ONE phrase that always excites theatre-goers in Liverpool is this: 'Matthew Bourne and premiere.'
The multi award-winning Mr B loves the city and the feeling is mutual with loyal audiences who enjoy his dance treats which are always accessible to so many tastes - young and old alike.
From the Empire to the Playhouse you know with Matthew's New Adventures company will give 100 per cent. This much-anticipated touring production - The Midnight Bell - is very much a departure.
It not awash with colour as with some of his more jollier themes.
ABOVE: Production images from The Midnight Bell
The lights throughout are dimmed from the outset - punctuated by neon signs and at times you feel you are looking at the starkness of a Lucian Freud painting.
The setting is the under belly of London life in 1930. We step inside the Midnight Bell a Soho tavern where the regulars drink away their sorrows.
The superb, atmospheric set resembles a Hollywood film sound studio such is the incredible eye for detail from the accomplished master designer Lez Brotherston.
It is quite an achievement that deviser and director Matthew and Lez can consistently create such intimacy on a stage - no matter the size.
Production image from The Midnight Bell
We see a park, a cinema, seedy hotel and dance hall and, of course, the interior of this typical public house - a meeting place for lonely hearts between the wars.
The ten dancers and their characters - in impeccable perioid costumes - glide in and out of focus, each has a story to tell.
Production image from The Midnight Bell
There's Love-gone-wrong, love-going-right and love-eventually--crashing like a glass to the floor.
It is all inspired by the novelist Patrick Hamilton - a writer who could create the pathos of working class men and women (and drink) as much as Van Gogh captured the heart-breaking emotional despair in his surroundings.
The music by Terry Davies fits the mood perfectly (great to hear the harp in full flow) and there is sheer joy when the dancers lip-synch to the wonderful lyrics of many 30 standards from the likes of Al Bowlly.
It is, at times, reminiscent of Dennis Potter's Pennies from Heaven.
In under two hours we meet a wide range of lovers including faultless performances from: Michela Meazza's spinster; Bob the affable waiter (Paris Fitzpatrick) and a cad Ernest Ralph Gorse (Glenn Graham) who looks as though he has stepped straight out of an Ealing Studios film.
ABOVE: Production images from The Midnight Bell
Every Matthew Bourne work holds your attention from start to finish in this case from opening time to towels on.
You may not see so much of the seamless trademark humour that is very much threaded throughout other works, but you will emerge from the theatre feeling that you have watched a unique piece of dance drama with so many different painful stories to tell and with its heart beating in every single step.
These flawed heroes and heroines dance away the heartache ... we've all been there.
Globe verdict: Four stars
Delightfully dark and marvellously melancholy
The production is on until Saturday. Tickets from 0151 709 4776
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