Shut Up the Messy Sequel?

Although Made Up has been updating, I’ve been away for a little while and as such, missed the chance to check out the press night of Brick Up: The Wirral Strikes Back. The plan was to catch up with it before it closes on Saturday. After all, the Empire has had an excellent run of shows recently. But if the critics are anything to go by, it sounds like Nicky Allt’s home-grown follow up to local theatre smash Brick Up the Mersey Tunnels, starring Dean Sullivan and Eithne Brown among others, has been a total flop.

 The Echo said it “failed miserably to reach its target”, adding: “Allt’s mission is to bring theatre to the non-theatre going masses, which is a laudable ambition. But like anyone else, they deserve quality theatre.” Ouch! Chris High of The Stage went on: “poor lighting, dodgy sound, clunky scene changes and two-dimensional caricatures make Brick Up - The Wirral Strikes Back a play that can only be described as deeply disappointing”. But he also pointed out that in this instance, press night was (unusually) the opening night. Shows usually give themselves a few days to bed in before inviting in the critics - although Click Liverpool argued “ultimately this can't be blamed for a hardly engrossing piece of theatre”, bestowing it with an unfortunate 3/10 score. But beyond press night, The Public Reviews website is most telling, with a few comments on the site from very disappointed punters who couldn't take it and just walked out. It didn’t stop there. Liverpool Confidential, generally always present at Empire shows, doesn’t appear to have run a review at all, although one of their critics, the ever-gracious Phil Key, was unusually damning, describing the show on Twitter as “a bit of a disaster, confused, unfunny and badly staged”. Seven Streets – never afraid to call a spade a spade – sent along Alan O’Hare, who regretfully described it thus:  “It seems a pity… that writer Allt didn’t know when to put the trowel down and stop with this one. As Brick Up: The Wirral Strikes Back isn’t very good. It’s not even very funny. And it knows it.” I can’t remember the last time a show in this city got such a complete and utter panning. Might give this one a miss... Anyone out there want to speak up in its defence? Anyone? You don’t have to log in or anything to leave a comment below.