Midlands productions

Published: 28 May 2017
Reporter: Steve Orme

Nichola McAuliffe as Diana and Jeffrey Holland as Tom in Waiting for God at Malvern Theatres Credit: Geraint Lewis
Footloose the Musical at Buxton Opera House Credit: David Ellis for Boom Ents
Ben Allen (Octavius Caesar), Lucy Phelps (Octavia), Will Bliss (priest), Antony Byrne (Mark Antony) and Patrick Drury (Lepidus) in Antony and Cleopatra in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford Credit: Helen Maybanks

The Wanted's Tom Parker plays Danny, Danielle Hope is Sandy and Jimmy Osmond takes the role of Teen Angel in Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey’s Grease at Birmingham Hippodrome from Monday until Saturday.

Northern Ballet returns to Wolverhampton Grand for a third year with a new work, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Jeffrey Holland and Nichola McAuliffe appear in Waiting for God, Michael Aitkens’s new comedy based on the BBC TV series, at Malvern Theatres from Tuesday until Saturday.

A show about ‘60s mod band the Small Faces, taking its name from their first big hit All or Nothing, visits the Regent Theatre, Stoke from Tuesday until Saturday.

Gareth Gates is Willard and Maureen Nolan plays Vi Moore in Footloose the Musical at Buxton Opera House from Tuesday until Saturday.

Coventry’s Belgrade Theatre offers a musical adaptation of Michael Rosen’s We’re Going on a Bear Hunt from Tuesday until Saturday.

Strictly Come Dancing’s Kevin and Karen Clifton take their new show Kevin and Karen to Derngate, Northampton on Wednesday, the Royal Concert Hall, Nottingham on Thursday and De Montfort Hall, Leicester on Saturday.

Box Tale Soup returns to the Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham with a new adaptation of Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows in the Studio from Wednesday until Saturday.

Smother, 201 Dance Company’s “ground-breaking, contemporary hip-hop” show exploring the relationship between two young men visits the Patrick Centre at Birmingham Hippodrome on Thursday and Friday.

Sleeping Trees attempts to save the universe from total destruction in Sci-Fi? which flies into the Studio at Derby Theatre on Friday.

“The UK’s number one rock ‘n’ roll variety production” That’ll Be The Day, featuring a new line-up of hits, should have fans dancing in the aisles at Northampton Derngate on Friday.

“The UK’s biggest festival of hip hop dance”, Breakin’ Convention, featuring dance crews from South Africa, South Korea and Canada, drops into Birmingham REP on Friday and Saturday.

A play about depression and the lengths we go to for those we love, Duncan Macmillan and Jonny Donohoe’s Every Brilliant Thing, a Paines Plough and Pentabus production, can be seen in the Neville Studio at Nottingham Playhouse on Saturday.

David Wood’s adaptation of Roald Dahl’s The Witches continues to work its magic at the Blue Orange Theatre, Birmingham until Saturday.

“Timeless and treasured fables” for children from the Indian sub-continent by Sayan Kent, Tales of Birbal, from an original concept by Trina Haldar, will be told by Mashi Theatre at Warwick Arts Centre, Coventry on Sunday.

A new production of Ayub Khan-Din’s East is East which reimagines the play for the 21st century continues at Nottingham Playhouse until Saturday 10 June.

Newcastle-under-Lyme’s New Vic celebrates the 150th anniversary of the birth of Arnold Bennett by staging a new adaptation of his novel Anna of the Five Towns which continues until Saturday 17 June.

At the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford, in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre Antony and Cleopatra continues until Thursday 7 September and Julius Caesar until Saturday 9 September; in the Swan Theatre Phil Porter’s new play Vice Versa (or the Decline and Fall of General Braggadocio at the hands of his canny servant Dexter and Terence the monkey) continues until Saturday 9 September; and in The Other Place the Spring Mischief Festival, featuring Tom Morton-Smith’s one-act play The Earthworks and Matt Hartley and Kirsty Housley’s Myth, continues until Saturday 17 June.

*Some links, including Amazon, Stageplays.com, Bookshop.org, ATG Tickets, LOVEtheatre, BTG Tickets, Ticketmaster, The Ticket Factory, 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?