A Grand new season ahead

Published: 29 January 2017
Reporter: David Upton

Blackpool Grand new season launches Credit: CJGriffiths Photography

The Grand Theatre in Blackpool punches well above its weight with a programme of shows for spring / summer 2017.

From Running Wild by Michael Morpurgo, brought to life with puppets, to the naughty Nell Gwynn and ballet for under 5s Goldilocks and the Three Bears, it aims to appeal across the generations.

Nell Gwynn is brought to the stage by English Touring Theatre. Meanwhile winner of the 1988 Olivier Award for Best Comedy Willy Russell’s Shirley Valentine will be live on stage with local star Jodie Prenger as the Liverpool housewife who wonders where her life has disappeared to.

Tony Award-winning choreographer Matthew Bourne will be returning to his roots in Early Adventures, while marking the 30th anniversary of the end of the miners’ strike, award-winning choreographer Gary Clarke presents COAL, a riveting dance theatre show.

Out of This World from acclaimed writer and director Mark Murphy is set in a world of projected film and animation.

Sadler’s Wells ground-breaking International Festival of hip hop dance theatre and culture Breaking Convention returns following Blackpool success in 2016.

The Touring Consortium Theatre Company bring Meera Syal’s novel Anita and Me to life on stage starring Shobna Gulati from Coronation Street and Dinnerladies.

Talking Scarlet also returns with Brian Clemens’s Strictly Murder and Simon Williams’s Kiss of Death?.

Following the success of Travels With My Aunt in 2016, Creative Cow returns to The Grand with Graham Greene’s Our Man in Havana adapted by Clive Francis.

For the first time, BBC’s BAFTA Best Comedy Series nominated '90s drama, Waiting For God comes to the stage. Starring Roy Hudd (Huddlines) and Nichola McAuliffe (Surgical Spirit), this all-new script penned by the sitcom’s creator Michael Aitkens and directed by Tony Award winner David Grindley features all the characters from the original series.

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