HomeWhat's OnTheatre in Birmingham

Elastic fantastic

QUEBEC-BASED RubberdanceGroup brings its blend of hip hop and contemporary movement to Birmingham's Patrick Centre next week. Read

It's a bug's life

FRANZ Kafka's bizarre story of a young man who wakes up to discover he has changed into a cockroach takes to the stage next week. Read

Youth group searching for fresh talent

WORKMEN moved into Birmingham's Old Rep on Monday to begin the £500,000 job of providing the theatre with a disabled access and facilities. Read

On The Stage And Off, Rodney Bewes, Lichfield Garrick

RODNEY Bewes will probably always be remembered for The Likely Lads but if you want a real treat catch his one man shows. Read

Private Lives, Swan Theatre Amateur Company, Swan Theatre, Worcester

THE performance of Julie Nunn as Amanda in this Noel Coward classic is quite remarkable, in that it is deliberately theatrical and melodramatic and left me, for one, wondering whether to praise her for sustaining it so unfalteringly or to complain that it is too much for too long. Read

Angel House, Birmingham REP

DESPITE the bleak storyline of sibling rivalry and dysfunctional relationships on an innercity estate, there were plenty of comic one-liners to lift the mood. Read

Swan Lake, Birmingham Hippodrome

THIS Peter Wright production of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake is more than 25 years old but why change something when it works? Read

Strictly Come Dancing Live, NEC

IT has been a huge hit on television and now the ballroom dancing competition is on tour. Read

Darren Gough with partner Lilia Kopyloya

Bowled over by Ballroom

IT'S the most remarkable transformation since the ugly duckling turned into a swan - chunky cricketer Darren Gough changed from ferocious fast bowler to light-on-his-feet ballroom dancer. Read

Drama as actress, 80, banned

I WAS delighted to hear that Bromsgrove Operatic Society has overcome a crisis that threatened to end the thespian career of one of its senior members. Read

It's no laughing matter for Rich

STAND-UP comedian Richard Blackwood is playing it straight in his next role in the new Roy Williams play Angel House. Read

Family Snaps poster

Theatre company brings plays to the Midlands

TWO radically different but thematically-linked plays are set to take to the stage in the Midlands. Read

And then there were none, Grand Theatre, Wolverhampton

AN often spooky production on an excellent panelled set poses questions all the way through, as a house party of people marooned on an island are murdered one by one in retribution for their supposed crimes. Read

Ghost Writer, Sutton Arts Theatre, Sutton Coldfield

DAVID Tristan's joyously bubbling comedy is splendidly served by a cast working at full throttle. Read

Oklahoma! comes to Shirley

THE good folk of Shirley are in for a theatrical treat next week if they care to mosey along to the Shirley Centre, where resident theatre group Centre Stage will be performing the classic Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Oklahoma! Read

Boogie back to the 70's

Boogie back to the 70s

IT'S time to don your flares as the Seventies musical Oh! What a Night returns to Birmingham's Alexandra Theatre from Thursday, with Kid Creole heading the cast. Read

Steve Brookstein

It must be love for 'nutty boy' Steve!

IT WAS at the height of the Eighties and Madness were topping the charts with the likes of My Girl, Baggy Trousers and It Must Be Love. And the teenage Steve Brookstein could be seen doing 'that' dance in the middle of the school disco. Read

Stage like being back at school

NEWCOMER to the stage at Kidderminster's Rose Theatre, Matt Gibbons is scoring an unusual double in his début there in Groping For Words. Read

Aladdin, The Vesey Players, Bishop Vesey Grammar School, Sutton Coldfield

THE enthusiastic cast give a rousing rendition of There's Light At The End Of The Tunnel for their finale as the panto season refuses to end. Read

Hello, Dolly! Grand Theatre, Wolverhampton

MANY stars of theatre and TV joined the opening night audience for the return after a 20-year break of this happy musical, which was made into a 1969 film featuring Barbra Streisand. Read