New shows announced at the Empire

Published: 8 June 2017
Reporter: Peter Lathan

Diana Vickers who stars in Son of a Preacher Man
Awful Auntie

Two new shows have been announced at Sunderland Empire in 2017 and 2018.

Featuring the music of Dusty Springfield with a book by Warner Brown and directed and choreographed by Craig Revel Horwood, Son of a Preacher Man comes to Sunderland Empire from 19 to 23 September 2017.

Once there was the Preacher Man, a swinging '60s Soho joint where the kids danced the night away to the latest crazes and dared to dream of love, while the legendary owner, The Preacher Man himself, dispensed advice to cure the loneliest of hearts. Now all that remains are the memories, the stories and the myths. Until now…

Three random strangers, generations apart but all in need of help with their hopeless love lives, are inexplicably drawn to the site of the original venue. The Preacher Man is long gone, but his son might just find it in himself to channel the spirit of the Preacher Man and once more give these three lovesick strangers the look of love.

The show features Dusty Springfield’s greatest hits, including "The Look Of Love", "I Only Want To Be With You", "Spooky" and, of course, "Son Of A Preacher Man".

Diana Vickers, former X-Factor semi-finalist who went on to star in the West End and in national tours, plays Cat. Further casting will be announced later.

A new show of a very different kind comes to the Empire in 2018 when Birmingham Stage Company presents David Walliams’s Awful Auntie from 28 June to 1 July 2018 as part of an eighteen-month UK tour which begins in Horsham this September.

Awful Auntie was published in September 2014 and went to number 1 in the children’s book chart for seven weeks. The paperback was published in February 2016 and sold 212,000 copies, making it the best-selling children’s paperback of the year. Combined sales of the hardback and paperback have reached over a million copies.

The play tells the story of Stella, who, when she sets off to visit London with her parents, has no idea her life is in danger. Waking up from a coma three months later, only her Aunt Alberta can tell Stella what has happened. But not everything Aunt Alberta tells her turns out to be true and Stella quickly discovers she’s in for the fight of her life against her very own awful Auntie. This tale of frights, fights and friendship features a very large owl, a very small ghost and a very awful Auntie.

Tickets for both shows are now on sale.

*Some links, including Amazon, Stageplays.com, 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?