Phil Collins ‘Not Yet Dead’ Tour - Nottingham Motorpoint Arena

He’s definitely not dead yet – we could see that by the way he hobbled centre stage to take a nice comfy seat in front of an adoring audience... and that’s more or less where he stayed for two hours packed with classics.

To be fair, apart from a debilitating back operation and bad legs, the 80s superstar hasn’t changed much since he was last in the limelight.

That’s one advantage of looking old when you’re young. And I guess the past 30 years haven’t been all that kind to many of us, have they?

Yet the one thing that shone through was that voice. Still higher pitched, a bit of echo mic and a lot of the Phil Collins we all remember. The sound quality was superb. If you’ve still got a copy of No Jacket Required or Just Seriously in the loft then dust it down and compare it to what you heard at the Arena. His body may be crocked but the tools of his trade are still functioning perfectly.

Some of the old videos played out during Follow You Follow Me only served to accentuate his current plight. He was featured as the cheeky chappie, sporting an impressive mullet and bouncing around for the cameras. (His son Nic is on the drums for this tour, perhaps taking over what his dad can’t manage these days).

From the start with Against All Odds followed by Another Day in Paradise, it all seemed a little sedate up on stage to start with but rattling through One More Night and Separate Lives, the music soon took over.

Something on the Way to Heaven was the track that got people to their feet at the start of the second set, followed by a string of hits In the Air Tonight and You Can’t Hurry Love (let’s face it, hands up who DIDN’T don a pair of sunglasses and do all those action at the school disco back in the day?)

Invisible Tough, Easy Lover and Sussudio worked the crowd into a mature kind of frenzy to finish off – and as Mr Collins closed on Take Me Home, we’re pleased he got another tour under his belt in the nick of time...

SET LIST

•     Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now)
•     Another Day in Paradise
•     One More Night
•     Wake Up Call
•     Follow You Follow Me
•     Can't Turn Back the Years
•     I Missed Again
•     Hang in Long Enough
•     Separate Lives
•     Only You Know and I Know
•     I Don't Care Anymore
•     Something Happened on the Way to Heaven
•     You Know What I Mean
•     In the Air Tonight
•     You Can't Hurry Love
•     Dance Into the Light
•     Invisible Touch
•     Easy Lover
•     Sussudio
•     Take Me Home

Awful Auntie, Theatre Royal, Nottingham

Have you read Awful Auntie?

I have – and this play is very close to the book, with so much to fit into the 1hr 45mins that the action moves really quickly.

The plot isn’t rushed, though. It was still easy to follow and the youngsters in the audience had a great time laughing along with – and at – the characters from David Walliams’ famous book.

There wasn’t a lot of scenery but it was cleverly rotated around the stage to suit indoors, outdoors, upstairs and the cellar. They also ended up on the roof, which was surprisingly easy to believe!

Sly Awful Auntie Alberta is played by Timothy Speyer, who was true to the book in making his character a manly woman (less a pantomime dame and more a tweed-clad dragon).

Without giving too much away, she’s the baddie and tries to reclaim the family stately home she believes should be hers.

In her way is poor orphaned Stella Saxby, the only child of parents who died in a suspicious car crash. The talented Georgina Leonidas is easily believable as a 13-year-old girl. You may have spotted her as Harry Potter’s fellow quidditch player in The Half-Blood Prince and the Deathly Hallows. She is the main character and on stage for nearly all the show. She keeps interest up by constantly revealing new details of the story, leading us all to wonder what will happen next.

Her new friend Soot (Ashley Cousins) is a great comedy character who helps Stella piece together the truth about the car crash and who (and what) he really is.

Watch out for doddery butler Gibbon (Richard James), who gets funnier and funnier as the play goes on and for the cleverly created Wagner, an owl whose puppeteer Roberta Bellekom stays well in the background.

Ten out of ten for a show that’s true to plot and spirit of the book – although this play is so much funnier.

Review by Louis Astill (12)