What's on in the Midlands

Published: 2 April 2022
Reporter: Steve Orme

Patricia Hodge as Amanda and Nigel Havers as Elyot in Private Lives at Malvern Theatres Credit: Tristram Kenton
Animal Farm at the Theatre Royal, Nottingham
Bedknobs and Broomsticks at the Grand Theatre, Wolverhampton Credit: Johan Persson

Nigel Havers and Patricia Hodge appear in Noël Coward’s Private Lives which visits Malvern Theatres from Tuesday until Saturday.

Robert Icke adapts and directs the Children’s Theatre Partnership and Birmingham Rep production of George Orwell’s Animal Farm which tours to the Theatre Royal, Nottingham from Tuesday until Saturday.

The story of how five brothers from Utah were pushed into the spotlight as children and went on to create decades of hits is told in The Osmonds: A New Musical at the Regent Theatre, Stoke from Tuesday until Saturday.

Dianne Pilkington takes the role of Miss Eglantine Price in Bedknobs and Broomsticks at the Grand Theatre, Wolverhampton from Tuesday until Saturday.

The “most successful touring production in entertainment history” which has “visited over 1,000 venues worldwide and been seen by over 60 million people in 60 different countries”, Michael Flatley’s Lord of the Dance celebrates its 25th anniversary at Derngate, Northampton from Tuesday until Saturday.

Jason Donovan plays the Pharaoh, Alexandra Burke is the narrator and Jac Yarrow is Joseph in the London Palladium production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at Birmingham Hippodrome from Tuesday until Saturday 16 April.

Here to There Productions takes Graham Linehan’s The Ladykillers to the Courtyard Hereford from Wednesday until Sunday.

As part of the celebrations for Coventry’s year as UK City of Culture, Dash Arts presents an immersive, promenade performance The Great Middlemarch Mystery, from the novel Middlemarch by George Eliot, in various locations around the city centre from Thursday until Sunday.

Paying homage to the music and dances that have inspired his career, Strictly Come Dancing favourite Giovanni Pernice says This Is Me at the Pomegranate Theatre, Chesterfield on Saturday.

The Akram Khan Company continues to present the world première of Akram Khan’s Jungle Book Reimagined, a “dance-theatre retelling of Kipling’s family classic”, at Curve, Leicester until Saturday.

A seven-strong cast including neurodiverse actors continues to perform Marvellous, the story of “Stoke City FC kit man, clown and all-round local hero” Neil “Nello” Baldwin, at the New Vic, Newcastle-under-Lyme until Saturday.

David Wood adapts Floella Benjamin’s book Coming to England, “a musical journey for families of all ages”, which follows her journey towards becoming “a TV icon, successful businesswoman and eventually Baroness Benjamin of Beckenham”, which continues at Birmingham Rep until Saturday 16 April.

Coventry’s Belgrade Theatre adapts its B2 auditorium into a theatre-in-the-round for the première of Coventry writer Jamie McGough’s Fighting Irish, set in 1979 and detailing how Coventry’s newest boxing star tries to defend his title but ends up facing prejudice, corrupt officials and warring factions, which continues until Saturday 16 April.

Derby Theatre, Hiccup Theatre and Polka Theatre continue to present a new adaptation of the Hans Christian Andersen story The Emperor’s New Clothes at Derby Theatre until Saturday 16 April.

Henry VI: Rebellion which “hurtles through one of the most turbulent periods in English history” and features performers from the RSC’s Next Generation Act young company and its Shakespeare Nation community alongside a professional cast, continues in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford until Saturday 28 May.

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