Kathleen Ferrier Whattalife! Tells the story of the great English contralto and follows her journey from housewife to household name.  Just like Kathleen during her short but full life, the show has a great sense of fun and talks straight from the heart.

Performed by contralto Lucy Stevens with pianist Elizabeth Marcus, sung music from Kathleen’s repertoire is woven through the text including What is Life and Blow the Wind Southerly.

The show celebrates her brilliance, on and off stage, with witty dialogue which is funny and revealing. Lucy Stevens performance embodies the spirit of Kathleen, transporting the audience from her Lancashire debut in 1940, through her meteoric rise in The Rape of Lucretia at Glyndebourne to her final tragic performance as Orfeo at the Royal Opera House in 1953.

Kathleen Ferrier Whattalife! has featured on BBC 2 and on BBC Radio 3 Music Matters.

Reviews

‘Lucy Stevens is brilliant, has Kathleen Ferrier perfectly and is a fine musician too...the audience rides an emotional roller-coaster from laughter to tears… it received a spontaneous standing ovation.’ 

Christopher Fifield editor of Letters and Diaries of Kathleen Ferrier.

⭐⭐⭐⭐ Milton Court Concert Hall, Barbican.

‘Lucy Stevens as Ferrier, capturing the singer’s radiant personality most winningly… always at home in the Ferrier songbook, the warmth in her own voice, matching to a large degree Ferrier’s own contralto, causes a frisson in the audience.’

Adrian Edwards Musical Theatre Review

⭐⭐⭐⭐

‘A brilliant evening, much humour, wonderful singing and yet so sad & poignant… certainly captured the essence of Our Kath… not just a brilliant actress but whattavoice!’

Kath Hopcroft, Kathleen Ferrier’s goddaughter and trustee of the Kathleen Ferrier Society.