Art, Spoonful Of Sherman, The Return, Hard Times, Some Mothers
Art - tour starts 14 February
Yasmina Reza’s multi award-winning comedy Art tours UK and Ireland staring Nigel Havers, Denis Lawson and Stephen Tompkinson.
All the cast will be familiar to television viewers and theatre goers. Nigel Havers’s recent small-screen credits include Brothers and Sisters, Downton Abbey and Coronation Street. His stage work includes The Importance of Being Earnest, Rebecca and Single Spies.
On stage, Denis Lawson won an Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Musical for his performance as Jim Lancastar in Mr Cinders, also picking up an nomination for his performance as George in La Cages Aux Folles. On television, he is known for Bleak House and New Tricks.
Stephen Tompkinson’s television credits include DCI Banks, Trollied, Wild at Heart, Drop the Dead Donkey and Ballykissangel. His theatre credits include Spamalot, Rattle of a Simple Man and Arsenic and Old Lace.
Art is directed by Ellie Jones with original music by Gary Yershon. It has been translated by Christopher Hampton.
Art visits Cambridge Arts Theatre, Plymouth Theatre Royal, Newcastle Theatre Royal, Belfast Grand Opera House, Dublin Gaiety Theatre, Salford The Lowry, Leeds Grand Theatre, Glasgow Theatre Royal, Sheffield Lyceum Theatre, Norwich Theatre Royal, Nottingham Theatre Royal, Bath Theatre Royal, Northampton Royal & Derngate, Birmingham Hippodrome, Wales Millennium Centre and Canterbury Marlowe Theatre.
A Spoonful Of Sherman - tour starts 14 February
A Spoonful Of Sherman features the songs of Oscar-winning brothers Richard and Robert Sherman, whose canon of work includes the iconic "I Wanna Be Like You", "A Spoonful of Sugar", "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang", "The Wonderful Thing About Tiggers", "Jolly Holiday" and "Chim-Chim-Cher-Ee".
In this show, its writer, Robert J Sherman, son of brother Robert and a successful composer in his own right, tells the story of Sherman songwriters across the generations. The younger Sherman’s musical, Love Birds premièred at 2015's Edinburgh Fringe.
Stewart Nicholls directs and choreographs a cast made up of Sophie-Louise Dann, Glen Facey, Jenna Innes, Mark Read and Ben Stock who is also the show’s musical director.
A Spoonful Of Sherman is presented by United Theatrical And Musicworld (UK); the show visits E M Forster Theatre Tonbridge, Bournemouth Pavilion Theatre, St Helens Theatre Royal, Aberdeen Tivoli Theatre, Inverness Eden Court, Darlington Hippodrome, East Grinstead Chequer Mead, Guildford Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Windsor Theatre Royal and London Greenwich Theatre with further dates to be announced.
The Return - tour starts 15 February
Scottish multi-arts venue Eden Court Theatre takes the mysterious story of missing man Martin Guerre on a local tour.
This play about the mystery of identity and the survival instinct is based on the true story of Martin Guerre as seen from the perspective of his wife.
Is the man who returns after seven years' absence really Martin Guerre; do we really know even those we love the best.
The Return is written by rising-star of Scottish playwriting Ellie Stewart and directed by Philip Howard, former artistic director of Dundee Rep and the Traverse Theatre.
The cast is made up of Emilie Patry and Thoren Ferguson, and Greg Sinclair playing his cello score live.
The Return is an Eden Court commission, visiting:
Eden Court Theatre Inverness, Howden Park Centre Livingston, Macrobert Arts Centre Stirling, Cumbernauld Theatre Cumbernauld, Tron Theatre Glasgow, The Byre Theatre St Andrews, Strathearn Artspace Crieff, Traverse Theatre Edinburgh, New Deer Public Hall, The Lemon Tree Aberdeen, Macphail Centre Ullapool, Locharron, Boat of Garten, Braemar and Tullynessle & Forbes.
Hard Times - tour starts 16 February
Northern Broadsides takes Charles Dickens's Hard Times on the road in a new adaptation by Deborah McAndrew.
The Hard Times cast will feature Suzanne Ahmet, Darren Kuppan, Vanessa Schofield, Tony Hunt, Perry Moore and Howard Chadwick with Victoria Brazier, Andrew Price, Paul Barnhill and Claire Storey.
Conrad Nelson directs.
Hard Times visits The Viaduct Theatre Halifax, The Dukes Lancaster, The Lowry Salford Quays, Liverpool Playhouse, New Vic Theatre Newcastle under Lyme, Stephen Joseph Theatre Scarborough, Lawrence Batley Theatre Huddersfield, Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds and West Yorkshire Playhouse Leeds.
Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em - tour starts 21 February
Classic 1970s television comedy, Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em takes to the stage for the first time, with new tour dates being added due to popular demand.
The original television series was written by Raymond Allen and it had been adapted by Guy Unsworth who also directs the cast made up of Joe Pasquale plays the loveable but accident-prone Frank Spencer, Sarah Earnshaw is his long-suffering wife Betty and Susie Blake takes the role of his disapproving mother-in-law, Mrs Fisher.
Moray Treadwell plays Mr Luscombe / Mr Worthington, David Shaw-Parker plays Father O'Hara and Chris Keily plays Desmond / Constable.
The tour is produced by Limelight Productions. After opening at Wyvern Theatre Swindon, Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em visits Opera House Buxton, Richmond Theatre, Churchill Theatre Bromley, New Theatre Royal Portsmouth, Lyceum Theatre Crewe, His Majesty’s Theatre Aberdeen, Devonshire Park Theatre Eastbourne, Royal & Derngate Northampton, Orchard Theatre Dartford, Grand Theatre Wolverhampton, The Hawth Crawley, Assembly Hall Theatre Tunbridge Wells, Theatre Royal Plymouth, Ipswich Regent Theatre, Harrogate Theatre, New Theatre Hull, Darlington Hippodrome, Norwich Theatre Royal, Curve Leicester and Palace Theatre Southend.