Midlands productions

Published: 9 February 2014
Reporter: Steve Orme

Denise Van Outen in Some Girl I Used to Know at Birmingham’s New Alexandra Theatre from Monday until Wednesday
Jack Shepherd in Charles Dickens’s The Signalman at Wolverhampton Grand from Wednesday until Saturday
Tom Peters, Zannah Hodson and Andrew Harrison in The Alchemist which continues at Coventry’s Belgrade until 22 February Credit: Robert Day

Denise Van Outen’s new, one-woman play with music, Some Girl I Used to Know, which she co-wrote with Terry Ronald, visits Birmingham’s New Alexandra Theatre from Monday until Wednesday.

The Russian State Ballet and Opera House perform Bizet’s Carmen at the Pomegranate Theatre, Chesterfield on Monday and Verdi’s La Traviata at Buxton Opera House on Thursday.

Jenny Seagrove and Sara Crowe are best friends Julia and Jane in a new production of Noel Coward’s Fallen Angels which tours to Northampton Royal from Monday until Saturday.

Two hundred boys from schools and youth groups across Coventry, Solihull and Warwickshire will dance together in the Butterworth Hall at Warwick Arts Centre, Coventry when Boys Dancing presents Artful Dodgers on Tuesday.

All-male Shakespeare company Propeller performsThe Comedy of Errors and A Midsummer Night’s Dreamat Coventry’s Belgrade from Tuesday until Saturday.

The Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough will stage The Ayckbourn Ensemble, featuring Time of My Life, Arrivals and Departures and Farcicals—two “frivolous” comedies, Chloe With Love and The Kidderminster Affair—at Warwick Arts Centre, Coventry from Tuesday until Saturday.

Michael Friend Productions tours The Man of Destiny by George Bernard Shaw to Buxton Opera House on Wednesday.

The Stage Left and Stage Right Seniors at Mansfield Palace Youth Theatre will collaborate on Dominic Cooke’s adaptation of Arabian Nights at the Palace Theatre on Wednesday and Thursday.

Middle Ground Theatre Company returns to Wolverhampton Grand with a double bill of “spine-tingling stories”, Classic Ghosts, which comprises Charles Dickens’s The Signalman and Oh, Whistle, and I’ll Come to You, My Lad by M R James, featuring veteran actor Jack Shepherd, from Wednesday until Saturday.

The annual Regent Theatre dance festival in Stoke, this year called Lest We Forget, will be a “celebration, reflection and remembrance of those who fought for our freedom during the Great War, and honouring those who have given their lives in more recent conflicts”, from Wednesday until Saturday.

East Midlands touring company New Perspectives takes its artistic director Jack McNamara’s adaptation of Saul Bellow’s Him With His Foot in his Mouth to Leadenham Village Hall, Leadenham, Lincolnshire on Wednesday, Create Theatre, Mansfield on Thursday, Thomas Cranmer Centre, Aslockton, Nottinghamshire on Friday, Coddington Community Centre, Nottinghamshire on Saturday and Sutton cum Lound Village Hall, north Nottinghamshire on Sunday.

The comedy send-up 51 Shades of Maggie by Leesa Harker, “one woman’s (slightly bruising) search for Mr Right”, visits Chesterfield’s Pomegranate Theatre on Thursday.

Recreating some of the finest moments of Morecambe and Wise’s television and stage performances, Eric and Little Ern should bring sunshine to The Core at Corby Cube, Northamptonshire on Thursday.

The classic French farce Boeing Boeing, featuring Kim Tiddy, Zoie Kennedy, Ciara Janson, Anita Graham, Ben Roddy and Philip Stewart, flies into Lichfield Garrick from Thursday until Saturday.

Fawlty Towers The Dining Experience, a two-hour interactive performance revolving around a three-course meal, is served up at Derby’s Assembly Rooms from Thursday until Saturday.

Lucy Speed appears in Amanda Whittington’s one-woman show Amateur Girl, a Fifth Word and Nottingham Playhouse presentation, at Lincoln Drill Hall on Friday.

For Valentine’s Day Derby LIVE stages D C Jackson’s My Romantic History, a Reform Theatre Company presentation in association with Harrogate Theatre, at the Guildhall Theatre, Derby on Friday.

Clare Perkins takes her first theatre role since a stint in EastEnders as Ava Hartmann when she appears in Penny Dreadful Productions’ How to be Immortal at Uppingham Theatre, Uppingham, Rutland on Friday.

Mansfield Palace Theatre hosts a tribute to the Bee Gees in Nights on Broadway on Friday.

Heroes, monsters and randy gods go head to head in a “hilarious and unforgettable journey through the greatest stories ever told” in Temple Theatre’s Unmythable in Derby Theatre Studio on Saturday.

Nottingham playwright Amanda Whittington’s new play My Judy Garland Life which stars Sally Ann Triplett continues at Nottingham Playhouse until Saturday.

David Essex plays the lead role in The Dishwashers, a new play by Morris Panych, which continues at Birmingham REP until Saturday while in The Studio Bryony Lavery’s multi-award-winning play Frozen also continues until Saturday.

Maxwell Caulfield and Faye Tozer continue to go Singin’ in the Rain at the Theatre Royal, Nottingham until Saturday.

Matthew Bourne’s multi-award-winning Swan Lake continues at Birmingham Hippodrome until Saturday.

The Rat Pack Vegas Spectacular swings into Mansfield Palace Theatre on Sunday.

Ben Jonson’s satire The Alchemist, which tells the story of a trio of undesirable con artists who offer a range of alternative services from the secret of eternal youth to a scheme which will turn a tin can into bankable gold, continues in Coventry Belgrade’s B2 auditorium until Saturday 22 February.

Northern Broadsides’ presentation of Deborah McAndrew’s new play An August Bank Holiday Lark continues at the New Vic, Newcastle-under-Lyme until Saturday 1 March.

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.

*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?