The Dixie Dean Story - Friday October 25th

http://www.gladstonetheatre.org.uk/dds.html

THE DIXIE DEAN STORY

The captivating story of the Birkenhead boy who became English football's greatest centre forward comes to Wirral this autumn

And enhancing the local theme, Wirral-based actor Steve Hazlehurst resumes the title role in which he has won a host of plaudits since the curtain first went up on the show in 2008

Steve plays the iconic Everton and England centre forward from boyhood to old age, spanning the launch of his career at Tranmere and his record-breaking years at Goodison, and delivers many of his lines while controlling a ball on stage

The role has a particular resonance for Steve, who went to the same Laird Street school that Dixie had attended decades earlier and, like the Everton legend, played centre forward in the same school team

" It's as if I was meant to play Dixie, " Steve reflects. "I feel I've really got to know him through playing the role through so many performances." "The show's narrative is more than just football.... it's a human interest story capturing Dixie's steely determination and strength of character."

One of the show's many highlights is the segment enacting Everton's game against Arsenal in May 1928 when Dixie scored a hat trick to reach 60 League goals in a season, a feat still unequalled and a record set to last for all time.
"Steve's performance is remarkable," enthuses Everton legend Duncan McKenzie. "It's a fantastic production and I was blown away by the quality of the acting and presentation. " "Quite apart from Dixie's amazing football exploits this is an enthralling story, of how a boy's driving ambition took him to greatness and to what is sure to be a permanent place in the record books."

Steve Hazlehurst is joined on stage by narrator John Keith, the City Talk presenter and author, who adapted the play from his biography of Dixie, and the show is expertly directed by Gill Beattie of Arts2u Ltd. The two hour production, with audio and video backing, also tells how Dixie – real name William Ralph – acquired his nickname and how he had to overcome a life-threatening accident to become English football's greatest goalscorer

It portrays Dixie as a young boy in his native Birkenhead, watching the recruits march off to be shipped to the First World War killing fields, through to his glorious era at Everton in the 1920s and 30s when he became captain and an heroic figure in Goodison’s title and FA Cup triumphs. Dixie’s final career total of 440 goals in 497 games tests credulity and another former Everton star Derek Mountfield says of the show: "It's eye-opening ...... a must-see production for football fans whoever they support."

Dixie was hailed by another Mersey legend, Liverpool’s Bill Shankly, as "belonging in the company of the supremely great, like Beethoven, Rembrandt and Shakespeare."

Theatre critic Chris High said of the Dixie production: “ Such is the power of the performances that if there’s ever been a better tribute to a football legend then it’s not passed this way before. Like Dixie, this is a truly class act.”