The Andrew Lloyd Webber show, School of Rock, is one of my favourites. I’ve seen it three times in the last couple of years.

Two of them were Am/Drams and one was a professional touring version. This latest incarnation was by Mossley Amateur Operatic and Dramatic Society and it was brilliant. Every show they do seems to be outstanding. 

The young cast was led brilliantly led by Matt Odgen as Dewey Finn, the budding rock star who pretends to be his school teacher friend Ned Shneebly and ends up recruiting the school children he meets for his new band, which he calls School of Rock. It’s a great story. My favourite song is If Only You Would Listen, which is Lloyd Webber at his best. It’s a song from the children to their parents. 

Although Lloyd Webber’s tunes are they key ingredient, it also takes a talented cast and director to make it come alive. The youngsters were amazing with Freddy Pooley as Zack the guitar player. Sylvie Hoyle as Summer totally stole the show. By the end of the performance, at the George Lawton Hall in Mossley, the audience were rightly on their feet. Their last big production was Bridges of Maddison County, which was equally stunning, so I’d recommend you get your tickets early for their next production, which is Ghost, the Musical, from 22nd to 27th April, also at the George Lawton Hall. 

With panto season now in full swing I recently asked, Ben Richards from the Big Tiny, who have three pantos running in the North West, in Bury, Bolton and Saddleworth, how the genre is changing in the 2020s. Ben writes and produces Pantomimes for a living, so it’s a subject very close to his heart. 

“When I’m not making pantos, I’m doing a Phd in how contemporary British pantomime is responding to evolving ideas of identity, at the University of Staffordshire. Our demography as a country is changing, there are more people of different extractions and all corners of the World and that wasn’t the case hundreds of years ago. What worked back then doesn’t necessarily fly today. That doesn’t mean we have to lose our traditions. 

“We make a very traditional pantomime and I don’t shy away from setting one in China, for example, but I don’t have people in funny teeth and Chinese accents. My shows are made with love. We make jokes with people rather than at people. We have casts that come from all different parts of the community and all over the country and I think that’s important. It’s great when you can hear kids leaving the theatre and whoever they are and whatever their background they can imagine themselves up on stage.” 

You’ll hear my interview with Ben from the Big Tiny on my radio show this week. The nearest of his pantos is, Rumpelstiltskin at the Millgate Theatre in Delph, which is Saddleworth. It runs from Saturday until the end of December. My other guests this week are equally fascinating. Lilian Tzang is performing at the Lowry Theatre in Salford in Life of Pi, which was an amazing, award winning film about a young boy’s adventure in a boat with a Tiger. I was at the press launch, a few months ago, and the puppets look amazing. That show runs until 7th January. Neha Eapen is one of the stars of “We’re going on a Bearhunt”, also at the Lowry, until 7th January. It’s a show for families and sounds like a lot of fun. 

Join me on Sunday from 7pm on Tameside Radio 103.6FM to meet Ben, Lilian and Neha and hear loads of great show tunes. Break-a-Leg!