The Guardian reviews Showtown, our latest project, which opens in Blackpool this Friday.

"Until this week," she writes. "in more than 170 years as one of the UK’s most popular seaside resorts, it has not had a proper museum."

"This Friday, Showtown opens its doors: Blackpool’s museum of fun. Built for £13m on the site of the old Palace nightclub, it celebrates the outrageous past and present of the entertainment industry in the “Lancashire riviera”."

"The highly interactive museum mixes historical artefacts with games to play. Visitors can design their own illuminations, judge a Britain’s Got Talent-style show, or make a whoopee cushion expel increasingly loud trumps."

"Exhibits include the Blackpool police cell that Harry Houdini escaped from in 1905; an Orville the Duck puppet; and a sausage-firing gun and toilet seat harp made by Charlie Cairoli, Blackpool’s celebrated clown. Cairoli’s routines were renowned for being wet and messy, and he prided himself on his secret recipe for the perfect custard pie."

"There are dresses worn by Strictly stars, as well as cruise ship crooner Jane McDonald, and matching suits owned by Morecambe and Wise. Twenty-seven items have been lent by the V&A in London, including a lion tamer’s stick (complete with bite marks) and Tommy Cooper’s fez."

"“It’s a museum for people who don’t go to museums,” says Gary Shelley, the museum’s designer, from Casson Mann. “We’ve tried to focus on why would people come here when they’re in Blackpool doing something fun, they’re on holiday, they’re on the beach or on the prom. Why would you come upstairs, indoors to visit ‘a museum?’”"

"A boring traditional museum wouldn’t cut the mustard, he says, not when it is “talking to an audience that doesn’t go to those sort of places”. It was important to have multigenerational appeal: “Grandad, mum, dad and the kids. At least three generations should be able to come here and enjoy themselves.”"

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