Birmingham Hippodrome—“the UK’s most visited theatre”—has announced a range of shows including War Horse, the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Matilda the Musical and Tim Firth’s musical comedy The Band which features the music of Take That.
The theatre will also aim to expand its reputation for presenting new and smaller-scale productions in its Patrick Centre studio.
The Hippodrome’s artistic director and chief executive Fiona Allan said, “our claim to be ‘the West End in the West Midlands’ is further reinforced with the launch of our new season as we enter an extraordinary 18-month period.
“We’ll be presenting shows from Funny Girl to The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, from Miss Saigon to Sunset Boulevard. And 2018 will be even bigger as both Wicked and War Horse return either side of a summer season of the RSC’s Matilda which arrives at the Hippodrome on its first UK tour.
“But it’s not all about our main stage. Alongside resident partners DanceXChange and Birmingham Royal Ballet, the Hippodrome will be bringing many more public performances to the Patrick Centre including hip-hop, ballet, Asian dance styles, youth productions and contemporary works-in-progress.
“Outdoors, in our neighbourhood streets and squares, we’ll be escaping to the countryside with Summer in Southside in June and welcoming back the Birmingham Weekender Festival in September with a free outdoor performance like no other.”
Wicked will visit the Hippodrome from 4 until 29 April 2018. The Band is booked in from 1 until 12 May and Matilda the Musical from 3 July until 8 September. War Horse is back from 10 October until 3 November.
The full programme is available at the Birmingham Hippodrome web site.