Under The Mersey Moon Floral Pavilion Review

DISCLOSURE – TICKETS TO SEE THE SHOW WERE GIFTED TO THE REVIEWER AND GUEST FOR THE PURPOSES OF WRITING THE REVIEW

Reviewed by Dottie Rood

Under the Mersey Moon, as the title suggests and which is promoted as, “An inspiring New Musical by Jimmy Rae & Pete Davies”, is very much a Liverpool based performance.
This is a new musical that follows the fate and fortune of ‘Danny’—played by Sam Heller, as he evaluates his life as a Country and Western singer/song writer and how his mundane predictable life seems to be going no-where. So, he makes the decision to travel to Nashville and his Country and Western career beckons, if only life was that easy!
The play does follow quite a predictable course, Danny has parents who don’t understand that a career in this area is really a ‘job’, a girlfriend, Louise,—played by Samantha Alton, that feels very left out (especially as it was Valentines night and Danny had not organised anything except flowers from the garage where he works!) and Danny just plodding along not doing anything to push his dream. And then Danny finds an old scrap book in his Grandads house, who he looks after, and his dreams begin to become more realistic. Grandad Harry—played by Billy Butler, who I must mention at 84 played his part well, needs a carer and Danny fills that role with some humorous, very ‘scouse’ comments. The story then unfolds with the expected outcome of Danny getting to Nashville not doing to good and then returning, not to be reunited with his previous girlfriend but for another reason that I will keep to myself as it is pivotal to the story.
Under the Mersey Moon was inspired by the song of the same name, this was written in 2009 by Jimmy Rae as a simple love song to Liverpool and the enduring spirit of Liverpool people through good times and bad. It was originally released as a Charity single, Liverpool Unites & Wirral Autistic Society and became a much-requested song when Jimmy was performing with his wife and musical partner Sarah-Lou Fletcher in his duo Tennessee Waltz. People who heard it were constantly suggesting it would be a brilliant basis of a musical and so, along with Pete Davies Under the Mersey Moon was born.
Sarah-Lou Fletcher is in the play as Ellie, an important character in the story and alongside Jodie White (Amy), Leslie Butler (Carol), Christopher Lee-Power (Kenny), Adam Johnson (young Harry), Catherine Howard (Jackie, Carer, Airport traveller), Leslie Longley (Mike), Del Wilden (Airport Traveller, Nashville Bartender) and Al Peters (Nashville Drunk) gives good supporting performances to Danny’s story.
Under the Mersey Moon is directed by Brian McCann and has a live house band on stage at all times, the members of the band are:
Keyboards—Tom Hutchinson.
Guitars—Adam Johnson,
Fiddle—Nick Silver.
Bass Guitar—Jimmy Rae.
Drums—Howard Northover
Seeing the band play added to the performance as did the songs, thirteen original and fifteen altogether. Jimmy Rae wrote nine of these songs, R Peter Davies wrote four, Sarah-Lou Fletcher wrote one and Ben Findon, Mike Myers and Bob Puzey wrote the other and, in my opinion, they were all good. I found ‘Sometimes Love’ particularly emotional and really loved the title song ‘Under the Mersey Moon’.
Having visited the Floral Pavilion many, many years ago it was lovely to visit this very modern, pleasant theatre for this play. We actually ate at The Pavilion, which was delicious and I noticed they also had snacks and a bar, all competitively priced. It had a really lovely atmosphere with helpful pleasant staff and good views from most seats. We travelled from South Liverpool by public transport and ‘feet’ that was really easy and I noticed quite a lot of parking near-by and as this theatre is on the main promenade in New Brighton you could see the Mersey! The play was 2 hours 20 minutes long (including interval).
This was an enjoyable evening, but I think, ‘A Play with Music’ might have been a better description rather than a ‘musical’? Will it be understood by people not from Liverpool? (there were some very ‘scouse’ comments) yes, I think it will plus it will give others an in-site into our unique sense of humour!
Just to mention my standout performers, I felt the youngest member of the cast, Adam Johnson, who played Young Harry, was really good and Sam Heller, as Danny, also gave a good performance.
Rating: 4/5
Tickets cost: £30 (£29 concession)
Under the Mersey Moon is on at the floral Pavilion for one more night, tonight 15th February 2026
Floral Pavilion, Marine Promenade, New Brighton, Wirral, CH45 2JS
For more information & to book tickets contact: floralpavilion.com or Box-office: 0151 666 0000.
Under the Mersey Moon is then on at Liverpool Epstein Theatre from 10th to 13th November 2026. Tickets go on sale 1st March 2026 at www.epsteintheatre.com or telephone: 0151 312 8735.