Midlands productions

Published: 7 May 2017
Reporter: Steve Orme

Sheridan Smith as Fanny Brice in Funny Girl at Birmingham Hippodrome Credit: Marc Brenner
The Addams Family at Derngate, Northampton
Rent at the Belgrade, Coventry Credit: Matt Crockett

English Touring Opera visits Warwick Arts Centre, Coventry with Gilbert and Sullivan’s Patience on Monday and a new production of the classic Puccini opera Tosca on Tuesday.

Andrew Lancel, Antony Costa, Ben Nealon, Mark Wynter, Shirley Anne Field and Sophie Ward are among the cast of Ruth Rendell’s A Judgement in Stone, presented by the Classic Thriller Theatre Company at the Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham from Monday until Saturday.

Sheridan Smith takes the role of Fanny Brice in Funny Girl which tours to Birmingham Hippodrome from Monday until Saturday.

Master of farce Ray Cooney celebrates 70 years in showbiz with an updated version of his Olivier Award-winning comedy Out Of Order with a cast including Shaun Williamson, Sue Holderness, Andrew Hall, Susie Amy, James Holmes and Arthur Bostrom, at Malvern Theatres from Monday until Saturday.

Federico Fellini’s 1957 Oscar-winning film La Strada (The Road) is brought to life on stage in a new adaptation at Birmingham REP from Monday until Saturday.

Jasmin Vardimon Company’s new adaptation of the classic tale Pinocchio dances into Nottingham Playhouse on Tuesday.

Winner of the 2016 UK Theatre Awards achievement in dance, the Gary Clarke Company digs into Derby Theatre with COAL, which commemorates the 30th anniversary of the miners’ strike, at Derby Theatre on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Featuring Samantha Womack as Morticia, Les Dennis as Uncle Fester and Carrie Hope Fletcher as Wednesday, the musical comedy The Addams Family tours to Northampton’s Derngate from Tuesday until Saturday, while on the Royal stage Frank Galati’s adaptation of John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, a co-production with Nuffield Southampton Theatres, Nottingham Playhouse and West Yorkshire Playhouse, can be seen from Tuesday until Saturday 20 May.

Breakin’ Convention, “the world’s biggest festival of hip hop dance theatre”, curated and hosted by UK hip hop pioneer Jonzi D, visits the Royal Concert Hall, Nottingham on Tuesday and Wednesday while in the Theatre Royal the musical described as “the party of the year”, The Wedding Singer, runs from Tuesday until Saturday.

Emma Hatton plays Eva Perón in Bill Kenwright’s production of Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Evita at Wolverhampton Grand from Tuesday until Saturday.

The 21st anniversary production of Jonathan Larson’s musical Rent, inspired by Puccini’s opera La Bohème, tours to the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry from Tuesday until Saturday.

Nottingham New Theatre and Nottingham Lakeside Arts join forces to present Jessica Swales’s Blue Stockings, a “poignant, comical and eye-opening story based on the history of women’s fight for education”, at Nottingham Lakeside Arts from Tuesday until Saturday.

Birmingham’s Blue Orange Theatre stages John Godber’s Lucky Sods from Tuesday until Saturday.

A musical play adapted and directed by David Wood, based on the book by Judith Kerr, The Tiger Who Came to Tea roars into Lichfield Garrick on Wednesday and Thursday.

Theatre Absolute’s first commission in its Are We Where We Are? project, May Utang, written and performed by Jules Orcullo, takes to the stage at the Shop Front Theatre, Coventry on Thursday.

A story of two brothers, one family, goodies, baddies and autism, based on the true story of autism sufferer Jack Bray, is told in Cartoonopolis at the Guildhall Theatre, Derby on Thursday.

A site-specific, script-in-hand play for voices, created and performed by Theatre Birmingham, The Other Side, which tells a “fascinating story of life in Birmingham over 200 years through the voices of people who lived in the Jewellery Quarter”, is at Birmingham and Midland Institute on Thursday and Friday.

Taken from the Sanskrit texts of the Mahābhārata, the story of Sukanya is brought to life with music by Ravi Shankar and combines traditional Indian instruments with Western orchestra and singers at Curve, Leicester on Friday.

Vanessa Oakes’s All Is Well, which is “poetic, funny and devastatingly fierce in its appraisal of the true cost of nuclear power”, featuring Mark Carey, Janice McKenzie, Jack Richardson and Aimee Powell, is at mac Birmingham on Friday.

“Breathtaking aerial movement, live original music and explosive special effects” combine to tell a “moving tale—part medical drama, part love story” in Mark Murphy’s Out of This World at Nottingham Playhouse on Friday and Saturday.

Phizzical Productions’ Bring on the Bollywood continues on the B2 Stage at the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry until Saturday.

The Young REP takes over the main stage at Birmingham REP with a new production of E R Braithwaite’s To Sir, With Love which continues until Tuesday 16 May.

Frederick Knott’s Dial M for Murder continues at the New Vic, Newcastle-under-Lyme until Saturday 20 May.

At the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford, in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre Antony and Cleopatra continues until Thursday 7 September and Julius Caesar until Saturday 9 September.

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