Midlands productions

Published: 2 February 2014
Reporter: Steve Orme

Robert Powell plays Hercule Poirot in Black Coffee at Wolverhampton Grand from Monday until Saturday
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers at Birmingham’s New Alexandra Theatre from Monday until Saturday
Sally Ann Triplett takes the lead role in My Judy Garland Life at Nottingham Playhouse which continues until 15 February Credit: Robert Day

Kerry Ellis returns to Northampton Royal and Derngate in the concert version of Rent on Monday.

Roy Williams’s new play Advice for the Young at Heart, which features riots in London in both 1958 and 2011, will be performed in The Door at Birmingham REP on Monday and Tuesday.

Robert Powell takes on the role of Hercule Poirot in the first major revival for 40 years of the only Agatha Christie play to feature the Belgian sleuth, Black Coffee, at Wolverhampton Grand from Monday until Saturday.

Lucy Speed features in the one-woman show Amateur Girl by Amanda Whittington in the Neville Studio at Nottingham Playhouse from Monday until Saturday.

Featuring Sam Attwater and Helena Blackman, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers tours to Birmingham’s New Alexandra Theatre from Monday until Saturday.

Retina Dance Company stages Corporalis in the Studio at Curve, Leicester on Tuesday.

Hofesh Shechter’s most recent piece Sun promises “outstanding and intricate choreography, witty humour, puppetry and stunning visuals in an explosive and exciting performance” at Warwick Arts Centre, Coventry on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Maxwell Caulfield and Faye Tozer go Singin’ in the Rain at the Theatre Royal, Nottingham from Tuesday until Saturday.

A new double presentation of spine-tingling stories featuring Jack Shepherd, Charles Dickens’s The Signalman and M R James’s Oh, Whistle, and I’ll Come to You, My Lad visit Lichfield Garrick from Tuesday until Saturday.

Beyond The Barricade looks back over its 15 years and includes songs from Miss Saigon, The Lion King, Phantom Of The Opera, West Side Story, Jesus Christ Superstar and Les Miserables when it entertains Northampton’s Derngate on Wednesday.

Matthew Bourne’s multi-award-winning Swan Lake returns to Birmingham Hippodrome from Wednesday until Saturday 15 February.

A live string quartet and an ensemble cast from Icarus Theatre Collective perform Shakespeare’s Othello at Buxton Opera House on Thursday and Friday.

Opera North, West Yorkshire Playhouse and Warwick Arts Centre at Coventry present an “uncompromising musical and visual melodrama”, The Tiger Lillies’ Lulu – A Murder Ballad by Martyn Jacques, which traces Lulu’s journey from street prostitute to the toast of society and back again, at Warwick Arts Centre on Friday and Saturday.

Featuring Ian Smith, Alex Moore, Neville Cann and Taresh Solanki, Bouncers by John Godber continues at the Blue Orange Theatre, Birmingham until Saturday.

Anton Du Beke goes from Ballroom to Broadway with Summer Strallen and Faye Huddleston at the Symphony Hall, Birmingham on Saturday and the Royal Concert Hall, Nottingham on Sunday.

Nottingham playwright Amanda Whittington’s new play My Judy Garland Life which stars Sally Ann Triplett continues at Nottingham Playhouse until Saturday 15 February.

David Essex plays the lead role in The Dishwashers, a new play by Morris Panych, which continues at Birmingham REP until Saturday 15 February.

Ben Jonson’s satire The Alchemist, which tells the story of a trio of undesirable con artists who offer a range of alternative services from the secret of eternal youth to a scheme which will turn a tin can into bankable gold, continues in Coventry Belgrade’s B2 auditorium until Saturday 22 February.

At the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford, Ella Hickson’s new adaptation of J M Barrie’s Wendy and Peter Pan continues in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre until 2 March while in the Swan Mike Poulton’s adaptations of Hilary Mantel's award-winning novels Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies continue until 29 March.

*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?