Aspects of Love and Nick Cave

Featured songs include Seeing is Believing, I Want to be the First Man You Remember and the hit Love Changes Everything.

With music by Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Don Black (Sunset Boulevard) and Charles Hart (Phantom of The Opera), the original show opened in London in 1989 and ran for 1,325 performances.

This production is directed by Mark Howard, winner of the National Operatic and Dramatic Association’s Best Director of a Musical last year and musical direction is by Edward Rugman. Choreography is by Zak Yates.

Because of the subject matter the production is deemed unsuitable for under-14s. It runs from next Wednesday to Saturday including a matinee on the last day.

Box office: 0844 844 7710 or www.prestonguildhall.com.

A year ago British bandleader Elio Pace was invited to fill Billy Joelʼs shoes for two special reunion concerts in New York and Philadelphia with Joelʼs original 1971-72 touring band, recreating the historic Sigma Sounds live recordings.

At Lancaster’s Grand Theatre next Friday, Elio will perform The Billy Joel Songbook.

Given Joel’s reluctance to tour it’s an opportunity to hear his songbook played and sung by Pace and his six-piece band.

Elio says it was all thanks to the power of social media.

A friend of Elio’s from New York heard that Joelʼs original 1971 bassist, Larry Russell, was looking for a pianist and singer to feature in these reunion concerts. The friend sent Larry a message telling him to check Elio out on YouTube. Larry did so – then contacted him to offer the reunion gig.

“I accepted immediately” said Elio. “It was an amazing couple of nights and it was there and then I decided it was time to fulfil a dream and create my own show of Billy Joel’s music which I could take to theatres with my own band.”

The show has been booked to play more than 70 venues all over the UK and Ireland. Box Office: 01524 64695 or www.lancastergrand.co.uk.

Drama and reality combine in a fictitious 24 hours in the life of music icon Nick Cave at Lancaster’s Dukes cinema on Wednesday night.

With frank insights and an intimate portrayal of his artistic process, 20,000 Days On Earth (15) examines the power of the creative spirit.

The award-winning film will be followed by a live-by-satellite event featuring Cave and several special guests.

Box Office: 01524 598500 or www.dukes-lancaster.org.

Fifty years since recording their first no1 hit single The Sound of Silence, The Simon and Garfunkel Story comes to Blackpool Grand Theatre next Friday night.

Featuring West End award-winning leading man Dean Elliott (Buddy - The Musical) and a cast of actor-musicians, the show tells the story of Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel from their beginnings as rock ‘n’ roll duo Tom and Jerry, through their massive success, dramatic break-up and 1981 Central Park reunion concert.

Using projections, the show features both original photos and film footage while a live band play the hits.

Box office: 01253 290190 or www.blackpoolgrand.co.uk.

Salford-born Robert Powell comes ‘home’ to the Lowry arts centre next week.

He is cast as Hercule Poirot in Agatha Christie’s Murder On Air. Powell will perform three radio thrillers from the Queen of Crime read in an 
authentic studio setting with live sound effects in the style of their original BBC broadcasts. Murder on Air runs from Tuesday to Saturday with matinees Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday. Box Office: 0843 208 6005 or www.thelowry.com.

David Upton