What's on in the Midlands

Published: 3 March 2013
Reporter: Steve Orme

Julian Glover (Maurice), Sheila Reid (Helena) and Nichola McAuliffe (Katie) in Maurice's Jubilee at the New Alexandra Theatre, Birmingham from Tuesday until Saturday Credit: Steve Ullathorne
Rosie Kay Dance Company stages There is Hope at mac, Birmingham on Thursday and Friday
Faye Castelow plays Ruth Ellis in The Thrill of Love which continues at the New Vic, Newcastle-under-Lyme until Saturday Credit: Andrew Billington

Audiences at Buxton Opera House won’t be able to take their eyes off Jersey Nights, celebrating the music of Frank Valli and the Four Seasons, on Monday and Tuesday.

BalletBoyz will première two dance pieces by celebrated choreographers Russell Maliphant and Liam Scarlett in The Talent 2013 at Warwick Arts Centre, Coventry on Monday and Tuesday.

Coventry Belgrade’s community and education company will be showcasing some of its brightest young talent in a new physical theatre production Playlist in the B2 auditorium from Monday until Saturday while The Dolly Parton Story takes to the main stage on Tuesday.

Nichola McAuliffe’s play Maurice’s Jubilee in which she appears alongside Julian Glover and Sheila Reid tours to the New Alexandra Theatre, Birmingham from Tuesday until Saturday.

The Chisinau National Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus directed by Ellen Kent visits Leicester’s De Montfort Hall with a traditional production of Tosca by Puccini on Wednesday and Bizet’s Carmen on Thursday.

Rambert Dance Company takes its Labyrinth of Love tour to Nottingham’s Theatre Royal from Wednesday until Friday.

Middle Ground Theatre Company presents the world premiere stage adaptation featuring Ellis Peters’s medieval sleuth in Cadfael: The Virgin in the Ice at the Grand, Wolverhampton from Wednesday until Saturday.

Welsh National Opera is at Birmingham Hippodrome with a new production, Lulu by Alban Berg on Tuesday, Janacek’s The Cunning Little Vixen on Thursday and Madam Butterfly by Puccini on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.

Rosie Kay Dance Company’s There is Hope “begins in the real world but rapidly descends into Hell, followed by purgatory before finally reaching a state of Heaven” at mac, Birmingham on Thursday and Friday.

Students from the University of Northampton perform Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and Twelfth Night in Northampton Royal from Thursday until Saturday.

Buxton Opera House hosts a double bill of Tchaikovsky when the Russian State Ballet of Siberia performs Swan Lake on Thursday and Friday and The Nutcracker on Saturday.

Moscow Ballet la Classique stages Delibes’ Coppelia at the Belgrade, Coventry from Thursday until Saturday.

Oddsocks creates “an evening of hilarious homage to the heyday of radio" in R.O.G.E.R. Radio at Derby Theatre on Friday.

Combining “the sound of big band swing with charisma, panache and swagger”, Rat Pack Live visits Derby’s Assembly Rooms on Friday.

After “a violent and unexplained tragedy, a couple are slowly torn apart by the corrosive need to understand why” in Rob Johnston’s In a Land Much Like Ours in the Pavilion Arts Centre Studio, Buxton on Friday and Saturday.

Firing Blanks is a “fresh, funny and moving play about donor conception (and ducks) with an original live score” in Derby Theatre Studio on Saturday.

Vienna Festival Ballet performs Tchaikovsky’s Sleeping Beauty at Artrix, Bromsgrove, Worcestershire on Saturday while in the Studio Hard Graft Theatre stages I Love Bromsgrove, “where an ordinary couple in an ordinary charity shop are about to have one of the most extra-ordinary days of their lives”.

Northampton’s Derngate celebrates the Essence of Ireland on Saturday.

Amanda Whittington’s new work The Thrill of Love about Ruth Ellis—the last woman to be hanged in Britain—continues at the New Vic, Newcastle-under-Lyme until Saturday.

De Montfort University, Leicester students continue to perform two plays by Olivier Award-winning writer Caryl Churchill, Serious Money and Fen, in rep at the city’s Curve Theatre until Saturday.

The Grand Opera of Belarus will be singing Madam Butterfly in Italian with English surtitles at Buxton Opera House next Sunday.

Frances Ruffelle continues in the title role in Pam Gems’s Piaf at Curve, Leicester until Saturday 16 March.

At the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford, in the Swan The Orphan of Zhao, sometimes referred to as the Chinese Hamlet and tracing its origins to the 4th century BC, continues until Thursday 28 March, Ian McDiarmid takes the title role in Mark Ravenhill’s new translation of Brecht's A Life of Galileo until Saturday 30 March while the world première of Adrian Mitchell’s adaptation of Alexander Pushkin's play Boris Godunov also continues until 30 March.

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