Midlands productions

Published: 5 October 2014
Reporter: Steve Orme

Shobna Gulati as Bet and Joe McGann as Al in April in Paris at the Belgrade, Coventry Credit: Robert Day
Horrible Histories - Barmy Britain at Derby Theatre
Propaganda Swing at Nottingham Playhouse Credit: Robert Day

Northampton’s Derngate hosts An Evening With Sir Roger Moore on Monday.

Detail Dance Company presents a new musical, Brace Yourself, at Mansfield Palace Theatre from Monday until Wednesday.

The latest National Theatre tour of Richard Bean’s One Man, Two Guvnors, featuring Gavin Spokes, Norman Pace and Emma Barton visits Leicester’s Curve from Monday until Saturday (hear Gavin Spokes talk about his role in the BTG podcast).

Mark Bruce Dance Company brings Bram Stoker’s Dracula to life at Buxton Opera House on Tuesday.

American playwright George Brant’s Grounded, which “targets our assumptions about war, family and what it is to be a woman”, flies into Warwick Arts Centre, Coventry from Tuesday until Friday.

The Watermill Theatre production of Calamity Jane, featuring Jodie Prenger and Tom Lister, rolls into the Theatre Royal, Nottingham from Tuesday until Saturday.

John Godber’s comedy April in Paris, which features Shobna Gulati and Joe McGann, tours to Coventry’s Belgrade Theatre from Tuesday until Saturday (hear both actors speak about this production in the BTG podcast).

Birmingham Stage Company is at Derby Theatre with Terry Deary’s Horrible Histories - Barmy Britain from Tuesday until Saturday.

Ashrow Theatre Company fleshes out Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice at Derby’s Guildhall Theatre from Tuesday until Saturday.

Birmingham Royal Ballet presents three one-act ballets in Shadows of War: Kenneth MacMillan’s La Fin du jour, Miracle in the Gorbals, specially re-created for the company by Dame Gillian Lynne from Robert Helpmann’s original work set in 1940s Glasgow with music by Sir Arthur Bliss; and David Bintley’s Flowers of the Forest, at Birmingham Hippodrome from Wednesday until Saturday.

Canadian actor Charles Ross “recreates the enchanting world of Middle-earth with nothing more than elbow pads and his outrageous imagination” in his One Man Lord of the Rings at Buxton Opera House on Thursday.

A new tour of Marie Jones’s comedy Stones in his Pockets stops off at Buxton Opera House on Friday.

Laura Lomas’s Bird, “a cutting edge play that throws light on the experience of a teenager in contemporary Britain”, will be performed in Derby Theatre’s Studio on Friday and Saturday.

“Throwing out the theatre rulebook”, Zest Theatre invites partygoers to have complete freedom of movement to eat, drink, look through the bookshelves, join in the games and make as much noise as they like in Gatecrash, written and directed by Toby Ealden, which tours to the Riverhead Theatre, Louth, Lincolnshire on Saturday.

Audiences can look forward to the time of their life when Dirty Dancing – the Classic Story on Stage continues at Wolverhampton Grand until Saturday.

The National Theatre’s production of War Horse continues at Stoke’s Regent Theatre until Saturday.

The London Concert Orchestra and guest vocalists Meeta Raval and Rodney Earl Clarke will be Crazy for Gershwin at Northampton’s Derngate on Sunday.

Mid Wales Opera presents a new production of Bizet’s Carmen at Mansfield Palace Theatre on Sunday.

Peter Arnott’s new play Propaganda Swing, which tells the story of how some of the greatest German jazz musicians of the day entered into a Faustian pact with Fascists to keep playing their music at the price of seeing it corrupted for evil, continues at Nottingham Playhouse until Saturday 18 October.

Northampton Royal and Derngate’s co-production of Tennessee Williams’s Pulitzer prize-winning Cat on a Hot Tin Roof continues on the Royal stage until Saturday 18 October.

Inspired by the music of The Selecter, The Specials and the 2 Tone scene, Three Minute Heroes continues in the B2 auditorium at Coventry’s Belgrade until 25 October.

At the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford, in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre Love’s Labour’s Lost and Love’s Labour’s Won (Much Ado About Nothing) both continue until 14 March (press performance Wednesday 15 October) while in the Swan Theatre John Webster’s revenge tragedy The White Devil continues until Saturday 29 November.

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