Goodnight-Mister-Tom

Goodnight Mister Tom

Oldbury Rep stage moving adaptation of Michelle Magorian’s wartime story.

Calendar-Girls-Garrick

Calendar Girls the Musical

Gary Barlow and Tim Firth’s musical version of the film and play about a Women’s Institute group baring all for a charity fundraising calendar is a warm-hearted hit in Lichfield Operatic Society’s latest cheeky offering.

Shakespeare-in-Love-Burton

Shakespeare in Love

The Bard hits Burton in a slick production of ‘Shakespeare in Love’.

The-Comedy-of-Errors

The Comedy of Errors

Lichfield forest glade transforms into ancient Greece in absurdist take on Shakespeare’s early farcical comedy.

Consent

Consent

Complex and compelling: Nina Raine’s groundbreaking 2017 play is staged with style and substance at Birmingham’s Crescent Theatre.

Shrek-the-musical

Shrek the Musical

Sutton Coldfield’s Town Hall is transformed into the fairytale kingdom of Duloc in Trinity Players’ latest production: a high-energy staging of ‘Shrek the Musical’.

Kinky Boots

Kinky Boots

Harvey Fierstein’s feel-good musical comedy returns to the Lichfield Garrick in glitzy high-heeled style.

Kinky Boots
Gypsy

Gypsy

Musical fable about the ultimate stage mother hits Birmingham in an ambitious production at the Crescent Theatre.

Anything Goes

Anything Goes

Cole Porter’s musical comedy is a de-lovely delight in Manor Musical Theatre Company’s latest production at Sutton Coldfield Town Hall.

Anything Goes
A-Bunch-of-Amateurs-Lichfield

A Bunch of Amateurs – Lichfield Players

You wait for a performance of Ian Hislop and Nick Newman’s clever comedy ‘A Bunch of Amateurs’ to be staged locally and then two productions come along at once. Having very recently reviewed this play at the Highbury Theatre in Sutton Coldfield, I was keen to see what a Lichfield ‘bunch of amateurs’ made of it in their hometown Garrick Theatre.

Rising to the comic challenge under the direction of Robin Lewitt, the Lichfield Players’ production delivers laugh after laugh thanks to a talented cast of amateur actors playing amateur actors very professionally!

A-Bunch-of-Amateurs

A Bunch of Amateurs

Highbury Players’ latest production is a witty and warm-hearted homage to amateur theatre.

Ian Hislop and Nick Newman’s ‘A Bunch of Amateurs’ will be most familiar to audiences from the 2008 film starring Burt Reynolds but this is how it should be seen: in a local theatre with a cast of amateur actors playing the amateur actors. It works on so many levels and in this production, directed by Laura McLaurie, makes for an evening full of laughs and clever comedy.

Love-from-a-Stranger

Love from a Stranger

It seems we can’t get enough of Agatha Christie. The ‘Queen of Crime’ continues to excite the public imagination with her stories of murder nearly 50 years after her own death. ‘The Mousetrap’ has been running in the West End since 1952; ‘Witness for the Prosecution’ looks set to run and run at London County Hall; ‘And Then There Were None’ has just finished a UK tour and ‘Murder on the Orient Express’ starts one later this year. Christie is clearly good box office and, in the latest production from Birmingham’s Crescent Theatre, it’s easy to see why.

Vita-and-Virginia

Vita & Virginia

Billed as ‘for anyone interested in Virginia Woolf, beautiful literature or simply love’, ‘Vita and Virginia’ is a beautifully crafted and performed two-hander which takes us into the heart of the famous ‘Orlando’ author and her 20-year relationship with fellow writer Vita Sackville-West.

Some-Mothers-Do-Ave-Em

Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em

Guy Unsworth based on the TV series by Raymond Allen | Brewhouse, Burton upon Trent | Directed by John Bowness

Chaos rules in Burton upon Trent as stage version of the famous 70s sitcom brings Frank Spencer to life in all his accident-prone glory.

Boy Out The City
Boy Out The City

Boy Out The City

Declan Bennett | Belgrade Theatre | Directed by Nancy Sullivan

Declan Bennett comes home to Coventry, delivering his blistering one man show in poetic style.

Boy Out The City
Boy Out The City
The Glass Menagerie

The Glass Menagerie

Tennessee Williams | Belgrade Theatre | Directed by Atri Banerjee

Williams’ poetry pulses through Atri Banerjee’s beautifully staged production of ‘The Glass Menagerie’.

Bette & Joan

Bette & Joan

Anton Burge | OldburyREP Theatre | Directed by Paul Steventon-Marks

Hollywood blazes into life on the OldburyRep stage as arch-rivals Bette Davis and Joan Crawford battle it out on set.

Blue-Remembered-Hills

Blue Remembered Hills

Dennis Potter | Highbury Theatre | Directed by Phil Astle

Highbury Theatre’s brave decision to stage Dennis Potter’s brutal vision of wartime childhood pays off in a production which brings seven-year-olds to life in all their appalling glory. ‘Blue Remembered Hills’ may not be as familiar to audiences as ‘The Singing Detective’ or ‘Pennies from Heaven’ but this lesser-known play from the master of innovative television deserves to be seen.

Educating-Rita

Educating Rita

Willy Russell | Crescent Theatre | Directed by Fi Cotton

Willy Russell’s modern classic feels fresh and excitingly alive in the Crescent Theatre’s latest studio production.