds, they’d come on the train especially, a lady and gentlemen were from Bolton.
I realised right away that there must be a lot of empty spaces, and there were, many of them. Whole tiers were empty. A sad sight to see. I think they went too big with the Arena. If they’d gone for the Opera House, they’d have had the sell-out, full house. The Opera House is on Quay Street too, home of Coronation Street’s studios. An ideal location, but not to the big planners, who knew best!
Those tiers of rows of empty seats were just in pitch-blackness. The lights just didn’t shine on them. So any press photos taken will not show up the lack of bums on seats in those areas.
The set was absolutely huge and was marvellous. The special effects were excellent too, as were the old Corrie clips on screen that were shown alongside the acting and singing on stage.
Paul O’Grady was brilliant as The Narrator, wise-cracking jokes all the time. One in particular about Simon Cowell’s love life had the audience in laughter.
I wasn’t impressed with the singer who played the part of `Martha Longhurst’. She sounded like Orville The Duck. Maybe it was the accent she was trying to re-create, but for me it didn’t work. We also saw Martha `die’ on stage, just as Martha `died’ in the Snug on screen. The clip was shown simultaneously.
Some of the singing and dancing was over the top as well I thought, shoved in for the sake of it really, and wasn’t reflecting anything of the story.
Julie Goodyear got the biggest cheer of the night so far when she appeared. On close-up, she didn’t look quite right, her mouth in particular looked slightly swollen. One lady on my row said in the interval “She looked like a man in drag, didn’t look right”. But Julie I thought was brilliant, she loved every minute of it, acted like the star she is.
I was very impressed with Brian Capron’s singing. He was very good. Kym Marsh and Jodie Prenger (both played Elsie Tanner, Kym – young, Jodie – old) I could take or leave, but Brian was a revelation.
Katy Kavanagh played the Angel Of The North, most of her scenes were with Paul, going through the years. I didn’t she was strong enough a character to do it. Or maybe the bosses didn’t want a strong character, they wanted the dizzy blonde that Julie Carp is. Again, I could take or leave her.
The actor who played Sean Tully (not Antony Cotton) after trying to sing a song (far better than the usual actor who plays him could), which I thankfully soon forgot, sprouted a pair of wings and he was flying round the stage. I lost interest in that bit and it wasn’t really needed.
Kevin Kennedy was Ok as the singing binman, William Roache was OK too, in a cameo role on screen. William as Ken was doing a skype interview in Leeds.
Paul was doing very well as The Narrator, then suddenly he wanted to be a tram driver. Next minute you see him dressed in a tram driver’s uniform. Then we see him all dressed in white with wings. Yes, Paul was the tram driver that died in the crash. I thought that was a bit funny seeing him with wings.
Russell Watson was cheered to the rafters when he led the cast out for the finale. Russell was the special guest, he won’t be appearing in Newcastle, Joe McElderry is, nor Belfast, that’s Keith Duffy. So says the programme that was on sale for £8.
As you can see, from my point of view, the show was a mixture of good and lacklustre parts. Were the highlights enough to warrant the fees they’re charging, I’m not sure. But am I glad I went – after all it was the World Premiere, and I went with a friend to have a laugh.
Now what better way could I have spent a very rainy Manchester evening?…
Corrie fan Maria Brabiner gave her personal view for ATV Today and rates it a worth watching ranking: 6/10. Of course we want to hear from other Corrie fans too, so give us your views below…
[Written by Maria Brabiner, photographs courtesy of ITV Pictures/Reckless Entertainment]
Maria Brabiner must have been at a different show to me . It was excellent from beginning to end and well worth a trip from London too see it . likewise we had an upgraded seat because they had no head phones for the hard of hearing. Row B dead centre Afterwards we met up with people staying at our hotel who had also travelled long distances to see it and everyone was full of praise and had had a wonderful nights entertainment no negative comments like your reviewer. Re the empty seats they were all at the side and would have had a very restricted view and obviously not put up for sale The rest of the arena was packed
I must admit I felt that many scenes just didn’t have any relevance to corrie,numerous sound problems. Venue was way too big and lost the atmosphere of Corrie.All in all a very ambitious production but when you pay over £40 it would have been nice to have been able to see the characters.
I think David has just gone looking for Maria’s negative comments LOL? I agree with her that the stage and lighting and effects were brill.
Yes it was a bit OTT but that is ITV indulging in celebrating what they see as their greatest show, so why not? Corrie past is worth celebrating every time.
I also agree O’Grady and Capron were excellent as was Julie Goodyear.
xx
We had a fabulous night last night at the M.E.N. Arena watching Corrie’s Street of Dreams. As a housekeeping point I can only agree with Maria that the whole issue of seating ‘upgrades’ was a little bit messy but we ended up very contented with our seats.
Paul O’Grady was on what I would consider to be a career best form in the first act of the show. He very soon had the measure of the audience and there was regular laughter from all. Katy Kavanagh, whilst entertaining, seemed to be nothing more than a distraction. The show would have stood up every bit as well without her interruptions.
Although my personal memories of Corrie are more 80’s + based, I must say that the first act was probably the most overall entertaining, whilst the individual vocal performances of Kevin Kennedy and Brian Capron, both in Act 2, were absolute highlights for me, topped only by the grand finale with Russell Watson.
Kym Marsh’s performance was good, though perhaps not to the extent of the hype surrounding it, and was in my opinion overshadowed by Jodie Prenger, though their combined harmonies were quite beautiful.
A particular low point for me was the Sean Tully song and dance. I could not relate the song or the routine to any particularly memorable story-line and I quite quickly became bored by it. I felt that his flight above the audience was an apologetic gimmick designed to compensate for the weakness of that part of the show. The singer himself, though, was not actually bad.
All in all we left the arena feeling uplifted and entertained. We even had a little cuddle with Michelle Collins – I don’t think she knew what had hit her !!!
I would strongly recommend ‘Street of Dreams’ to any long-term fans of the soap. Any criticisms made by myself are only designed to give an honest review of what we saw.
I agree with most of the comments. It was a mixed bag! Jodie prenger stole the show for me and worst bit Sean tully butterfly act. What was the point of the really big lady swaying side to side in the butterfly !! I groaned! Kym marsh wasn’t suited to do Elsie.long night!!
My partner and I went to see this show last night as avid Corrie Fans…..What a dissapointment!!! We just didnt get it, whilst the set was impressive, all that seemed to happen was that they opened up a “set front” pulled out a table and chairs and sang a song which had no relevance to the video playing above!!! julie Goodyear came out for about 5 seconds blew lots of air kisses, tried to sing part of a song (out of time) and went back stage again…….The best bit was the end when Russell Watson sang…..Overall when you compare that we normally pay upwards of £60 for a Kylie ticket , and this was around that , it wasnt very good value for money either..
My husband and I drove over from the Midlands for this show last night, having paid for good seats in the first place (ie no free upgrade) so £135 for two tickets. We’d decided to attend only two days earlier, simply because we’d heard that Russell Watson would be performing. It was an expensive night out, with travel costs, hotels room and meals taking it into several hundred pounds. I can say it was worth it only for novelty value and Russell Watson’s performance, although I thought that Russell Watson was a pains not to steal the show, and of course was he performing an unknown number. We were surprised at how few celebrities supported the event given that it was a “World Premiere” (Michelle Collins stayed for the first half only, Tony Maudsley “Kenneth” in Benidorm stayed the entire show, otherwise it seems to me that no other celebrities attended). The lack of red carpet, papparazi and absence of any “warm up” music over the loudspeakers was an amazing disappointment which we put down to dismal PR. I am not surprised to learn that sections of the arena were closed off and people moved, it seemed very badly supported for a show to the point that we were left wondering whether it didn’t have the support of the industry.
As expected for an opening night, there were moments when things went wrong – crackling microphones, slight pregnant pauses, Julie Goodyear slightly out of sync with her backing track, and the Sean character hoisted up with blue wings obscured by a similarly blue background but clear enough to show that one wing was slightly damaged. My husband thought it “under rehearsed” but I felt that it was all part of the charm of being there on a first night. I did however find myself wondering if Lionel Bart’s “Twang” had also started like this.
Vintage Corrie TV footage was shown on screens above the set and this was a nice trip down memory lane. It was nice also to see some of the original cast members but overall they were few and far between. The set was impressive, but too wide to fully take in. On the one hand it looked small in an arena setting, on the other hand it was far too wide and therefore you had to scan along it, and then above it to watch the screens. I found myself watching the screens and missing what was going on on-stage, and vice versa. Having seen “Crazy for You” at the Novello theatre a few months’ ago it was easy to compare sets as there are similarities, and the “Crazy for You”set definitely had it licked. The story line was weak (although the show was basically what we expected), and we felt that Paul O’Grady had a lot to carry. The music was good but not amazing, and it was a shame that the only recogniseable melody was the Coronation Street theme tune.
We came away thinking that overall the show was entertaining, but wouldn’t be able to draw large crowds for long (not at those prices), and that it needs a lot of work before it would cut the mustard in the West End. At a guess we think this show will end up as a TV Christmas special, smoothed out and well edited by producers, with the sound fully functioning and a star studded cast for a TV audience. The fact that Christmas references are already in the show to my mind says everything -I predict we will see “Street of Dreams” in the 2012 Christmas TV listings…..and then it will be no more.
Thought the show was a mixed bag really . I took my mum and we had great seats 4 rows from the front . Julie Good year got the biggest cheer of the night , yet she was on for all of 2 mins ! Thought some of the original cast members would play a bigger part . Really disappointed William Roache wasn’t in it except for on screen . Thought Kym Marsh and Jodie Prenger were fantastic . The butterfly performance by ‘Sean’ was odd and Angel of the North Katy Kavanagh Made me feel at times I was watching a pantomime ! 5 out of 10 for me .
I too was very fortunate to see the show on its Word Premier Opening night. Although some of the reviews praise the show there were a few “issues “which did dampen the evening. One of my main criticisms was the number of microphone faults (either complete failure of the microphone, or feedback / catching clothes etc.). Another issue I was disappointed with was the lack of camera work with the Arena – for example at no time did the camera focus on Brian Capron’s singing on stage and considering a large number of the audience were over 50 squinting wouldn’t have made any difference
The song “Butterfly “sung by the character playing Shaun was a little stereotypical of gay culture (drag queens, over the top costumes. Men prancing in pink t-shirts etc.) It was disappointing and unnecessary. The programme referred to William Roache appearing on the show but this was limited to a brief pre-recoded clip. Some of the video & audio clips were out of sync (in fact I’m debating if Julie Goodyear was miming her part!)
YES, if you’re a “corrie “lover then this show will appeal, but if you’re paying high ticket prices then you should expect abit more quality for your money, the opening night was not a sell out an yet the queue getting in were very long (compared to say a sell-out show of “Peter Kay “who I was fortunate to see at the same venue)
I am hopeful that the show will improve over the coming days, but like one of the other reviewers feel that the venue location was bad decision and that using somewhere smaller (Manchester’s Palace Theatre etc.) would have offered a better choice all round, if it does not change to smaller locations I do not see this show running for a very long time – which is a shame
3 stars out of 5 (and 1 of those stars was just for Russell Watson!)
I also went to see the first show last night with my better half. The arena floor seats were really uncomfortable and the interval seemed to go on forever.
As most have said, the set was impressive, the orchestra were excellent, and some of the musical numbers were well rehearsed and impressive. I thought Kym Marsh was excellent, as were most of the singing cast. It would have been nice to be able to clearly hear the words though as it isn’t an established musical where you already know some of the songs.
The main issue for me was I was not at any point, actually sure what the plot was all about.
Why was Paul O’Grady visiting people from the Corrie past? What was the actual point of it? Given that he was apparently travelling through time with an angel, why did he suddenly decide that he wanted to drive a tram (and get Sean Tully to sew him an outfit). It was, of course, so they could include the tram crash and various seemingly random bits of Corrie history, but plots should be easy to follow, and not horrendously clunky. What was the bit with Julie Goodyear all about, it was awful!
The “2 Becky’s” section at the end was well sung, but the singers were singling in “West End” voices, so even though they were dressed up in Becky style clothes, it wasn’t really convincing that it was supposed to be a northern barmaid belting out a tune.
The musical looks good, but it feels like they found out which cast members would be available for the tour, which stage stars they could get to play some of the roles, and then cobbled the plot around that.
The Russell Watson number was a highlight, but he stumbled over the words a couple of times and was clearly reading the lyrics off the floor when he got stuck!
Not worth £60 a ticket, but some bits were enjoyable.
Thank goodness for the comments from the paying punters!
The “professional” review was unbelievably crass and unfit to be called “amateur”.
It’ a Corrie fan’s view, not a “pro” review which would be praising it to the skies. This is why we asked a regular Salford resident and soap watcher to give us her honest – maybe without refinement – opinion of what she saw.
I’m sure if one wants all luvvie talk The Stage will be only too willing Dharlling. But we felt having someone from the area who would give a true feeling of the event is more fitting to Ena Sharples than Benedict Nightingale. And we certainly got a frank view and for that we are very pleased and happy with it.
I am indeed a Salford resident, am from the area and have been watching Coronation St and have been a fan for over 40 years.
I would have loved to have praised it lavishly, but there were some weak spots and rather than gloss over them , which isn’t my style I pointed them out, as other readers have too.
I wrote that article aiming at ordinary folk, used everyday language that is spoken daily in this region, easy to understand. I wasn’t aiming for a target audience of luvvies and intellectuals.
Oh, I love these! The pictures catupre such strong moments It looks like it was a truly stirring performance, I can’t imagine how delightful it would be to see Corrie’s life acted out in the form of a ballet.
We went last night and was hugely disappointed. The whole show was very badly cobbled together and the Arena is completely the wrong venue. The great stage set just looked lost in the vastness of the arena. Poor sound and no real linking of the stories made for a confusing evening. The website advertises Bill Roache as starring in it when he has just pre-recorded a small piece about a minute long shown on the screen…what a con! As a Corrie fan I was so looking forward to it but just feel hugely disappointed and ripped off. The Sean scene was embarrassingly bad. It could have been so much better…perhaps they should have concentrated on one character like Elsie. Shame.
I travelled up from London (for the 2nd time) to see the show. The first time was in March when the show was postponed and as I had already paid for transport and hotel in advance could not cancel. So this has turned out to be the most expensive show in history!
Firstly I had a great evening and Manchester did me proud with the deluge of rain as I left.
I have to agree with the majority of posts above.
Overall the show was very enjoyable but it would have been better in a theatre rather than an arena.
If in an arena then there should have been far more use of the cameras and video screen as it was impossible to see the performers unless you were sitting in the front few rows.
Some good musical numbers and performances, especially Jodie Prenger, Kym Marsh and Russell Watson who stole the show.
Great to see Julie Goodyear but when she first came on stage I did think it was Paul O’Grady bringing back Lilly Savage for the night.
Shaun Tully character flying around the stage with a pair of wings was very OTT and slightly tacky.
Some of the dance routines were also a bit messy and “am-dram”
William Roache as a video link? Why was he featured heavily in the programme and publicity if he wasnt performing?
Musicals in Arenas can work. I went to Les Mis 25th Anniversary at the O2 which was absolutely spectacular but I think the cobbled streets of Weatherfield would have been better suited at The Opera House.
As someone else comented Michelle Collins either didnt enjoy it or had something better to do as did not return for the 2nd half.
Im glad i did not go saved my self over £70 from what i have heard it was not that very well put together and juust throwing songs in for good measures.
the only good thing about it was paul ogrady was there.
I do not agree with the comments posted so far.I am not a huge Corrie fan,but enjoyed the banter from Paul O”Grady and of course the reason I went Russell singing at the end .He did not fudge his words contrary to a previous comment.
I thought the show was on the whole dreadful. The Arena was far too big, it lacked atmosphere. The clips of the old scenes were good but too often the singing was going on and the cameras did not pan to who was singing. I was too far back to see properly so needed the screens for help!! The sound was often awful, Paul O’ Grady though he tried his best was not partcularly funny, the length of the interval was diabolical. I left just after 10 (no idea how long was left and didnt care!!) and to be honest could have left at half time. The best performance of the night was Brian Capron…apart from that a mish mash of nothingness…i left feeling as empty as my fleeced wallet! Would not recommend at all!
Having read quite alot of reviews for this show I really can see the criticism from both angles
If you are an avid corrie fan this is a show to watch. Very easy viewing with some great musical numbers. Yes there are a few bits that could do with tweaking but on the whole a really enjoyable night. Paul O’grady and Katy kavanagh , albeit a little panto orientated, were very good taking you through the journey. This show has massive more potential, and with a little more thought and and linking the whole plot together could certainly run in theatres around the country for some time.
The whole ensemble performed fantastic , under circumstances that may not have been perfect if what you hear us to be believed. Good luck to the show in it’s arena tour. If you love the street you will love this show, so make it a must see. I personally can’t wait to see this show again in a theatre environment, and with a little alteration to the script. 8/10
I have to agree with Dale H ..I went for an entertaining evening as a corrie fan ..and thats what I got .Sad it has been soured with such a backlash,but I wasn’t expecting West End standard or Shakespeare.
I went Thursday ..Tweaking yes probably BUT I don’t think it deserves so much negativity
I wasn’t a big coronation street fan when I went to see ‘Street of Dreams’ however I did find that, the actress playing young Bet Lynch – Nina French was absolutely amazing. She has a fantastic voice and an amazing stage presence. Paul O’Grady was amazing, very entertaining and the ensemble performed fantastically. 9/10
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Corrie is only acclaimed cos its ‘common’ there have been far better ITV programmes over the years but it seems posh/middle class drama just doesn’t cut the cloth with critics.
…and finally neither does Corrie.
who wants watch a crappy musical about corrie neway?
I love the comment she said recently, the boss of it. LOL where she basically says they thought Corrie fans would watch any old shite and accept it. How wrong she was. ‘Great ticket sales’ yes dear, but no mention by you Trisha Ward of the people who were leaving before the end from each show! Standing ovation????? There wasn’t one!
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