It's been a musical and theatrical start to the week with Lost Soul on Monday and a visit to see The Rat Pack last night.
I reviewed Lost Soul when it was at the Unity Theatre last year.
I though that Echo quote on the flyer for the Royal Court show looked familiar even if it took a while to place it!!
When I saw the show in April 2006 it was three months before Brick Up the Mersey Tunnels hit the Royal Court stage became a roaring success.
Lost Soul was a little rough around the edges, and there were some irritating and superfluous dancers brought in to try and cover the scene changes.
But it had a good smattering of funny lines and at the Unity close proximity means you can't help but be drawn into the action.
Now, on the back of Brick Up's soaring popularity, Lost Soul has been given a re-write, a bigger stage, a more expensive revolving set and a higher profile cast.
So why did I enjoy it less on Monday than I did last year?
Maybe it was the showboating to the audience who lapped up the traditional Scouse comedy references to the Sun, the Echo, Pete Price and Radio Merseyside?
Maybe it was the dragging nature of the first half where the stolid action took place by and ironing board and all singing, all dancing, all revolving set barely moved an inch?
Maybe it was the distraction of Eithne Browne's chest, which surely had a dressing room star all to itself?
Perhaps it was a mixture of all three. But whatever, I left feeling less euphoric than I really should have done.
Of course, Lost Soul will be another bums on seats success for the Royal Court and good luck to them.
Rex Makin described it to me outside the theatre as the "the ultimate Scouse experience."
There is obviously an appetite for these Liverpool-centric comedies, and I hear whisperings Brick Up could be back in Capital of Culture year - maybe for even longer than the six weeks it did over this summer.
But at some point the Liverpool writers need to pull something new out of the hat - something not involving easy jokes about Wirral, scallies, the Sun and radio personalities.
Incidently, isn't it funny that three years ago you could get a cheer and applause for mentioning we'd won Capital of Culture, and now you get a cheer and applause for doing gags about how we're cocking it up?
Last night I went to see the Rat Pack at the Empire, the third time I've reviewed that show in five years.
Stephen Triffitt, playing Frank Sinatra, was terrific, but again, I came out feeling less buoyant than I expected - ithe show just didn't fizz the way it should.
Time for the chairman of the board and his friends to take a sabbatical perhaps?
