Ubu! A Singalong Satire – tour starts 4 December
Inspired by Alfred Jarry’s 1896 play Ubu Roi, Kneehigh’s Ubu! A Singalong Satire is an "unhinged", semi-improvised promenade musical in which the chorus is the audience singing along to iconic rock & pop songs accompanied by a belting Kneehigh band, The Sweaty Bureaucrats.
Rocking, rollicking ridiculousness is promised as the deranged, greedy and unstoppably crude dictator we all love to hate is put in his place.
The show, originally staged at the Asylum, is conceived by Carl Grose, Charles Hazlewood and Mike Shepherd and created by the company.
Grose and Shepherd direct a cast made up of Niall Ashdown, Kyla Goodey, Robi Luckay, Alex Lupo, Katy Owen, Justin Radford, Dom Coyote, Nandi Bhebhe, Mike Shepherd and Renell Shaw.
Singing, anarchy and a cold beer are to be found at Shoreditch Town Hall London where the show opens before visiting Marble Factory Bristol, The Lowry Salford and Leeds Playhouse.
Scrooge—The Funny Family Spectacular – tour starts 6 December
Charles Dickens’s classic story A Christmas Carol has not been adapted so much as spectacularised for a short arena tour.
This musical extravaganza stars Baywatch and Knight Rider's David Hasselhoff as Scrooge and Pauline Quirke in the form of a life-sized hologram as the Ghost of Christmas Past.
Technology also provides a flying four poster bed, a blacklight ghost sequence with cirque aerialists and a fluorescent ghost train.
The cast of over 100 includes musical clown Charlie Cairoli Jr, actors, dancers, acrobats and comedians and 70 children and teenage performers from The Pauline Quirke Academy.
Amongst the cast there is also a miniature horse and a white Arab stallion.
As a further incentive, one lucky audience member at every performance will be given £3,000 in cash as a reformed Scrooge shares his wealth and goodwill.
Scrooge – The Funny Family Spectacular visits Motorpoint Arena Cardiff, Resorts World Arena Birmingham and Motorpoint Arena Nottingham.
Once – tour starts 19 December
West End musical Once goes on its first major tour after opening at Fairfield Halls, Croydon.
This production is directed by Peter Rowe and was first seen at New Wolsey Theatre Ipswich. Musical supervision is by Ben Goddard and choreography is by Francesca Jaynes.
The story is based on the 2007 film of the same name written and directed by John Carney which has a story of a Dublin street busker and a Czech musician who unexpectedly fall in love.
Daniel Healy plays Guy and Emma Lucia plays Girl; they are joined by Dan Bottomley, Matthew Burns, Ellen Chivers, Rosalind Ford, Lloyd Gorman, David Heywood, Samuel Martin, Peter Peverley, Susannah Van Den Berg and James William-Pattison.
The cast is completed by Emma Fraser, Seán Keany, Hanna Khogali and Conor McFarlane.
The book of Once is by Irish playwright and screenwriter Enda Walsh and it has music and lyrics by Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová. The show features the Academy Award-winning song "Falling Slowly". It also won a number of other awards including an Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Music.
Once is presented by Adam Spiegel and Robert Bartner and visits Ashcroft Theatre Croydon, Cliffs Pavilion Southend, Empire Theatre Liverpool, Grand Opera House York, New Victoria Theatre Woking, Milton Keynes Theatre, New Wolsey Theatre Ipswich, Theatre Royal Bath, Belgrade Theatre Coventry, Regent Theatre Stoke, Festival Theatre Malvern, His Majesty’s Theatre Aberdeen, Theatre Royal Nottingham, New Theatre Oxford, Theatre Royal Brighton, Lyceum Theatre Sheffield, Wales Millennium Centre Cardiff, Mayflower Theatre Southampton, Edinburgh Playhouse, Alexandra Theatre Birmingham, Marlowe Theatre Canterbury, Leicester Curve, The Lowry Salford, Theatre Royal Plymouth, King’s Theatre Glasgow and New Theatre Hull.
Grandpa’s Great Escape Live – tour starts 23 December
Number one best-selling children’s book by David Walliams, Grandpa’s Great Escape, which has been translated into 39 languages, has now been adapted into a stage show written by Kevin Cecil.
Nigel Planer stars as Grandpa, a World War II flying ace now living in an old folk’s home run by the sinister Matron Swine. It's time for Grandpa and grandson, Jack, to plot a daring escape...
Actor and comedian Planer will be remembered as Neil in BBC cult comedy The Young Ones, and his theatre credits include Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Hairspray, Chicago, Wicked and We Will Rock You.
The show is directed by Sean Foley.
Grandpa’s Great Escape Live flies into the Arena Birmingham, The SSE Arena Wembley London, FlyDSA Arena Sheffield, Motorpoint Arena Nottingham, Arena Manchester, Utilita Arena Newcastle, The SSE Hydro Glasgow and M&S Bank Arena Liverpool.
Check web sites for information regarding post-show Q&As, captioned, signed, relaxed and parent and baby performances, the use of smoke / haze and flashing lights and age suitability. At the time of going to press, some dates may not yet be on sale.