The Midlands Ultimate Entertainment Guide
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April Cover - Shrek.qxp_Birmingham 23/03/2015 14:33 Page 1 BIRMINGHAM WHAT’S BIRMINGHAM ON WHAT’S THE MIDLANDS ULTIMATE ENTERTAINMENT GUIDE BIRMINGHAM ISSUE 352 FEBRUARY FEBRUARY 2015 ’ Whatwww.whatsonlive.co.uk sOnISSUE 352 APRIL 2015 OLLY MURS NEVER BEEN BETTER IN THE MIDLANDS... GOTHIC EXHIBITION explores the dark side PART OF MIDLANDS WHAT’S ON MAGAZINE GROUP PUBLICATIONS GROUP MAGAZINE ON WHAT’S MIDLANDS OF PART JONNY COLE Black Country humour on tour interview inside... ROSIE KAY DANCE @WHATSONBRUM WWW.WHATSONLIVE.CO.UK @WHATSONBRUM back in Brum with 5 Soldiers... Star City Easter (FP-April 15).qxp_Layout 1 23/03/2015 14:39 Page 1 Contents APRIL Region 1.qxp_Layout 1 23/03/2015 14:16 Page 1 April 2015 Editor: Davina Evans INSIDE: [email protected] 01743 281708 Editorial Assistants: The Producers Brian O’Faolain [email protected] arrives in Brum p25 01743 281701 Lauren Foster [email protected] 01743 281707 Adrian Parker [email protected] 01743 281714 Jamie Ryan [email protected] 01743 281720 Sales & Marketing: Lei Woodhouse [email protected] 01743 281703 Chris Horton [email protected] 01743 281704 Olly Murs Subscriptions: Adrian Parker Never Been Better [email protected] 01743 281714 in the Midlands p15 Managing Director: Paul Oliver [email protected] 01743 281711 Publisher and CEO: Martin Monahan [email protected] 01743 281710 Graphic Designers: Lisa Wassell swamp-dwelling ogre set to make a splash in Shrek The Musical, page 27 Chris Atherton Accounts Administrator Julia Perry [email protected] 01743 281717 TO GET THE VERY News p4 Cougar The Musical Contributors: LATEST LISTING makes its UK debut... Graham Bostock: Theatre INFORMATION, interview p8 James Cameron-Wilson: Music p13 Film; Eva Easthope, VISIT: Jessica Aston, Patsy Moss, Jack Rolfe, Jan whatsonlive.co.uk Comedy p22 Watts, Simon Carter INCLUDING Head Office: BOOKING ONLINE 13-14 Abbey Foregate, Theatre p25 Shrewsbury, SY2 6AE The Midlands’ most Tel: 01743 281777 comprehensive e-mail: [email protected] p40 entertainment website Dance Follow us on... Film/DVD p43 This publication is printed on paper from a sustainable source and is Visual Arts p51 produced without the use April 2015 of elemental chlorine. Birmingham Events p55 We endorse the recycling @whatsonbrum MTWTFSS of our magazine and Warwickshire would encourage you to 12345 @whatsonwarwicks p65 pass it on to others to Eating Out 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 read when you have Worcestershire finished with it. @whatsonworcs 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 ’ 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 WhatsOn 27 28 29 30 MAGAZINE GROUP All works appearing in this publication are copyright. It is to be assumed that the copyright for material rests with the magazine unless otherwise stated. No part of this publication may be reproduced, or stored in an electronic system, transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopied, recording or otherwise, without the prior knowledge and consent of the publishers. News April Region one.qxp_Layout 1 23/03/2015 19:15 Page 1 News A ROUND-UP OF LOCAL AND NATIONAL ENTERTAINMENT NEWS Corrie stars in fine voice at The REP... Former Coronation Street favourites Vicky Entwistle and Chris Gascoyne are set to star in a brand new Birmingham Repertory Theatre production of Jim Cartwright’s Olivier Award-winning play, The Rise And Fall Of Little Voice. Vicky, who played Janice Battersby in the long-running ITV soap, and Chris, who starred as Peter Barlow, will be joined in the show by Nancy Sullivan as Little Voice. Nancy has previously starred at The REP in The Wizard Of Oz. The new show has been produced in collab- oration with West Yorkshire Playhouse and shows at The REP from Friday 15 to B-Town in Victoria Square, Image from IDFB 2014. Credit: Tim Cross Saturday 30 May. Tickets cost from £7 to £35 and can be pur- chased from the box Plans for fifth dance festival revealed... office on 0121 236 International Dance Festival Birmingham’s (IDFB) co-producers, DanceXchange and 4455, or online at Birmingham Hippodrome, have revealed that plans for the event’s fifth edition, taking place in Birmingham-rep.co.uk. 2016, are already well under way. Speaking at a recent special event held to celebrate IDFB, David Massingham, artistic director of DanceXchange and co-artistic director of the festival, said: “IDFB 2014 truly was ‘a world of dance in one city’. IDFB 2016 will build on ten years of Double celebrations at gallery festival programming experiences and deliver another exciting line-up of performances and Digbeth contemporary art gallery and artists’ events. The focus in 2016 will be ‘Destination Birmingham’, selling the city as a city of dance. studio Grand Union has received a £122,800 There will be more world-class dance content to look forward to, performances, community investment from Arts Council England. News engagement and participation, talks and debates, city, region and worldwide collaborations, of the grant comes as the venue prepares to strong digital elements and more world premieres. IDFB 2016 will showcase Birmingham as celebrate its fifth anniversary. A 5 April birth- one of the world’s leading dance cities.” Since the inaugural IDFB in 2008, the festival has day party features a one-off performance by seen over 172,000 audience members attend 416 free events and 164 ticketed events. artist-in-residence Phil Hession, followed by Members of the public have enjoyed over 25,000 participatory experiences, and artists from DJs and dancing. 36 countries have been welcomed to the city. Instrumental in the regeneration of Birmingham’s Digbeth area, Grand Union and Mats Ek. Contemporary offerings has hosted twenty-eight exhibitions during its include the acclaimed 6000 Miles Away, Kate Rusby live at the RSC five-year history. The venue has worked with which Sylvie performed at International Acclaimed singer/songwriter Kate Rusby is over two hundred artists and commissioned Dance Festival Birmingham in 2014. to give a special performance at Stratford- the same number of new artworks. Sylvie’s final show is Life In Progress, which upon-Avon’s Royal Shakespeare Theatre on she’ll perform at the 2 August. Joined on stage by a string Hippodrome on ensemble, Kate will perform new arrange- Tuesday 8 and ments of classics from her Wednesday 9 back-catalogue, together September. The with tracks from her latest presentation features studio album, Ghost. both existing and Tickets priced £25 and £15 new works by chore- are available from the the- ographers who have atre’s box office on 0844 influenced her con- Photo credit: 800 1100, or by visiting temporary career. Lesley Leslie-Spinks rsc.org.uk Guillem bows out in Brum... Love Me Tender on tour Treat for Bangladeshi Dance supremo Sylvie Guillem has A brand new musical inspired by and featur- music lovers announced she’s to present her last ever UK ing the music of Elvis Presley is coming to The largest indoor bangla concert ever to be performance on the Birmingham the region this summer. From the producers staged in the UK will take place at Hippodrome stage in September. of Hairspray, Jersey Boys and West Side Birmingham’s Barclaycard Arena on 26 Guillem, who will receive a special award for Story, Love Me Tender features twenty-five of August. her lifetime achievements at this month’s Elvis’s best-loved hits and is described as ‘a Hosted by Nadia Ali and Mumzy Stranger, Olivier Awards (12 April), began her career hilarious feelgood show’. The production the Bangla Beats is a must-attend event for as a ballerina before diversifying into the runs at the Regent Theatre, Stoke-on-Trent, lovers of Bangladeshi music. world of contemporary dance. Her extensive from Monday 29 June to Saturday 4 July, Composer/musicians Habib Wahid, Hridoy repertoire includes numerous iconic roles in and at New Alexandra Theatre, Birmingham, Khan, Kaya and Shireen Jawad all feature in ballets by Kenneth MacMillan, Maurice from Monday 24 to Saturday 29 August. the line-up. Béjart, Frederick Ashton, William Forsythe 4 www.whatsonlive.co.uk News April Region one.qxp_Layout 1 23/03/2015 19:15 Page 2 Tub on a hot Brum roof One of Birmingham’s iconic rooftops is set to get steamy next month, courtesy of the city’s first ever rooftop hot tub cinema. Super Spa Cinema will be situated atop Fort Dunlop and promises an evening like no other. Guests are invited to take to the roof of the one hundred-foot building to enjoy ‘an evening of experimental entertainment and cult cinema’. Taking place between Friday 22 and Sunday 24 May, the unique event features a host of themed activities, including a Tom Cruise cocktail flairing and hook-a-shark competitions. There’s even the chance to enjoy the thrills and spills of mastering the waves on Fort Dunlop’s surf- board simulator. For further information, visit fortdunlop.com West End musical coming to the Midlands One of the biggest musical hits ever to grace the West End stage visits Birmingham next year as part of its first ever UK tour. Written by British playwright Catherine Johnson, Mamma Mia! is based on the songs of legendary Swedish pop group ABBA. Band members Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus were both heavily involved in the show's development. Set on a Greek island, the feelgood story follows bride-to-be Sophie as she searches for her real father. Since opening in 1999, Mamma Mia! has been seen by over fifty-four million peo- Visitor numbers give cause to ple, with forty-nine productions having been mounted in fourteen different languages.