What's on in the Midlands

Published: 28 April 2019
Reporter: Steve Orme

Custody at the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry
Penny Downie as Helen Alving in Ghosts in the Royal Theatre, Northampton Credit: Sheila Burnett
Joseph Arkley (Katherine) and Claire Price (Petruchia) in The Taming of the Shrew in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford Credit: Ikin Yum

Steven Todd's new play Right of Entitlement which “dissects disparate cultural aspirations” is a Hags Ahoy presentation in the Studio at the Albany Theatre on Monday while on the main stage Strictly Come Dancing favourites Ian Waite and Vincent Simone stage their new production The Ballroom Boys on Tuesday and Bobby Davro, Danni Harmer and Lloyd Warbey feature in the Easter panto Peter Pan on Wednesday and Thursday.

Joe McElderry, Neil McDermott, Kate Robbins, Emily Tierney and Amelle Berrabah celebrate “all that we love about the ‘80s” in Club Tropicana the Musical at Wolverhampton Grand from Monday until Saturday.

Black Dance: A Contemporary Voice is the theme of the 2019 Let’s Dance International Frontiers festival at various venues in Leicester from Monday until Saturday 11 May.

Drawing on “methodologies from a variety of movement disciplines and setting these within a world of animated light”, Russell Maliphant Dance Company’s Silent Lines “explores the endless web of connections we encompass and embody” in the Djanogly Theatre at Lakeside Arts, Nottingham on Tuesday.

Jim Cartwright revisits the lives, loves and laughs of regulars in a northern boozer in Two 2, a Reform Theatre Company and Harrogate Theatre presentation at the Old Bell Hotel, Derby on Wednesday and Thursday.

The 2019 European première of Meghan Kennedy’s Napoli, Brooklyn, the story of an Italian-American family in 1959 which explores the struggle in immigrant families that is passed down from generation to generation, featuring Georgia May Foote, Hannah Bristow, Mona Goodwin, Gloria Onitiri, Stephen Hogan and Robert Cavanah, is at Malvern Theatres from Wednesday until Saturday.

Inspired by Migrant Media’s banned cult documentary films Injustice and Who Polices the Police, Urbain Hayo’s Custody which “draws on real-life experiences to interrogate the impact of widespread prejudice and police brutality on BAME communities” starts a UK tour at the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry from Wednesday until Saturday.

Celebrating and showcasing youth talent, National Theatre Connections, a festival for young people aged between 11 and 25, can be seen at Derby Theatre from Wednesday until Saturday.

“Classic spine-tinglers from the golden age of horror are given a new lease of blood” in Library of Screams, performed by Philip Jennings and scripted by Jonathan Goodwin, based on works by E F Benson and W H Harvey, in the MET Studio at Stafford Gatehouse Theatre on Thursday.

Strictly Come Dancing’s Aljaz Skorjanec and Janette Manrara are Remembering the Movies at Buxton Opera House on Thursday while Northern Ballet stages one of its productions for children, Puss in Boots, on Friday.

Created by Jonathan Rockefeller, The Very Hungry Caterpillar Show features a menagerie of 75 puppets who adapt four of Eric Carle’s stories at mac Birmingham from Thursday until Saturday.

Ursula Rani Sarma's adaptation of Khaled Hosseini’s novel A Thousand Splendid Suns, the story of three generations of women discovering strength in unity, has its European première at Birmingham REP from Thursday until Saturday 18 May.

Newcastle-under-Lyme’s New Vic Theatre opens its summer season by co-producing with the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough Charlotte Jones’s quirky comedy Martha, Josie and the Chinese Elvis from Thursday until Saturday 18 May.

Nottinghamshire-based rural touring company New Perspectives takes Jack McNamara’s adaptation of Aki Kaurismaki’s The Man Without a Past, the story of a man with no memory who is taken in by a homeless community living in shipping containers in Helsinki, to Gretton Village Hall, Corby, Northamptonshire on Friday.

Motown the Musical which isguaranteed to have you dancing in the street” continues at the Theatre Royal, Nottingham until Saturday.

The world première of Mike Poulton’s version of Henrik Ibsen’s Ghosts featuring Penny Downie and James Wilby continues at Northampton’s Royal and Derngate until Saturday 11 May.

Cameron Mackintosh’s production of Boublil and Schönberg’s musical Les Misérables continues at Birmingham Hippodrome until Saturday 11 May.

At the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford, a gender-swapped version of The Taming of the Shrew, set in a 1590s matriarchal England in which women hold all the power, and Kimberley Sykes’s “fierce, exhilarating version” of Shakespeare’s romantic comedy As You Like It both continue in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre until Saturday 31 August, while in the Swan Theatre, Alexandra Gilbreath plays Lady Brute in John Vanbrugh’s comedy The Provoked Wife which runs from Thursday 2 May until Thursday 7 September (press night Thursday 9 May).

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