Thanks to Laura for sending us this review of the Empire Theatre in Liverpool. The theatre has the largest two-tier auditorium in Britain and can seat 2,348 people, so one would hope that there are plenty of accessible seats inside…
Liverpool is an up and coming cosmo-type city – the nightlife is to be recommended apparently. Though not a clubber myself, I couldn’t comment.
The Empire Theatre, I fear, hasn’t been updated like the rest of the ‘Liverpool One’ area. The wheelchair access at the main entrance is a little one-sided – the left side is level with the street, the right side isn’t. There is a spacious area for disabled viewers to sit (available having made the necessary pre-organisation call – more later).
The show I went to see was West Side Story – which was fabulous, but then I’m bias! The accessible lav. let the side down. I think there are 2 available but the one nearest me (stage left) had quite a queue at the interval!
All in all a good night because the people are so friendly and willing to help.
The person to speak to for that necessary pre-show phonecall is Viv Richardson – 0151 702 7346.
Thanks Laura. We gather from that that the access at the Empire is all right…or should that be all left?
We checked further and found that the Empire has sixteen wheelchair spaces available in the auditorium which is quite a few but only a fraction of the vast auditorium as a whole. The theatre is also equipped with an infrared sound amplification system and has a number of performances with a BSL interpreter.
With limited toilet facilities it’s not entirely ideal but the Empire Theatre is certainly a fairly accessible venue and lots of big shows come touring through. We give them 2 BBS Ticks.