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News from around the region

Jodie Prenger goes it alone at Theatre Severn

Jodie Prenger is ‘going it alone’ this summer in a new production of Andrew Lloyd Webber & Don Black’s classic one-woman musical, Tell Me On A Sunday (Theatre Severn, Shrewsbury, 6 - 10 July). Charting the romantic misadventures of young English girl Emma in New York during the 1980s, the show features the number-one hit, Take That Look Off Your Face. Commenting on the show, its producer, Jamie Wilson, said: “Tell Me On A Sunday, with its cast of just one actress, is probably the most naturally socially distanced musical in the world! We’re delighted that Jodie is able to reprise her incredible performance as Emma.” For more information and to purchase tickets, visit: theatresevern.co.uk

Wolves arts centre to host outdoor music festival

Wolverhampton folk fans have a new outdoor music festival to attend this summer. Folk At New Horizons is Newhampton Arts Centre (NAC) and Folk At The NAC’s first ever folk festival. It will take place on Saturday 3 July at NAC's brand-new big-top-style outdoor performance area, the New Horizons Stage. The festival is being headlined by the fivepiece Calan. Other contributing artists include Pete Morton, The Vera Van Heeringen Trio, and local indie-folk musician Matt Sayers... For more information, visit newhamptonarts.co.uk

Eleven days of ‘fabulous entertainment’ in Lichfield

Mica Paris, Eddi Reader and Alistair McGowan are among the performers appearing at this year’s Lichfield Festival. The eleven-day event (8 to 18 July), features ballet, cabaret, symphony orchestras, steel pans, family fun, chamber music, live cooking, storytelling, drama and comedy. Commenting on this year’s get-together, Lichfield Festival Director Damian Thantrey said: “With distancing and regulations expected still to be in place, things will be a little different this summer, with shorter event times and repeated performances, particularly those in the smaller venues. There will also be a number of outdoor events, making the most of the glorious summer weather - we hope! - and some of Lichfield’s beautiful and verdant outdoor spaces.” For more information about the event, visit lichfieldfestival.org.

Film festival Flatpack makes a welcome return

Birmingham’s long-established film festival, Flatpack, kicks off a four-month season of events on Friday 21 May. Event highlights include the BAFTA-awardqualifying short-film competition - featuring more than 30 UK premieres - a feature & documentary film programme, and a selection of special events, including liveperformance premieres, beer & film pairings, and a life modelling class. The festival can be enjoyed online, outdoors and, all being well, in the city’s cinemas and auditoriums.

‘World’s craziest party’ at Sandwell Valley venue

‘The world’s craziest party’ is coming to Sandwell Valley Country Park this autumn. Award-winning experiential event concept Elrow will feature ‘surreal theatre, incredible production, the most colourful clubbing and an unrivalled soundtrack of quality house music’. The event takes place at the popular visitor destination on 25 & 26 September. Tickets can be purchased at elrowmidlands.co.uk

Flying high! Telford’s Balloon Fiesta returns

The Telford Balloon Fiesta will return to Telford Town Park over the August Bank Holiday weekend. A popular event in the borough's calendar, the Fiesta provides an impressive visual spectacle, with more than 30 balloons of varying shapes and sizes taking to the Shropshire skies. Telford & Wrekin Council is hopeful that this year's gathering will form part of a summer festival weekend featuring a programme of fun family activities.

Re-igniting Fuse at Beacon Park

Lichfield Arts’ annual free-toattend music & arts community festival - Fuse will this year take place a month later than usual (13 - 15 August, in the city’s Beacon Park). Commenting on Fuse 2021, the festival’s organisers said: “We want to make Fuse broader and even more inclusive, offering more people more opportunities to perform, play, dance, sing, share, laugh, enjoy and celebrate but we need donations via a Go Fund Me campaign to make this happen. Please spread the word and, if you can, make a donation, to enable us to deliver all we have planned and help us run this fabulous free event for the local community.” To donate, visit gofund.me/92fda4f1

First Word

Siblings AJ and Curtis to star in Grand Theatre pantomime

Much-loved dancing siblings AJ and Curtis Pritchard will star in the pantomime production of Cinderella at the Wolverhampton Grand Theatre this Christmas (Saturday 4 December Sunday 9 January). The brothers, who between them have on their CVs hit TV shows Strictly Come Dancing, I’m A Celebrity and Love Island, will take the roles of Prince Charming and Dandini respectively. For more information and to book tickets for the panto, visit grandtheatre.co.uk.

Tamworth Castle reopens with a new exhibition

Tamworth Castle reopens mid-May with the launch of an interactive state-of-the-art exhibition. The venue’s £768,000 Battle And Tribute installation is dedicated to the area’s rich Anglo-Saxon history. The exhibition includes: a mead hall; an immersive combat film experience; a unique touch-table strategy game; and pieces from the legendary Staffordshire Hoard, alongside other Anglo-Saxon artefacts. Check out the castle’s Facebook and Twitter pages for more news about the brand-new exhibition.

Oh what a circus! The Homecoming set to dazzle in Newcastle-under-Lyme

A one-day circus-inspired ‘extravaganza’ is coming to Newcastleunder-Lyme this summer. The Homecoming is a celebration of the life and legacy of localborn legend and ‘father of modern circus’ Philip Astley. The family-friendly event features a day of outdoor performances in the town centre and takes place on Saturday 26 June.

News from around the region

Birmingham Hippodrome announces new shows

Hit West Enders Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert and Blood Brothers will be stopping off at Birmingham Hippodrome in the autumn, with another much-loved musical, Chichester Festival Theatre’s Olivier Awardnominated Singin’ In The Rain, visiting the Midlands venue in summer 2022. But wait, there’s more... Alongside this trio of marvellous musicals, the Hippodrome is also presenting everpopular drag superstar Ceri Dupree in her latest show, A Star Is Torn!!!, family favourite What The Ladybird Heard, and smash-hit comedy The Play That Goes Wrong (pictured below)... For more information about these and other visiting shows, and to book tickets, go to: birminghamhippodrome.com

Two-part Birmingham dance festival for 2021

Birmingham International Dance Festival (BIDF) returns this year with not one but two editions - an 11-day online summer event and a 13-day live autumn festival. From 3 to 13 June, BIDF presents a brand-new dedicated digital platform, BIDF TV, hosting screen dance performances and new film commissions. Then, from 21 September to 3 October, the festival will host an extensive outdoor programme, showcasing local touring, youth engagement, co-productions and digital work. For more information about both festivals and their respective programmes, visit bidf.co.uk

Castle comedy comeback

Theatre Severn will once again be presenting its popular comedy club at Shrewsbury Castle this summer, offering punters the chance to enjoy some ‘alfresco fun in the sun’. Scheduled for every Saturday in August, the Castle Jesters events will take place in the castle grounds, with each show featuring sets from four comedians.... For more information, visit theatresevern.co.uk

Smash-hit West Ender to head out on UK tour

Smash-hit Broadway and West End musical Waitress will be making a number of Midlands stop-offs when it tours the UK for the very first time from later this year. Starring Lucie Jones and Busted’s Matt Willis, the show visits the Regent Theatre in Stokeon-Trent from 29 November to 4 December. It then returns to the region in spring 2022, playing Birmingham Hippodrome from 16 to 21 May, before making a summertime stop-off at the Wolverhampton Grand from 28 June to 2 July. Based on the 2007 movie, Waitress tells the story of Jenna, an expert pie maker in a small town who dreams of finding a way out of her loveless marriage... More information about the show can be found on each theatre’s website.

New Vic reveals summerseason presentations

An Anglo-Saxon mystery and a classic family tale form part of the summer-season line-up recently announced by Newcastle-underLyme’s New Vic Theatre. Hoard: Rediscovered is a digitally reimagined work which delves into the story of the Staffordshire Hoard. Showing from Thursday 10 to Saturday 19 June, the presentation features New Vic Artistic Director Theresa Heskins’ documentary-drama, Unearthed, and a selection of mini-plays directed by Gemma Fairlie. The following month sees the venue presenting Coppelia: A Mystery - a show inviting families to discover ‘the curious secrets of Doctor Coppelius’ toyshop’. The production runs from Mon 19 July to Saturday 7 August... To book tickets, visit newvictheatre.org.uk

Drive-in movies in summer return to Tamworth Castle

Tamworth Castle will once again be hosting drive-in movie events in its grounds this summer. Iconic ’80s film Back To The Future, starring Michael J Fox, will be screened on Friday 6 August, with Steven Spielberg’s 1970s classic, Jaws, being shown the following night. Both movies will start at 9pm, weather permitting.

Flat caps and flapper dresses at the ready...

Flat caps and flapper dresses at the ready - Black Country Living Museum's sell-out Peaky Blinders Nights will be making a welcome return in the autumn. The popular event will be back for three consecutive weekends in September, offering fans the chance to walk in the footsteps of the show's iconic characters. Live music, street theatre and Roaring ’20s-themed cocktails also feature. Pre-booking is essential. Keep an eye on the museum's website - bclm.co.uk - and social media for further information nearer the time.

First Word

More to explore at Ironbridge Gorge Museums in 2021

A new outdoor adventure experience is set to delight families visiting Ironbridge Gorge this summer. The Madeley Wood Company Outdoor Adventure attraction - launching in July at Blists Hill Victorian Town - features elevated walkways above a woodland floor, a log-style basket swing, a seesaw and lookout tower with a coal chute slide. Built among trees and inspired by the area’s rich mining past, the attraction will also feature wheelchair-accessible multi-level themed buildings, immersive play areas and a toddler zone with a faux mine-cart track, play buildings, a slide and a miniature zip-line... Summertime visitors to Ironbridge will also be able to check out a selection of new attractions at Enginuity... The popular visitor attraction now features new interactive exhibits that respond to movement, ‘heaps’ of table-top experiments, and a brandnew sensory room themed around the subject of ‘industry’. A storytelling area has also been created, while a new interactive wall will reveal the history and personal stories of some of the people who worked in the Gorge in bygone eras.

Jethro Tull at the Cathedral

Grammy Award-winning rock group Jethro Tull will play Lichfield Cathedral on Tuesday 2 December. The band, whose music is marked by the distinctive vocal style and lead flute work of Ian Anderson, will perform a repertoire of ancient and modern Christmas music. They will be joined for some of the concert by the Cathedral choristers. To book tickets, visit thelittleboxoffice.com

Trentham Estates announces return of its summer concert season

Trentham’s outdoor concert season will be making a welcome return this summer, with gigs taking place on Friday and Saturday nights from 16 July until 21 August. The line-up of tribute acts featured in the 2021 season of shows includes both old favourites and new additions, from ’80s Mania to A Night At The Musicals. To find out who’s appearing and when, visit trentham.co.uk

A Grand reopening

As Wolverhampton’s Grand Theatre prepares to reopen its doors in June after a long hiatus, What’s On talks to Artistic Director Adrian Jackson about the venue’s much-anticipated comeback...

Regional favourite the Grand is back with a bang this June. Kicking off with a series of one-nighters from the likes of Jane McDonald, Francis Rossi and an Elvis tribute, the venue plans to ramp up its programme towards the autumn and beyond... “We’re starting small with some onenighters,” says Artistic Director Adrian Jackson. “Then we have a number of things programmed through August - The Nutcracker with the English Youth Ballet, and the Glenn Miller Orchestra, for example. But we really take off towards the end of September, with School Of Rock opening our autumn season. Everybody’s Talking About Jamie will have its third-time-lucky rescheduled start-date with us in October. From there, we continue to build with Hairspray, Chicago and an amateur production of Oliver!. The musical Grown Ups is running for a week in November - and then we’re pretty much into panto season. The flavour of what we’ve got coming up until Christmas really is amazing.” Adrian and his team are determined that Cinderella will indeed go to the ball this year, the pantomime having been postponed last Christmas: “Panto is the one anchor production for most theatres each year. It really brings the community together, and it’s probably the one show that the entire family comes together each Christmas for. It’s fantastic! It’s the heart of theatre. We’re so, so excited to present it again this year. Having an empty auditorium over the Christmas period last year was shocking for us. It was the most alien feeling - and probably my first Christmas off ever! It just didn’t feel right for many in our industry. Every theatre in the land relies on panto, both for audiences and for a lot of revenue generation. A very important part of being able to fund a theatre isn’t just the ticket sales; it’s the bar and

merchandise sales, too. That’s something you can’t get from the digital programmes we’ve been seeing over the lockdowns.” That opportunity to pursue the digital side of the arts has, however, been an important lifeline for the venue over this period. Just in April, they launched a new vodcast, Bully And Johnny’s Grand Wolves Show, hosted by Wolverhampton Wanderers footballing legend Steve Bull and TV presenter Johnny Phillips. “This is an initiative devised by our team at the Grand to enable us to stay connected to our audiences,” Adrian explains. “We want to show off the Grand, but do it in a very different way. Steve Bull has been very heavily involved, and we’ve been interviewing folk from football and various other backgrounds, such as Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant. It’s a very informal, relaxed armchair chat with these people. This is something we’ve never done before, and as creative people we’re constantly looking for different ways to connect with our audiences. We’ve been so generously awarded a couple of grants from the Cultural Recovery Fund, and that’s really helped us here. “We will have been closed 16 months when we get going again, and that time has been a great strain. It isn’t as if you just close up and have no outgoings either. We still had to sell tickets for 2021 and ’22, so we needed staff but had no income for the theatre. One of the most important things at the moment is to support freelancers, staff and artists, who all of a sudden found themselves with no work and little support. We’ve been able to keep a few people’s livelihoods going with these programmes, which is incredibly important. Despite digital success, the Grand values live performances and events above all else. “Digital is definitely something that we will keep reviewing and doing in some form,” says Adrian. “What I won’t do, though, is stream or make digital any performances we do on the stage. The whole point of a theatre is that live experience. What we don’t want and I think this would be very detrimental to individuals and the industry - is for people to sit at home and think they can go to the theatre, or a concert, or a comedy club. We need to get people actually back into these live venues. However, offering other things online that we wouldn’t ordinarily do at the theatre is a great opportunity to expand. It’s putting a new dynamic and strand into the theatre that is very clearly quite popular, but nothing will ever replace live performance in my eyes. “The pandemic made us realise just how important live entertainment is to the community. We’ve had such incredible letters and messages from our audience during our closure. That hunger to come back through our doors and for cultural enrichment is stronger than ever now. Seeing people’s reactions to productions and entertaining our public again is going to be amazing. I feel like people come to the theatre at the start of the evening with the world on their shoulders, and they leave completely elated. They’ve been taken to a new place and have smiles all over their faces. That’s the rewarding thing about what we do. I can’t wait to welcome our customers back and see their joy. Digital will remain on the backburner as an extra.”

The Grand’s work within the local community will also relaunch again soon, as Adrian explains: “We’re a charity at heart, so community enrichment and education are our aims. We were determined that the charitable side of the organisation would continue, and we managed to keep that going in one form or another during the closure period. We had a massive response to our Memory Cafes, because the difference it makes is immense. It gives second-to-none escapism for those with dementia and their families. We’re restarting the live versions as soon as we can. Our whole programme of community-focused work is so important to the Grand. It’s not just about what goes onstage, it’s all of the things that sit behind the scenes. Even with every major show we do, there’s usually an education programme sitting behind it. Whether that’s a Q&A with the cast at the end of one performance or maybe a workshop, there’s always something we do that gives any production an education or community-focused twist. It’s not always just about what plays on stage. “We’re also doing a lot of work with our Ambassador Groups. Two years ago, Associate Director Vicky Price set up a group of ambassadors from our South Asian community, who’ve really helped us diversify our audiences and reach out to other parts of the community that we hadn’t managed to before. Now we’re about to form a new group of ambassadors. We want everyone from Wolverhampton and beyond to be able to experience the thrill of the Grand. This is their theatre. It’s up to us to ensure that it’s accessible to them.”

With the arts getting back in the groove, what plans does Adrian have for the future of the Grand?

“Before this all happened, we were very much focusing on producing our own shows, as well as having bigger tours and outside companies come in. Diversifying is also central to our plans. We’re looking to expand the Grand into the adjacent building, to give us a whole new creative approach. A second performance space would allow us to do different types of work, to encourage new writers and other creatives from the community to come forward. We’re looking to engage with a wider culture and community. The beauty of being creative is you don’t know what’s going to happen. Things change and evolve as you move forward. You respond to your audience and you respond to the world around you - and both of those are constantly changing. “I think the one thing that’s been so evident through this horrid period is how much the Grand is loved by everybody. It’s an institution that belongs to the people and is so close to their hearts. That came through loud and clear with all the support we’ve received - from staff and patrons, right through to our local MP. It really is a jewel in the crown and a huge part of Wolverhampton’s history. After all, we’re 127 years old in 2021! The outpouring of love we’ve had from the community is just incredible. Long may it continue.”

For further information on forthcoming shows, visit: grandtheatre.co.uk