What's on in the Midlands

Published: 11 September 2021
Reporter: Steve Orme

Julian Spooner, Gina Isaac, Matt Wells and Jess Mabel Jones in The War of the Worlds at Derby Theatre Credit: Jamie MacMillan
Lyn Paul as Mrs Johnstone in Blood Brothers at the Theatre Royal, Nottingham
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof at Curve, Leicester

Mischief Theatre returns to the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry with The Play That Goes Wrong from Monday until Saturday.

Priscilla, Queen of the Desert drives into Leicester's Curve from Monday until Saturday while the theatre is also presenting Tennessee Williams’s Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, a co-production with Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse and English Touring Theatre, which continues until Saturday.

Rhum and Clay Theatre Company presents The War of the Worlds, inspired by H G Wells's sci-fi novel and Orson Welles's radio play and “playfully reimagined for our era of fake news and alternative facts”, at Derby Theatre from Tuesday until Thursday.

Lyn Paul reprises her role as Mrs Johnstone in Blood Brothers which tours to the Theatre Royal, Nottingham from Tuesday until Saturday.

The six wives of Henry VIII “remix 500 years of historical heartbreak into an 80-minute celebration of 21st century girl power” in SIX at Birmingham Hippodrome from Tuesday until Saturday while during the day an adaptation of Julia Donaldson and Lydia Monks’s picture book What the Ladybird Heard can be seen from Thursday until Saturday.

Tyler Butterworth tells the “moving and unashamedly nostalgic story of his much-loved parents” Peter Butterworth and Janet Brown in A Bit of a Carry On at Derby Market Place on Wednesday.

A tribute to “the greatest movie musicals of all time” including Moulin Rouge, Rocketman, The Greatest Showman and A Star is Born and featuring Britain’s Got Talent winner Jai McDowall, Come What May visits Buxton Opera House on Wednesday.

Linda Nolan, Stephanie Dooley, Niki Evans and Leanne Jones team up for a girls’ night out as they appear in the musical comedy Girls Just Wanna Have Fun at the Albany Theatre, Coventry on Thursday.

Keith Waterhouse’s play Jeffrey Bernard is Unwell which tells the story of Bernard, “gambler, journalist, failed husband and fervent alcoholic”, takes to the stage at The Courtyard, Hereford from Thursday until Saturday.

Quick Duck Theatre, a Birmingham-based company that makes "ridiculous queer shows with a lot of heart and a killer soundtrack", presents Fashion Spies, a "fabulous and surreal adventure comedy", in the Assembly Festival Garden, Coventry as part of Coventry UK City of Culture, from Friday until Sunday.

Gyles Brandreth performs his one-man show Break A Leg! at the Lyceum Theatre, Crewe on Saturday.

Alan Ayckbourn’s 85th full-length play, The Girl Next Door, presented by Scarborough’s Stephen Joseph Theatre, continues at the New Vic, Newcastle-under-Lyme until Saturday.

The comedy drama East Is East, which premièred on Birmingham REP’s stage in 1996, returns home for its 25th anniversary and continues at the REP until Saturday 25 September.

Birmingham’s Old Joint Stock Theatre feeds on the horror comedy rock musical Little Shop of Horrors, with music by Alan Menken and lyrics by Howard Ashman, which continues until Sunday 26 September.

The Royal Shakespeare Company continues to stage The Comedy of Errors in its new, open-air venue, the Lydia and Manfred Gorvy Garden Theatre, Stratford until Sunday 26 September.

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