Love Actually in Concert
The festive romcom on screen with its soundtrack performed live — airport boards, piano cues, and all.
Love Actually in Concert screens the film at Bridgewater Hall with the soundtrack played live. Airport departure boards, the cue-card doorstep, the school nativity and the piano cues all turn up, backed by musicians in the room rather than a recording under the dialogue. The film is a weave of Christmas romances. The concert format picks out how much of the feeling sits in the score.
Tuesday 15 December, from 7pm. Check tickets, and sit with someone you are happy to be damp-eyed next to when the choir comes in. Lower Mosley Street is already in full festive mode by mid-December, with the markets a short walk away, so the evening has a natural shape: food, the film, the cold air after. It is peak cinema-concert season in this hall, alongside the other film-and-orchestra nights, and this is the one with the most plot to keep track of. Arrive for the start. The opening is scored.