What's on in the Midlands

Published: 17 November 2019
Reporter: Steve Orme

The Nutcracker at Birmingham Hippodrome
An Inspector Calls at Buxton Opera House
John Partridge as Emcee in Cabaret at Malvern Theatres Credit: The Other Richard

Shane Richie plays comic Archie Rice in John Osborne’s The Entertainer in the Auditorium at Theatre Severn, Shrewsbury from Monday until Saturday while Jessica McDonagh’s comedy Car Park King, Every Egg A Bird Theatre’s presentation about King Richard III, rules in the Walker Theatre on Saturday.

Birmingham Old Rep’s Christmas show, Hans Christian Andersen’s Snow Queen, runs from Monday until Monday 30 December.

Tom Dale Company’s Step Sonic dances into the Djanogly Theatre at Lakeside Arts, Nottingham on Tuesday and Soonchild, based on the book by Russell Hoban, takes families on an Arctic adventure on Saturday and Sunday.

The National Theatre production of J B Priestley’s An Inspector Calls, directed by Stephen Daldry, visits Buxton Opera House from Tuesday until Saturday.

John Partridge, Kara Lily Hayworth and Anita Harris come to Kander and Ebb’s Cabaret, a Bill Kenwright production, at Malvern Theatres from Tuesday until Saturday.

A “powerful story” that explores human relationships and “sparks pertinent, timely conversations on mental health and well-being”, Winsome Pinnock’s One Under is presented by Graeae Theatre Company in The Door at Birmingham REP from Tuesday until Saturday.

Aspect Theatres stages Patrick Marber’s After Miss Julie in the Attic Theatre, Stratford from Tuesday until Saturday.

Northern Ballet has a ball when it performs Cinderella at the Theatre Royal, Nottingham from Tuesday until Saturday.

Jim Barne and Kit Buchan’s new musical The Season, which previewed in Northampton at the beginning of the month, returns to Royal and Derngate from Tuesday until Saturday 30 November.

Six dancers perform “two dramatic explorations” of Genius in a double bill by Anjali Dance Company in the Patrick Centre at Birmingham Hippodrome on Tuesday and Wednesday while on the main stage, Birmingham Royal Ballet, which is resident at the Hippodrome, stages its “timeless” production of Sir Peter Wright’s The Nutcracker from Friday until Saturday 14 December.

Peter Gill’s play about a house that became a World War I haven and refuge, Talbot House visits the Albany Theatre, Coventry on Wednesday.

Gloria Lowe writes and directs Letters from the Front, a “real-life story of romance”, at the Old Library, Mansfield on Thursday.

Chapterhouse Theatre Company takes a traditional production of Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol to the Pavilion Arts Centre, Buxton on Thursday and Friday.

Richard Alston’s dance company, which began life at Warwick Arts Centre, Coventry in 1994, returns before he bows out in 2020 with The Final Edition on Thursday and Friday.

A new adaptation of Edward Lear’s nonsense poem The Owl and The Pussycat, a Hammerpuzle presentation, sails into the Everyman Cheltenham from Thursday until Tuesday 31 December.

Buddy Holly and The Cricketers rave on with Holly at Christmas at Mansfield Palace Theatre on Friday.

Theatre in Black uses “an innovative combination of new writing, contemporary performance and live looping audio” in Loop at The Core at Corby Cube, Northamptonshire on Friday.

Jamie Muscato plays Tony and Adriana Ivelisse, a native Puerto Rican making her professional UK debut, is Maria in West Side Story, with book by Arthur Laurents, music by Leonard Bernstein and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, at Curve, Leicester from Saturday until Saturday 11 January 2020.

An “intertwining trilogy of monologues, creating an understanding of the human condition that struggles towards some form of stability” and inspired by the spoken word of Kate Tempest and the poetry of Emily Valentine and Eileen Myles, Chronic Insanity’s painstaking, written and directed by Nat Henderson, can be seen at Pepper Rocks, Nottingham on Sunday and Monday.

The Theatre Chipping Norton pantomime Puss in Boots continues until 12 January 2020.

A new production of Mark Twain’s The Prince and The Pauper, the Christmas show at the New Vic Theatre, Newcastle-under-Lyme, continues until Saturday 25 January.

At the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford, David Walliams’s The Boy in the Dress featuring music by Robbie Williams and Guy Chambers continues until Sunday 8 March 2020 while in the Swan Theatre Hannah Khalil’s A Museum in Baghdad continues until Saturday 25 January and Shakespeare's rarely-performed history play King John featuring Rosie Sheehy in the title role continues until Saturday 21 March.

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