Midlands productions

Published: 6 May 2012
Reporter: Steve Orme

GreaseWelsh baritone Rhydian Roberts takes the title role in Grease which slides into Stoke’s Regent Theatre from tomorrow (Monday) until Saturday.

Danza Contemporanea de Cuba takes a mixed programme including Carmen?!, a “cheeky, playful interpretation” by Kenneth Kvarnström of Bizet’s classic, to Birmingham Hippodrome on Tuesday and Wednesday.

King and ILeicester Curve’s production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s The King and I returns to the city as part of its UK tour from Tuesday until Saturday.

Anita Dobson and Greta Scacchi step into the shoes of legendary rivals Bette Davis and Joan Crawford in Bette and Joan at the Royal, Northampton from Tuesday until Saturday.

Christopher Timothy appears in the Touring Consortium and York Theatre Royal production of The Diary of Anne Frank at Nottingham’s Theatre Royal from Tuesday until Saturday.

Nottingham Playhouse’s co-production with the Mercury Theatre, Colchester of Arnold Wesker’s Roots tours to the New Vic, Newcastle-under-Lyme from Tuesday until Saturday.

EquusLondon Classic Theatre gallops into Derby Theatre with Peter Shaffer’s Equus from Tuesday until Saturday.

In its 26th year of touring continuously in the UK and Europe, That’ll Be The Day rocks Leicester’s De Montfort Hall on Wednesday.

English Touring Opera is at Warwick Arts Centre, Coventry with Rossini’s The Barber of Seville on Wednesday and Saturday, and Eugene Onegin by Tchaikovsky on Thursday and Friday.

The original British tribute to Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jnr, The Rat Pack is Back, visits Northampton’s Derngate on Thursday.

A cast of past principal performers from the West End production of Les Misérables and the 25th anniversary concert at the O2 Arena goes Beyond the Barricade at Leicester’s De Montfort Hall on Thursday and Derby’s Assembly Rooms on Friday.

Philip Ridley's Tender Napalm, a “lyrical and heart-stopping account of love in the face of catastrophe”, begins a UK tour at Leicester’s Curve from Thursday until Saturday.

DUCKbrothers Producktions stages the award-winning comedy Heroes by Gérarld Sibleyras in a translation by Tom Stopppard at mac, Birmingham from Thursday until Saturday.

Coventry Youth Operetta Group presents J M Barrie’s timeless tale of the boy who never grew up, Peter Pan, at the city’s Belgrade Theatre from Thursday until Saturday.

Barbadian poet, playwright and director Don Kinch’s play In Search of my Father, featuring a mixed heritage woman born in England who gives up her well-paid corporate executive job to have a child with a Caribbean man, gets its premiere at The Drum, Birmingham on Friday and Saturday.

Sylvie Guillem, regarded as “the most brilliant ballerina of her generation”, and Russell Maliphant are on stage together at Birmingham Hippodrome with a mixed programme including Push on Friday and Saturday.

Essence of IrelandCombining “breathtaking dance routines with the very best of Irish music”, Essence of Ireland is at Wolverhampton Grand on Friday and Saturday.

A man’s bigotry is examined while he’s watching a football match in A Night in November, written by Belfast playwright Marie Jones and presented by In Yer Space at Buxton Pavilion Arts Centre Studio next Saturday and Sunday.

At the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford, The Comedy of Errors continues until next Monday (14 May); Twelfth Night continues until Tuesday, 15 May; The Tempest continues until Saturday, 19 May; Richard III continues until 15 September; and King John also continues until 15 September.

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