Midlands productions

Published: 11 January 2014
Reporter: Steve Orme

Corrinne Wicks and Tom Butcher in The Holly and the Ivy at Lichfield Garrick from Tuesday until Saturday
Near Gone at Warwick Arts Centre, Coventry on Wednesday and Thursday
Ben Miles as Thomas Cromwell in Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies at the RSC, Stratford Credit: Keith Pattison

Middle Ground Theatre Company stages The Holly and the Ivy, set in a Norfolk vicarage on Christmas Eve 1947 and featuring Stuart McGugan, Corrinne Wicks, Tom Butcher, Dean Smith and Hildegard Neil, at Lichfield Garrick from Tuesday until Saturday.

A true story about a young girl’s brush with death which is “interspersed with furious dances to pounding eastern European gypsy music”, Near Gone is presented by Two Destination Language in the Studio at Warwick Arts Centre, Coventry on Wednesday and Thursday.

The Michael Jackson tribute show Thriller Live moonwalks into Nottingham’s Theatre Royal from Wednesday until Sunday.

George Telfer plays Graham Chapman, “currently the only non-living member of Monty Python’s Flying Circus”, on a one-man quest for the meaning of life in Not the Messiah at Derby’s Guildhall Theatre on Thursday.

Joe White, a member of the REP Foundry at Birmingham REP, has his play Pride and Joy premièred in The Door auditorium at the REP on Thursday and Friday.

Anton Du Beke takes his show From Ballroom To Broadway to Northampton’s Derngate on Thursday and Friday.

Opera Warwick’s new English reworking of Mozart’s Don Giovanni—set in a 1960s mafia world—should captivate audiences at Warwick Arts Centre from Thursday until Saturday.

Sell-A-Door Theatre Company presents Ivan Wilkinson’s adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Kidnapped at Buxton Opera House on Friday and Saturday.

Theatre Works, Derby Theatre's third-year Theatre Arts Shakespeare in Performance students, tackles Measure for Measure in the Studio at Derby Theatre on Friday and Saturday.

Northampton Royal stages The Burlesque Show on Friday and Saturday.

Based on Raymond Brigg’s book and featuring Walking In The Air by Howard Blake, The Snowman continues at Birmingham REP until Saturday.

Ghost the Musical continues at Stoke’s Regent Theatre until Saturday.

A new production of Chicago continues at Leicester’s Curve until Saturday.

Kenneth Alan Taylor’s 30-year reign as dame in Nottingham Playhouse’s pantos comes to an end with his portrayal of Dame Daisy in Jack and the Beanstalk which continues until Saturday.

Comedian Joe Pasquale leads the cast in Wolverhampton Grand’s panto Sleeping Beauty which continues until Saturday.

ARK Youth Theatre hosts The Murder Mystery Party in the Studio at Derby Theatre on Sunday.

Birmingham Stage Company continues to present David Wood’s adaptation of Philippa Pearce’s Tom’s Midnight Garden at Birmingham’s Old Rep Theatre until Saturday 25 January.

An adaptation by Theresa Heskins, artistic director of Newcastle-under-Lyme’s New Vic Theatre, of Dodie Smith’s The Hundred and One Dalmatians continues at the New Vic until Saturday 1 February.

“The UK’s biggest panto”, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, with John Partridge heading the cast, continues at Birmingham Hippodrome until Sunday 2 February.

At the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford, Ella Hickson’s new adaptation of J M Barrie’s Wendy and Peter Pan continues in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre until 2 March while in the Swan Mike Poulton’s adaptations of Hilary Mantel's award-winning novels Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies continue until 29 March.

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