Midlands productions

Published: 17 March 2013
Reporter: Steve Orme

Priscilla Queen of the Desert at the New Alexandra Theatre, Birmingham from Monday until Saturday 30 March
Lesley Garrett performs with Opera North at Nottingham's Theatre Royal on Tuesday and Friday
The Rat Pack is Back at Lichfield Garrick on Friday

Dublin’s top award-winning music and dance show, The Irish House Party high-kicks its way into Buxton Opera House on Monday.

Karl Howman, Bruno Langley, Elizabeth Power, Graham Seed, Steven France, Jemma Walker, Bob Saul and Clare Wilkie try not to get caught in Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap at Northampton’s Derngate from Monday until Saturday.

The UK tour of the musical Priscilla Queen of the Desert, featuring Jason Donovan, Richard Grieve, Graham Weaver and Giles Watling, arrives at the New Alexandra Theatre, Birmingham from Monday until Saturday, 30 March.

Dance organisation Tom Dale Company takes its “distinctive blend of digital animation, music and movement” in Refugees of the Septic Heart to the Studio at Leicester’s Curve on Tuesday.

A new production of the classic French farce Boeing Boeing, featuring Kim Tiddy, Zoie Kennedy, Ciara Janson, Philip Stewart and Ben Roddy, jets into Coventry’s Belgrade from Tuesday until Saturday.

Lesley Garrett makes her return to the operatic stage with Opera North in a new production of Francis Poulenc’s La voix humaine which is billed with Dido and Aeneas by Purcell on Tuesday and Friday while the company also stages Verdi’s Otello on Wednesday and Saturday and La clemenza di Tito by Mozart on Thursday, all at Nottingham’s Theatre Royal.

Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats purrs into Wolverhampton Grand from Tuesday until Saturday, 30 March.

John Godber’s latest comedy Losing the Plot tours to the New Vic, Newcastle-under-Lyme from Tuesday until Saturday, 30 March.

After sell-out performances at Coventry’s Belgrade in 2010, Call Mr Robeson returns to the B2 auditorium to tell the story of actor, singer and civil rights campaigner Paul Robeson on Friday.

Former EastEnders actor and ex-BBC weather presenter Des Coleman performs alongside David Alacey and Paul Drakeley in The Rat Pack is Back at Lichfield Garrick on Friday.

Final year Derby Theatre arts students reveal Vice and Other Bard Habits, which features scenes from The Tempest, Measure for Measure and Antony and Cleopatra, in the Studio at Derby Theatre on Friday and Saturday.

M6 Theatre Company’s new production, Mavis Sparkle, which “mixes illusion and animation to discover the magic and wonder in the universe, each other and ourselves”, is at Buxton Pavilion Arts Centre Studio as part of Easterfest on Saturday.

Hardgraft Theatre stages Mark Whiteley’s new comedy I Love Derby, which features “an ordinary Derby couple Burt and Joyce volunteering in an ordinary charity shop but are about to have an extraordinary day as Derby’s latest sensation from TV’s Pop Idol, Darren Dawes visits to open it” at the city’s Guildhall Theatre on Sunday.

Stafford Gatehouse Theatre hosts An Evening with Pam Ayres on Sunday.

Swansea City Opera presents Donizetti’s uproarious comic opera Don Pasquale at Mansfield Palace Theatre on Sunday.

Robin French’s new version of Henrik Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler called Heather Gardner continues at the Old Rep, Birmingham until Thursday 28 March.

Paul-Michael Jones and Jill Winternitz will have the time of their lives as Dirty Dancing continues at Stoke’s Regent Theatre until Saturday 30 March.

Northampton Royal and Derngate continues to stage Alan Ayckbourn’s Mr Whatnot until Saturday 6 April.

Cameron Mackintosh’s new production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera, starring Earl Carpenter as the Phantom and Katie Hall as Christine, continues at Birmingham Hippodrome until Saturday 4 May.

At the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford, in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre Hamlet continues until Saturday 28 September (press night Tuesday, 26 March); in the Swan The Orphan of Zhao, sometimes referred to as the Chinese Hamlet and tracing its origins to the 4th century BC, continues until Thursday 28 March, Ian McDiarmid takes the title role in Mark Ravenhill’s new translation of Brecht's A Life of Galileo until Saturday 30 March while the world premiere of Adrian Mitchell’s adaptation of Alexander Pushkin's play Boris Godunov also continues until 30 March.

*Some links, including Amazon, Stageplays.com, Bookshop.org, ATG Tickets, LOVEtheatre, BTG Tickets, Ticketmaster, 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?