Midlands productions

Published: 24 March 2013
Reporter: Steve Orme

Jess Robinson as Little Voice and Ray Quinn as Billy in The Rise and Fall of Little Voice at Buxton Opera House from Monday until Saturday Credit: Paul Coltas
Finding Joy at the Arena Theatre, Wolverhampton on Tuesday and Wednesday Credit: Silvia Cataudo
The Arrival in the B2 auditorium at Coventry’s Belgrade from Tuesday until Thursday

Dublin’s “number one award-winning music and dance show” Irish House Party jigs into Coventry’s Belgrade on Monday.

Suspects, secrets, and suspense abound when Liza Goddard, Sophie Ward, Robert Duncan, Gary Mavers, Lysette Anthony and Ben Nealon of The Agatha Christie Theatre Company Go Back For Murder at Curve, Leicester from Monday until Saturday.

Beverley Callard, Ray Quinn and Jess Robinson tour Jim Cartwright’s The Rise and Fall of Little Voice to Buxton Opera House from Monday until Saturday.

Ailie Cohen presents Cloud Man, “an enchanting play with puppets and music for four- to seven-year-olds and their grown-ups”, in the Ferguson Room at the Swan Theatre, Stratford at 10:30AM and 1:30PM from Monday until Saturday.

An “irreverent romp through all 14 operettas in 90 hilarious topsy-turvy minutes”, Gilbert and Sullivan Abridged visits Coventry’s Belgrade on Tuesday.

1927 stages The Animals and Children Took to the Streets, “seamlessly synchronizing live music, performance and storytelling with stunning films and animation”, in the Studio at Curve, Leicester on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Vamos Theatre—which specialises in “full mask theatre with no words, the story told through visual performance and an original soundtrack”—takes its new production Finding Joy to the Arena Theatre, Wolverhampton on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The New Youth Theatre hopes to light up the sky like a flame in Fame the Musical at Mansfield Palace Theatre on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Based on the illustrated novel by Shaun Tan, Tamasha Theatre Company’s The Arrival, which “unfolds through an extraordinary weaving together of theatre, circus, music and animation”, visits the B2 auditorium at Coventry’s Belgrade from Tuesday until Thursday.

Talawa Theatre stages Arinze Kene’s God’s Property, a story set in Deptford, south London in which “notions of family and belonging are put to the test when a pack of hostile neighbours gathers to deliver some rough justice”, at mac, Birmingham from Tuesday until Thursday.

Tara Fitzgerald and Jo Stone-Fewings appear in the Royal Shakespeare Company's production of The Winter’s Tale which tours to Nottingham’s Theatre Royal from Tuesday until Saturday.

The world première of a new adaptation of Phillip Pullman’s I Was A Rat!, a co-production between Birmingham REP, Nottingham Playhouse, the New Wolsey Theatre, Ipswich, and Teatro Kismet, moves to Nottingham Playhouse from Tuesday until Saturday 13 April.

Icarus Theatre Collective performs a new production of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet at Stafford Gatehouse on Thursday.

To commemorate the 125th anniversary of the Whitechapel murders in London, retired murder squad detective Trevor Marriott presents his Jack the Ripper—A 21st Century Investigation at the Guildhall Theatre, Derby on Thursday.

Starring international mezzo soprano Nadia Stoianova and produced and directed by Ellen Kent, Bizet’s Carmen is at Derby’s Assembly Rooms on Thursday.

Dancers, actors, animators and singers will be taking to the stage at the Core at Corby Cube for the Corby Youth Arts Slam on Thursday.

Robin French’s new version of Henrik Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler called Heather Gardner continues at the Old Rep, Birmingham until Thursday.

Derby Theatre’s resident company Uncontained Arts presents its “laugh-a-minute adventure” Robin Hood and his Very Merry Men in the theatre’s studio on Friday and Saturday.

Stickleback Theatre Company stages David Harrower’s Blackbird, which won the 2007 Olivier award for best new play, at Buxton Pavilion Arts Centre Studio Theatre on Friday and Saturday.

North Worcestershire company Madcap Theatre Productions takes David Tristram's three Little Grimley plays, Last Tango in Little Grimley, Last Panto in Little Grimley and The Fat Lady Sings in Little Grimley, together billed as Little Grimley’s Troubles Tripled, to Evesham Arts Centre, Worcestershire on Saturday.

The UK tour of the musical Priscilla Queen of the Desert, featuring Jason Donovan, Richard Grieve, Graham Weaver and Giles Watling, continues at the New Alexandra Theatre, Birmingham until Saturday.

Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats continues at Wolverhampton Grand until Saturday.

John Godber’s latest comedy Losing the Plot continues at the New Vic, Newcastle-under-Lyme until Saturday.

Paul-Michael Jones and Jill Winternitz will have the time of their lives as Dirty Dancing continues at Stoke’s Regent Theatre until Saturday.

Jenny Jones, Kay Purcell, Jon Moses, Blue Peter legend Peter Duncan, Joe Chambers and Andrew Crawford appear in the Easter panto Rapunzel at Derby’s Assembly Rooms on Saturday and Sunday.

Swansea City Opera performs Donizetti’s Don Pasquale at Buxton Opera House on Sunday.

Northampton Royal and Derngate continues to stage Alan Ayckbourn’s Mr Whatnot until Saturday 6 April.

Cameron Mackintosh’s new production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera, starring Earl Carpenter as the Phantom and Katie Hall as Christine, continues at Birmingham Hippodrome until Saturday 4 May.

At the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford, in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre Hamlet continues until Saturday 28 September (press night Tuesday 26 March); in the Swan The Orphan of Zhao, sometimes referred to as the Chinese Hamlet and tracing its origins to the 4th century BC, continues until Thursday, Ian McDiarmid takes the title role in Mark Ravenhill’s new translation of Brecht's A Life of Galileo until Saturday while the world première of Adrian Mitchell’s adaptation of Alexander Pushkin's play Boris Godunov also continues until Saturday.

*Some links, including Amazon, Stageplays.com, Bookshop.org, ATG Tickets, LOVEtheatre, BTG Tickets, Ticketmaster, LW Theatres and QuayTickets, are affiliate links for which BTG may earn a small fee at no extra cost to the purchaser.

Are you sure?