Hair - Hope Mill MCR / National Tour

*front row* 

This is on sale now. Previews 12-13th Nov £15. Rest of run £20. Concessions £18.

Two performances on Sundays

directed by Jonathan O'Boyle

Wouldn't it suffice to turn the 'H' into a 'B'?

Booked this for Sunday. I've not been to the theatre before and see it's unallocated seating.

Anyone know how this is laid out and how early I should be there to get a good seat? I'm there on my own, so probably easier to get a decent seat than for a group.

Saw this last night and it's a fun show. Very much reminded me of the smaller fringe theatre venues around London.

It's an easy enough walk from Manchester Piccadilly if you're traveling. Just be careful if you use Google Maps as the pedestrian route it directs you down is closed in part for road changes. I briefly ended up on the canal towpath and that also isn't recommended as it lacks lighting.

As soon as you get to the theatre, go to the bar (or the box office which forms part of the bar), give your name and collect a token.

For info, I was there 30 minutes before the show started and was number 67 in the queue.

They let you into the theatre in groups of 50 (actually, in this case, they let the first 50 in, then everyone else). So, you need to be there very early for a good choice of seats. Entrance is right at show time as the cast are already out (some of them also walked around the bar in costume before the show).

The entrance is the doors on the right as you face the bar.

Most of the room is given over to the "stage" with seats on three sides. Two rows on the long sides and three rows on the short sides. All of the rear rows are raised, so there's no risk of a badly blocked view. I'd estimate 150 seats in all, with very few empty at the start of the show.

The fourth side (furthest from the entrance) has the orchestra, as well as strategically placed netting etc to put (parts of) the cast out of view.

I was near the front of the second group to enter and was still able to get a good seat near the centre of the front row. A lot of people chose the "safe" seats further back. There are a quite a few "touchy feely" and interactive bits to the show, so your choice of seats may depend how much you want a half naked man on your lap, or rubbing your hair.

The sound is pretty good in the venue, better than some of the similar London theatres. You're unlikely to make out all of the lyrics, but with this type of show, it doesn't matter too much.

For those curious about the nude scene, it really is a "blink and you'll miss it". There was one very keen member of the cast who was naked a few seconds before the lights went out. Some others timed it exactly as the lights went out and most after it went dark (if they fully disrobed at all, difficult to tell with the large stage and the very brief scene). Most of the cast who did get nude had worked out the angles to avoid most of the audience seeing anything and very swiftly got to the concealed area at the end of the stage. If you are nudity minded, the seats at the extreme end near the orchestra would be your best chance of seeing anything (but probably not the best view for the rest of the show).

I must admit I got distracted during the show working out where I recognised many of the cast from (largely other fringe theatre, or ensembles/alternates from larger shows) and also where I recognised audience members from (in one case, last seen in West End Bares stuffing money down some guy's G-String for charity). Seriously though, this one looked like it was attracting the traveling audience, maybe more so being a Sunday early evening performance.

There's a fun moment at the end of the show where a lot of the audience are invited onto the stage to dance with the cast too.

Definitely worth a visit if you're not too far from Manchester (or you can combine this with a work visit like I did).

Or take the metrolink (tram) from Piccadilly, G line, one stop to New Islington which stops right at the bottom of Pollard Street which is where the theatre is. 

Trippy doesn't cover it! I thought someone had dropped a tab of LSD in my pre-show G&T at several points.

Very different from the film, more a series of set pieces than a proper narrative I thought. And what a gorgeous and talented cast. All of them on stage from beginning to end, suitably scruffy and dirty footed, they absolutely killed it.

Ahhhh, one of our illustrious members gave me a tip about this recently. Fab news for the Hope Mill and Aria.

Eeesh. Those prices!