Midlands

Reviews

Jack and the Beanstalk

Morgan Brind
Derby LIVE and Little Wolf Entertainment
Derby Arena
8 December 2018 to 5 January 2019

White Christmas

Music and lyrics by Irving Berlin, book by David Ives and Paul Blake, based o...
Curve in association with Jamie Wilson
Curve Theatre, Leicester
6 December 2018 to 13 January 2019

Hansel and Gretel

The Brothers Grimm, adapted by Mike Kenny
Derby Theatre
Derby Theatre
30 November 2018 to 5 January 2019

John Elkington (Nurse Nelly Noggins) and Robin Kingsland (Sheriff of Nottingham)

Robin Hood and the Babes in the Wood

Kenneth Alan Taylor
Nottingham Playhouse Theatre Company
Nottingham Playhouse
30 November 2018 to 19 January 2019

The Habit Of Art

Alan Bennett
The Original Theatre Company
Festival Theatre, Malvern
27 November to 1 December 2018

War and Peace

Sergei Prokofiev
Welsh National Opera
Birmingham Hippodrome
17 November 2018

The Mountaintop

Katori Hall
Reading Rep Desara and Nuffield Southampton Theatres
Curve Theatre, Leicester
13 to 17 November 2018

David Martin (Harry Furber) and David Gilbrook (Charlie Juster)

The Eleventh Hour

John Goodrum
Rumpus Theatre Company
Pomegranate Theatre, Chesterfield
6 to 10 November 2018

The Madness of George III

Alan Bennett
Nottingham Playhouse Theatre Company
Nottingham Playhouse
2 to 24 November 2018

Fly Half

Gary Lagden, music by Gareth Moulton
Upstairs at the Western, Leicester
25 to 26 October 2018

Shakespeare In Love

Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard, adapted by Lee Hall
Eleanor Lloyd and Theatre Royal Bath
Festival Theatre, Malvern
22 to 27 October 2018

Calendar Girls The Musical

Gary Barlow and Tim Firth
David Pugh and Dafydd Rogers and The Schubert Organisation
De Montfort Hall, Leicester
16 to 20 October 2018

News

Delia Mathews as Belle and Brandon Lawrence as the Beast

Birmingham Beauty and the Beast ballet to tour nationally

David Bintley’s “mysterious and magical production” of Beauty and the Beast for Birmingham Royal Ballet is to go on a national tour from January until May 2019.

Major Labia's production of Vulva La Revolution at Departure Lounge 2018

Opportunities to be part of Derby Theatre summer festival

Theatre-makers are being offered opportunities to be part of Departure Lounge, Derby Theatre’s “annual summer festival of ground-breaking work”.

Aladdin to be 2019 panto at De Montfort Hall, Leicester

Aladdin will be the panto at De Montfort Hall in December 2019, the Leicester venue has revealed.

Community drama workshops at Coventry’s Belgrade

Adults with experience of homelessness and mental health difficulties in Coventry and Warwickshire will be able to benefit from a series of community drama workshops at the Belgrade Theatre.

Afternoon tea with Nottingham actors auctioned for £500

Nottingham Playhouse raised more than £10,000 through a gala performance of its production The Madness of George III and a 70th birthday auction.

Hancock takes role in new comedy at Coventry's Belgrade

Nick Hancock will play insurance consultant Seymour, the safest man in Britain, in the première of Jack Milner and Mark Stevenson’s comedy Octopus Soup! at the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry.

More relaxed performances at Birmingham Hippodrome

More than £24,000 has been donated at Birmingham Hippodrome which will enable the theatre to expand its relaxed performances.

Northampton to stage new version of Ibsen’s Ghosts

Pennie Downie and Pierro Niel-Mee will feature in the world première of Mike Poulton’s version of Henrik Ibsen’s Ghosts which will be staged at Northampton’s Royal and Derngate in April 2019.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs at Malvern Theatres

Midlands productions

Theatre productions in the Midlands for the week beginning Monday 10 December.

Cast revealed for Katori Hall revival in Northampton

Gabrielle Brooks, Michelle Asante and Ery Nzaramba will lead the cast of Northampton Royal and Derngate’s UK première of Katori Hall’s Our Lady of Kibeho.

Teacher Zoe Ambrose (centre) and the eight young people from Bluecoat Beechdale Academy who will appear in Romeo and Juliet at the Theatre Royal, Nottingham

Nottingham youngsters to appear in RSC tour of Romeo and Juliet

Eight young people from Bluecoat Beechdale Academy in Bilborough will join the professional cast of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of Romeo and Juliet at the Theatre Royal, Nottingham.

Lawrence “proud” to become patron of dance organisation

Birmingham Royal Ballet senior soloist Brandon Lawrence has become the latest patron of the organisation that trained him, bbodance.

Birmingham Hippodrome chief executive and artistic director Fiona Allan with new chair Glenn Howells

New chair Howells shares Birmingham Hippodrome vision

Glenn Howells, a trustee since 2012, is the new chair of Birmingham Hippodrome and aims to build on its “huge successes”.

Applied theatre conference to be held in Derby

Derby Theatre and the University of Derby are to host a conference on applied theatre which will be a day of “vibrant conversation” and “dynamic workshops”.

Previous Springboard company Strictly Arts with its show Freeman

Springboard for new and emerging artists in Coventry

Coventry’s Belgrade Theatre is on the hunt for newly established performance companies and individual artists to join the second intake of its Springboard talent development programme.

Artists chosen for Naseem Khan commissions

Three theatres have announced they have selected artists for the Naseem Khan commissions—an initiative to support artists of colour.

Catherine Webb with her winning artwork for the Fringe 2018 programme cover and Fringe chair Keith Savage

Extended 2019 Buxton Fringe opens for entries

Entries are now open for the 2019 Buxton Fringe which will be extended to celebrate its 40th festival.

Artistic director Roxana Silbert and executive director Stuart Rogers

Rogers joins Silbert in leaving Birmingham REP

Executive director Stuart Rogers is to leave Birmingham REP in 2019 along with artistic director Roxana Silbert.

Celebrating Shakespeare's women

The all-female acrobatic theatre group Mimbre will highlight the role of women in Shakespeare’s plays in short performances in the grounds of New Place, the playwright’s adult home in Stratford-upon-Avon.

Midlands productions

Theatre productions in the Midlands for the week beginning Monday 3 December.

Youngsters join Matthew Bourne’s Romeo and Juliet in Midlands

Young cast members will perform at Midlands’ venues alongside dancers from the New Adventures Company in Matthew Bourne’s Romeo and Juliet in 2019.

White Christmas guaranteed at Curve

Leicester’s Curve aims to “banish the blues and nourish the soul” with its production of Irving Berlin’s White Christmas.

Restoration romp and political thriller at the RSC

Alexandra Gilbreath will return to the Royal Shakespeare Company in a “Restoration romp that shocked 17th century society” while Jodie McNee will appear in a “savage political thriller and a love story of breath-taking intensity” at Stratford in 2019.

Christmas Carol and Timon of Athens open at RSC

Two shows are to open at the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford: a revival of David Edgar’s adaptation of Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol and Timon of Athens, Shakespeare’s poignant satire on wealth, greed and betrayal.

Morgan Brind (Dame Trott), Duncan James (Jack) and Lawrence Boothman (Cesspit)

No need to be Blue with Derby’s Jack and the Beanstalk

Singer, West End performer and actor Duncan James is to play Jack in Jack and the Beanstalk at Derby Arena.

Darren Day, Abigail Dever (Tinker Bell), The Grumbleweeds and Flawless in Peter Pan

Darren Day hooks up with Peter Pan in Northampton

Darren Day, Flawless, The Grumbleweeds and Rachael Wooding will apper in Northampton Royal and Derngate’s panto Peter Pan.

Jack McNeill (Peter Pan), Lucy Evans (Tinker Bell), Joe Pasquale (Smee) and John Challis (Captain Hook) in Peter Pan

Pasquale and Challis fly in for Nottingham’s Peter Pan

Joe Pasquale plays Smee and John Challis becomes Captain Hook in Nottingham Theatre Royal’s panto Peter Pan.

Hippodrome aims to raise cash for relaxed performances

Birmingham Hippodrome is urging people to dig deep for its annual festive fundraising campaign as it aims to raise £20,000 for relaxed performances.

Midlands productions

Theatre productions in the Midlands for the week beginning Monday 26 November.

Worst Witch gets world première in Northampton

The world première of The Worst Witch, Emma Reeves’s original story based on Jill Murphy’s series of novels, is to open at Royal and Derngate as part of the theatre’s Made in Northampton season.

Re-told for a modern audience: Cinderella: A Wicked Mother of a Night Out

Cinderella goes to the ball in the pub in Derby

A site-specific show that “takes all the best of traditional British panto and tops it off with a pint” is to be performed in three community spaces in Derby.

Derby’s Hansel and Gretel is no grim tale

Mike Kenny’s adaptation of the Brothers Grimm fairy tale Hansel and Gretel is the unusual choice for the Christmas 2018 production at Derby Theatre.

Understanding different communities: Meet Your Neighbour

Maison Foo invites people to Meet Your Neighbour

A chance comment from a refugee two years ago has led a Derby theatre company to organise an event at which people can meet refugees and asylum seekers.

More plays added to Birmingham REP season

Two productions have been added to the spring and summer 2019 season at Birmingham REP.

Belgrade goes over the top with alternative panto

For the sixth year in a row, Coventry playwright Nick Walker has come up with an alternative show for the city’s Belgrade Theatre.

Tim Frater (Robin Hood) and Robin Kingsland (Sheriff of Nottingham)

Robin Hood steals back into Nottingham Playhouse

Nottingham’s favourite outlaw will return to the city’s Playhouse in its 2018 panto, Robin Hood and the Babes in the Wood.

Belgian sleuth tries to solve Crimes on the Nile

A cast of four bring to life “lascivious lawyers, crocked captains, fastidious physicians, ardently amorous authors, feuding femme fatales, plodding paramours, colossal kids, friendly first mates and attractive Americans” in New Old Friends’ comedy thriller Crimes on the Nile which tours nationally in 2019.

Coventry actors cast in Noughts and Crosses adaptation

Two Coventry actors have been cast in Sabrina Mahfouz’s adaptation of Malorie Blackman’s Noughts and Crosses which opens at the city’s Belgrade Theatre in March 2019.

Nancy Medina being presented with her award by Sir Trevor Nunn, RTST deputy chair Mark Hawes and chair Sir Geoffrey Cass

Nancy to direct regional première of Two Trains Running

Winner of the 2018 Royal Theatrical Support Trust Sir Peter Hall Director Award, Nancy Medina will direct August Wilson’s Two Trains Running in the Royal Theatre, Northampton in autumn 2019.

Roxana to leave Birmingham REP for Hampstead

Roxana Silbert, artistic director of Birmingham REP for the past six years, is to leave in June 2019 to take up a similar position at London’s Hampstead Theatre.

Midlands productions

Theatre productions in the Midlands for the week beginning Monday 19 November.

Search for Wizard of Oz concentrated on Birmingham

The yellow brick road leads to Birmingham REP at Christmas 2018 as Dorothy, Scarecrow, Tin Man and Lion go in search of The Wizard of Oz.

Jo confirmed as Northampton venues’ chief executive

Jo Gordon has been appointed chief executive of the trust which runs Northampton’s Royal and Derngate and The Core at Corby Cube.

Lineker scores with part in Leicester’s Treasure Island

Former Leicester City and England striker Gary Lineker is to appear at Leicester Haymarket during its panto Treasure Island—but not in person.

New Vic in call for associate artist

Artists, collectives and companies are being invited to apply to become associate artist for 2019 at Newcastle-under-Lyme’s New Vic Theatre.

Favourites return for Sleeping Beauty in Coventry

Coventry favourites Iain Lauchlan and Craig Hollingsworth will return to the Belgrade alongside a mixture of new and familiar faces for the theatre’s 2018 panto Sleeping Beauty.