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Dateline: 14th September, 2008
Autumn/Winter in Manchester Manchester's Live Nation theatres, the Palace Theatre and the Opera House, have published the brochure for their autumn and winter seasons, with big-named productions announced up to March 2009. The main season begins at the Palace with the new Barry Manilow musical Can't Smile Without You, starring 80s pop star Chesney Hawkes alongside TV's How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria? runner-up Siobhan Dillon and I'd Do Anything finalist Francesca Jackson. Following this, Jackson's fellow contestant Samantha Barks stars alongside Wayne Sleep's Emcee in Kander and Ebb's musical Cabaret. At the Opera House, another 80s pop heartthrob, Marti Pellow of pop band Wet Wet Wet, stars as Daryl Van Horne in the musical version of John Updike's novel The Witches of Eastwick. Disney's Beauty and the Beast returns to Manchester once again, and Steven Houghton from BBC's Bugs stars with Grease Is the Word winner Susan McFadden in the West End production of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. David Essex's hits feature in the musical All the Fun of the Fair, and Brendan O'Carroll's housewife character Agnes Brown returns in For The Love of Mrs Brown. Rodgers and Hammerstein's Carousel visits the Opera House prior to a West End run, starring Lesley Garrett as Nettie, with Jeremiah James of TEATRO as Billy Bigelow and Alexandra Silber as Julie Jordan. Footloose the Musical, based on the 1984 film, comes from the West End starring Karen Bruce, Maureen Nolan and Emmerdale's Richard Grieve, and Terry Deary's popular children's history books Horrible Histories come to the stage in two shows featuring The Terrible Tudors and The Vile Victorians. Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat returns once again starring I'd Do Anything contestants Craig Chalmers as Joseph and Tara Bethan as the narrator, plus Any Dream Will Do contestant Antony Hansen as Pharoah. Traditional Christmas fare is provided at the Opera House with Peter Pan starring Gemma Anderson as Pan, Gary Wilmot as Smee and John Thomson as Captain Hook, whereas the Palace will have a three-month run of Cameron Mackintosh's production of Mary Poppins. There will also be a few performances of Christmas with the Rat Pack at both theatres. 2009 will kick off with the Birmingham Stage Company's adaptation of Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book, followed by Fame the Musical. The West End hit based on the music of rock band Queen, We Will Rock You, with a script by Ben Elton will have an extended run at the Palace. The musical based on the songs of Take That with a script by TV writer Danny Brocklehurst, Never Forget, will return from the West End to the Opera House where it first opened last year for a short run in April 2009. Dance productions include Manon from English National Ballet and Swan Lake and Coppelia from Ellen Kent Productions, plus The Imperial Ice Stars in Cinderella on Ice. Ellen Kent also presents opera productions Turandot, Aida, Tosca, La Bohème and Carmen. David Chadderton
Please note that all three Archive indices are very long and will therefore take some time to download.
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