Tag Archives: Birmingham Hippodrome

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 ...

Music: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Original Choreography: Sir Peter Wright, Lev Ivanov, Vincent Redmon Additional Choreography: David Bintley, Marion Tait Reviewer: Daljinder Johal It’s difficult to reinvent the wheel for a classic ballet like The Nutcracker. But Sir Peter Wright’s 1990 production doesn’t need to when it’s just so magical. Since Wright gifted it to Birmingham, the scale of this annual production never fails ...

Writer: Simon Beaufoy based on the film, The Full Monty Director: Rupert Hill Reviewer: Clare White In 1997, Simon Beaufoy’s BAFTA-winning feel-good film about six out-of-work Sheffield steelworkers captured both audience heart’s and critical accolades. The screen-to-stage adaptation, also penned by Beaufoy, has enjoyed similar success, incorporating the film’s best bits – including the dole queue dance, with a score ...

Choreographers: David Bintley and Juanjo Arqués Music: Stephen Montague and Kate Whitley Reviewer: Daljinder Johal Birmingham Royal Ballet’s Fire and Fury consists of two complementary but contrasting dances on power and politics, which intriguingly make us look to the past and future of ballet and much more. The first, The King Dances with choreographer David Bintley, is freely based on Le Ballet ...