Tag Archives: Birmingham Hippodrome

Writer: Kevin Fegan Director: Christopher Elmer-Gorry Reviewer: Katie Burchett Reparation Island: a place to share, to think, to repair, to rebuild. Kevin Fegan’s one-act play is performed by the ex-service men and women who make up Bravo 22 Company and is based on first-hand experiences from within the Armed Forces community in the Midlands. As the lights come up, eleven ...

Writer: Emma Reeves from the novel by Jill Murphy Director: Theresa Heskins Reviewer: Nicole Craft Jill Murphy’s The Worst Witch has been entertaining children for the best part of three generations. Continuing to go full circle, the television series (two versions of!) inspire yesterday and today’s youngsters to seek out the books; the books inspiring those who haven’t discovered the ...

Writer: Grace Chapman Director: Nicholas Pitt Reviewer: David Guest Asylum seekers and their plight is an issue regularly seen on the news, but increasingly the topic is being explored on stage as more and more people ask the question, “What can be done?” The impact on the refugees is portrayed on a large scale in plays such as The Jungle, ...

Book: Harvey Fierstein Music & Lyrics: Cyndi Lauper Director & Choreographer: Jerry Mitchell Reviewer: Selwyn Knight Kinky Boots is bright, brash and brilliantly enjoyable. Based on the 2005 film of the same name, which was itself inspired by a 1999 BBC documentary, Trouble at the Top, Kinky Boots tells the story of how a traditional Northampton shoe factory reinvents itself ...

Director/Choreographer: David Bintley Reviewer: Hannah Powell The folk tale of Beauty and the Beast is a familiar one of family, danger and love, shared by a vast number of cultures stretching across the breadth of the globe. After being caught trespassing and in return for his life, Belle’s father is forced to send his youngest daughter to live within the ...

Music: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Choreographer: Matthew Bourne Reviewer: Geoff Mills Matthew Bourne’s transgressive, homoerotic reinterpretation of Swan Lake has been winning over audiences for more than twenty years. This latest incarnation will continue the tradition. Dominic North's unhappy prince is reticent, faltering, a delicate boy struggling to contend with the stiff realities of royal life. His mother (Nicole Kabera) is ...

Writer: Michael Harrison and Alan McHugh, from the book by J.M Barrie Director: Michael Harrison Reviewer: Selwyn Knight It can’t be easy having to step into another performer’s shoes at short notice, especially when the show was written with the original incumbent in mind, but this is exactly what Darren Day has done: the Hippodrome’s panto for 2018/9 was originally ...

Writer: Michael Harrison and Alan McHugh, from the book by J.M Barrie Director: Michael Harrison Reviewer: James Garrington It’s panto time in Birmingham and flying in this year is Peter Pan – and it’s the best panto the Hippodrome has seen in many years. We know the costumes and the sets will be spectacular, that it will have stunning effects and ...