Midlands productions

Published: 3 June 2018
Reporter: Steve Orme

Robert Powell in Sherlock Holmes: The Final Curtain in the Theatre Royal, Nottingham
Stefanie Powers plays Helene Hanff in 84 Charing Cross Road at Malvern Theatres Credit: Richard Hubert Smith
Claire Sweeney and Tom Chambers in Crazy For You at Curve, Leicester Credit: Richard Davenport

A new thriller by Simon Reade, Sherlock Holmes: The Final Curtain featuring Robert Powell and Liza Goddard, tours to the Theatre Royal, Nottingham from Monday until Saturday.

Stefanie Powers and Clive Francis head the cast of 84 Charing Cross Road, James Roose-Evans’s adaptation of the Helene Hanff novel, at Malvern Theatres from Monday until Saturday.

Claire Sweeney, Tom Chambers and Charlotte Wakefield are Crazy for You in George and Ira Gershwin’s musical at Curve, Leicester from Monday until Saturday.

Twenty-five actors from across the country are taking Peter Stone’s Titanic—the Musical on its maiden UK and Ireland voyage, stopping off at Birmingham Hippodrome from Monday until Saturday.

In collaboration with classical Indian dancer Mavin Khoo, Agudo Dance Company weaves “Flamenco roots with a unique, contemporary style in a universal and personal story of east meets west” in Silk Road in the Djanogly Theatre at Lakeside Arts, Nottingham on Tuesday.

Northern Ballet’s Ugly Duckling is returning to the stage for the first time since 2013 and swims into Mansfield Palace Theatre on Tuesday and The Core at Corby Cube, Northamptonshire on Saturday.

The jukebox musical Sunshine on Leith featuring music by the Proclaimers walks 500 miles into the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry from Tuesday until Saturday.

Playwright David Edgar makes his professional stage debut in his play Trying it On which looks at 1968, the year of “some of the most important and formative events in modern history”, at Warwick Arts Centre, Coventry from Thursday until Saturday.

The National Production Company romps through all 37 of the Bard’s plays in The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) at the Albany Theatre, Coventry on Friday.

Laura Ryder and Co, a collective of artists based in the Midlands, presents its first show The Bee Project, which is “about the environment, care, friendship and, of course, bees” in the Studio at Derby Theatre on Friday.

Oscar Wilde’s The Selfish Giant is re-imagined for the stage by Wrongsemble in the Studio at Derby Theatre on Saturday.

Lesley Garrett and Madeline Shaw appear in Welsh National Opera’s romp through the life of suffragette Margaret Haig Thomas in Rhondda Rips It Up! in the theatre at mac Birmingham on Saturday.

The Take That musical The Band by Tim Firth continues at Derngate, Northampton until Saturday while “the UK’s premier rock and roll production" That’ll Be The Day returns on Sunday.

Karl Collins is back in his home town to take the lead role in Shebeen, a play which centres on Nottingham’s Caribbean community in the late 1950s, which continues at Nottingham Playhouse until Saturday 16 June.

Taking over Birmingham’s streets and squares, “championing the best of current choreography and putting local talent on an international stage”, Birmingham International Dance Festival 2018 continnues until Sunday 24 June.

At the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford, in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Antony Sher reprises his role as King Lear until Saturday 9 June, Christopher Eccleston and Niamh Cusack head the cast of Macbeth which continues until Tuesday 18 September, and Romeo and Juliet continues until Saturday 21 September; in the Swan Theatre Mary Pix's comedy of manners The Fantastic Follies of Mrs Rich (Or the Beau Defeated) continues until Thursday 14 June and John Webster’s blood-soaked revenge tragedy The Duchess of Malfi continues until Friday 3 August; in The Other Place Spring Mischief Festival, Nell Leyshon will perform her own story Three Letters on Wednesday 6 and Friday 8 June while #WeAreArrested by Can Dündar and Day of the Living by Darren Clark, Amy Draper and Juliet Gilkes Romero continues as a double bill until Saturday 23 June.

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