The MGM Story – a Musical Revue

Chris Burgess, Andy Collyer (music arranger)

Hope Mill & Aria Entertainment

Hope Mill Theatre, Manchester

May 28-June 7, 2026;

Performers in Hope Mill's revue, The MGM Story: l-r James Corlett, Niamh Hendron, John-Paul Birss and Charlie Mae McKevit

What’s the antidote to the big musical productions that run to a click track, probably enhanced by vocal recordings and where the sound is engineered within an inch of its life?

I'll tell you: a glorious Hope Mill home-grown revue where every beat happens right in front of you and every note is sung or played absolutely, 100 per cent no messing, live. This is the case with The MGM Story thanks to fabulous performers Charlie Mae McKevitt, Niamh Hendron, James Corlett and John-Paul Birss and the hardest working pianist in the business, Joseph Clayton - I don’t think his fingers stopped all night.

It’s an interesting conundrum: how to capture the grandiose golden age of Hollywood in a tiny theatre with only four actors and a piano. The action of Joseph Houston's production begins with the uncovering of various bits and pieces of furniture, costumes and props, to give us the feel of being in a dressing room behind the scenes of the movie. We flit variously between dressing room, rehearsal and film set, but the action we’re watching isn’t on the screen; we are there, privileged observers of the musical film-making, rather than a movie theatre audience. And so we’re part of the intimate, closed world of production rather than the global scale of movie consumption. The songs are live and real for us, right here, and they sound even better.

The scene is set with That’s Entertainment, then a few bits from the very early days. The story centres on producer Arthur Freed, the signings he made (Judy Garland, Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, the list goes on) and the movies he created. And the actors give us the narration in their own voices, home grown talent from the North West, snapping into American twang at the drop of a top hat to play Freed, Garland and the rest, to give us the backstage action and, of course, the glorious songs. It gives us the feel that this documentary angle is made just for us, the audience here at home in Manchester.

We get the stories, for example the whole fascinating backdrop to the construction of Harold Arlen’s Somewhere Over the Rainbow, with its opening octave leap, originally believed 'too operatic’ for audiences, but conceded to be dreamy when the lyric's rainbow imagery was arrived at.

The songs are too plentiful to list, but Birss’ lyric baritone is a particular musical highlight - certainly a vocal improvement on the real Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly that he plays here. And the song and dance ensemble number Good Morning' from Singin’ In the Rain is an absolute dream, even without the acrobatics of the movie; it’s uplifting and beautiful. New York New York from On the Town is another moment of pure MGM magic, played out for us.

These songs, by Porter, Berlin, the Gershwins, Bernstein and the rest, were written to be catchy, and up to a century later, they don’t fail us. The credits list "orchestrations" by Andy Collyer, and indeed he succeeds in making a piano and four singers (sometimes in magically close harmony) do the job of an orchestra. We never feel short-changed.

The players tell us, "on screen, everything is perfect, everyone is beautiful, and an orchestra accompanies every scene". Imagine watching that in real life, or go to Hope Mill and see it for real.  

Who could ask for anything more?

More info and tickets here