Midlands productions

Published: 28 June 2015
Reporter: Steve Orme

Glenn Carter and the company of Jesus Christ Superstar at the Theatre Royal, Nottingham Credit: Pamela Raith
Gary Wilmot (centre) as Ali Hakim with the cast of Oklahoma! at Birmingham Hippodrome Credit: Pamela Raith
Heartbreak Productions’ Emma by Jane Austen at the Shugborough Estate, Staffordshire

BOLDtext playwrights, a group who aim to create more opportunities and new platforms for their work in the Midlands and beyond, explores the aftermath of the general election in The Russell Brand Effect—The Morning After, an evening of micro-plays at Birmingham REP on Monday.

Nottingham playwright Amanda Whittington has updated her gritty comedy Satin ‘n’ Steel, with Tom Roberts and Kilke John taking it on its first British tour and stopping off at Chesterfield Pomegranate on Monday and Tuesday.

Little Earthquake’s production of The Boy Who Became a Beetle visits mac birmingham on Monday, Oakengates Theatre, Telford on Tuesday, Dormston Mill Theatre, Sedgley on Wednesday and Penn Hall School, Wolverhampton on Thursday.

The 60th anniversary production of Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap is at Wolverhampton Grand from Monday until Saturday.

Soul singer and actress Mica Paris, Sian Reeves and Shaun Williamson appear in a new musical inspired by and featuring the music of Elvis Presley, Love Me Tender, at Stoke’s Regent Theatre from Monday until Saturday.

South African choral legend Ladysmith Black Mambazo joins award-winning choreographer Mark Baldwin in Inala, which features current and former dancers from the Royal Ballet and Rambert, at the Royal Concert Hall, Nottingham on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Jesus Christ Superstar, featuring Glenn Carter as Jesus, Tim Rogers as Judas Iscariot and The X Factor finalist Rachel Adedeji as Mary Magdalene tours to the Theatre Royal, Nottingham from Tuesday until Saturday.

Jodie Prenger and Tom Lister head the cast of Calamity Jane at Leicester’s Curve from Tuesday until Saturday.

The Northampton Royal and Derngate production of Rogers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! is on stage at Birmingham Hippodrome from Tuesday until Saturday.

Leamington Spa-based touring company Heartbreak Productions are on the road with Jane Austen’s Emma at the Shugborough Estate, Staffordshire on Wednesday.

Farcical Elements presents Marc Camoletti’s 1960s farce Boeing Boeing at the Blue Orange Theatre, Birmingham from Wednesday until Saturday.

A “science lesson given by Wales’s greatest Victorian naturalist”, Theatre Na Nog’s You Should Ask Wallace! tells the story of the inspirational character Alfred Russel Wallace at Stafford Gatehouse Theatre on Thursday.

Acting Alone, “a frantic actor’s struggle to come to terms with trying to change the world alone”, will be performed by Ava Hunt at Derby Theatre Studio on Thursday and Nottingham Playhouse on Friday.

Buxton Opera House Young Company stages Robin and the Sherwood Hoodies in the Pavilion Arts Centre, Buxton from Thursday until Saturday.

Northampton Royal and Derngate’s Young Company: Create presents the world premiere of Immune, a “provocative and darkly comic play by acclaimed young playwright Oladipo Agboluaje” from Thursday until Saturday.

Mansfield Palace Community Theatre performs James Roose-Evans’s adaptation of Laurie Lee’s Cider with Rosie on the main stage at the Palace Theatre from Thursday until Saturday.

The 25th annual Stafford Festival Shakespeare, which this year stages Much Ado About Nothing at Stafford Castle, runs from Thursday until Saturday 11 July.

Showcasing “the talent, imagination and creativity of Corby’s young people”, Corby Youth Arts Slam takes over The Core at Corby Cube, Northamptonshire on Friday.

LipService stages its "unique blend of the surreal and downright silly" in The Picture of Doreen Gray at Lichfield Garrick as part of Lichfield Festival on Sunday.

As part of the Derby Comedy Festival, Lucky Dog Theatre Productions says Hats off to Laurel and Hardy in the Guildhall Theatre Clubrooms on Sunday.

A festival of plays inspired by the Staffordshire Hoard—the largest collection of Anglo-Saxon gold and silver metalwork ever found—continues at Newcastle-under-Lyme’s New Vic Theatre, with Caroline Horton’s Tranklements on until Saturday and a double bill of Theresa Heskins’s Unearthed and The Gift by Jemma Kennedy on until Saturday 25 July.

At the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford, Hugh Quarshie and Lucian Msamati team up to play Othello and Iago in Iqbal Khan’s production of Othello which continues in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre until Friday 28 August and plays in repertoire with The Merchant of Venice which continues until Wednesday 2 September; in the Swan Theatre, Christopher Marlowe’s The Jew of Malta continues until Tuesday 8 September.

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