West End Stars Kieran Brown Lauren Samuels and Siobhan Dillon, patrons of the Birmingham Institute of Theatre Arts, are gearing up to support the part-time performing arts school as they stage Jason Robert Brown’s teen rock musical, ‘13’ at Redditch Palace Theatre in September.

With student’s aged 11-19, BITA has been rehearsing for months alongside its usual term time classes to bring this funny and moving musical to life. The musical, complete with live on-stage band runs from 8 - 10 September.

Kieran Brown (Phantom of the Opera, Wicked) said: "I'm hugely excited for the first BITA production, "13"! I've seen first hand how hard everyone has worked and continue to be blown away by the talent, commitment and passion from everyone involved. I'm sure this will be just the first of many unmissable shows, and wish everyone the very best. The audiences are in for something very special!"

Lauren Samuels (BBC’s Over The Rainbow, Bend It Like Beckham) said: “It's rare to see such exceptional talent from children, I feel privileged to have seen them perform a section from their new show '13' and trust me, you don't want to miss this!”

Chris Passey, Principal of BITA said: “Our students work so hard to realise their full potential, training with us alongside their full-time education. The voices you will hear in this production are incredible and we are all very proud of them.”

Tickets can be purchased from the box office, by calling 01527 65203 or online via www.birminghamita.org.uk.

​Tickets £15.00* & £13.50* (disc) *inclusive of booking fee £1 per ticket up to a maximum of £4.

Following their hugely successful 2015 production of White Christmas, South Staffs Musical Theatre Company return to Wolverhampton Grand Theatre to present their new production of 9 to 5 The Musical from Tuesday 11 – Sat 15 October.

Outrageous, thought provoking and even a little romantic, 9 to 5 The Musical is about teaming up and taking care of business. The musical is based on the hit 1980 movie that centres on three office workers who turn the tables on their sexist boss, featuring original numbers from Dolly Parton's Oscar, Tony® and Grammy Award nominated score including  the original hit song 9 To 5.
 
Pushed to the boiling point, co-workers Violet, Judy and Doralee concoct a plan to get even with the sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot they call their boss, Franklin Hart. In a hilarious turn of events, the girls live out their wildest fantasy - giving their boss the boot! While Hart remains "otherwise engaged," the women give their workplace a dream makeover, taking control of the company that had always kept them down.

Boss Franklin Hart is played by Simon McGee from Gornal who meets his match with Doralee played by Lexie Bennett, Judy - Abbie Rai from Willenhall and Violet played by Maria Shee from Penn in Wolverhampton who is also the choreographer for the production.

Lexie’s sister, Natasha Bennett plays secretary Roz, and the cast also includes Dan Haddon(Joe), Roger Stokes (Tinswothy), James Collins (Dick), Joash Musundi (Dwayne), Dave Ball(Detective), Nikki Rai (Margaret), Jo Davis (Missy), Rachel Coalman (Kathy), Zoe Priestley(Maria) Rosie Harper (Candy Striper) and Abbie Ratcliffe (Doctor). Talented local performers complete the cast’s ensemble. Direction is by Alf Rai and Musical Supervision is by Rob Murray.

South Staffs Musical Theatre Company celebrated their 80th anniversary in May 2016. The company was originally formed in 1936 and over the years has presented popular operettas and musical comedy to audiences in Wolverhampton every since. The company perform every year at the Grand Theatre giving everyday people a taste of life performing in a professional theatre.

Chair of South Staffs Musical Theatre Company, Alison Norton said; “We are extremely excited and proud to present this Broadway smash hit musical.  9 To 5 has all the right elements to delight our audiences – great songs, hilarious comedy and characters which we can all relate to.  The ladies in the audience will be cheering the girls on and the gents will love them for their sassy attitude and glamour.  It is such an uplifting show with just the right amount of madness and mayhem, as well as promoting girl power!”
 
9 to 5 The Musical opens on Tuesday 11 October and plays at the Grand Theatre until Saturday 15. Tickets are available by calling the Box Office on 01902 42 92 12 or online at grandtheatre.co.uk.

BBC Cuff’s Jacob Ifan will make his professional theatrical debut in a new adaptation of Charles Dickens’, A Tale of Two Cities at Wolverhampton Grand Theatre from Wednesday 19 – Saturday 22 October 2016.

Jacob, who trained at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama will play Charles Darnay. He is best known for playing the lead role of PC Jake Vickers on the BBC’s recent TV series Cuffs. 
 
Joining Jacob is Joseph Timms as Sydney Carton, whose credits include Twelfth Night and Richard III (Donmar on Broadway), Privates on Parade (Noel Coward Theatre) and The Hudsucker Proxy (Nuffield/Liverpool Everyman).
 
Shanaya Rafaat who has appeared in Great Expectations (West Yorkshire Playhouse), Around the World in 80 Days (St James Theatre) and King Lear (Shakespeare’s Globe), will play Lucie Manette and Sue Wallace, whose National Theatre credits include Husbands and Sons,  Emil and the Detectives and Alan Bennett’s Untold Stories, takes the role of Miss Pross. Patrick Romer, who has numerous RSC credits to his name, plays Dr Manette.
 
Harry Attwell, whose credits include The Skriker (Royal Exchange Theatre), The Crucible (Old Vic) and Henry V (Michael Grandage Company) will play Defarge and Noa Bodner, whose credits include Testing the Echo/Moving Stories (National Theatre) and Playing for Time (Sheffield Crucible), will play Madame Defarge. Michael Garner, fresh from Nell Gwynn in the West End, appears as Lorry.
 
Sean Murray (The Hook and Cat on at Hot Tin Roof, Royal & Derngate) plays Barsad and Christopher Hunter (The Surprise of Love and Iphigenia, Theatre Royal Bath; Romeo and Juliet, RSC) will be the Marquis. The cast is completed by Rebecca Birch, Jonathan Dryden Taylor and Jon Tarcy.
 
Dickens considered his novel, A Tale Of Two Cities the best story he had ever written. Interweaving one family’s intensely personal drama with the terror and chaos of the French Revolution, it is an epic story of love, sacrifice and redemption amidst horrific violence and world changing events.

A Tale of Two Cities was first produced in Northampton in 2014, to great critical and public acclaim, and was director James Dacre’s inaugural production at the theatre. Adapted by Mike Poulton (Fortune’s Fool, Old Vic and Broadway, Wolf Hall RSC, West End & Broadway), and with an original score by Oscar-winning composer Rachel Portman (The Cider House Rules, Beloved), and UK Theatre Award nominated design by Mike Britton, with lighting design by Paul Keogan, sound design by Adrienne Quartly, movement direction by Struan Leslie, and fight direction by Terry King.
 
Director James Dacre said:
"Dickens wrote A Tale of Two Cities in 1859 as a meditation on politics and power, the individual versus the system and the private versus the public. Mike Poulton, Rachel Portman and I first mounted this adaptation in the aftermath of the Arab Spring to cast a light on the protests, fanaticism and political unrest that were spreading across the world at that time.
 
Our decision along with Jenny King, Producer of The Touring Consortium, to revisit the production during this year of elections, referendums and revolutions across the world is motivated by a shared belief that great historical dramas can play an important role in contemporary political conversations by emotionally engaging audiences in human stories, countering the disaffection that seems to dominate so much of today's political debate. Theatre and music can be imbued with a passion that a novel cannot capture and Royal & Derngate and Touring Consortium’s A Tale of Two Cities aims to focus on the humanity of Dickens’ novel in a way that gives the historical events an immediacy and urgent relevance for today’s audiences.”  
 
Created by producer Jenny King, The Touring Consortium Theatre Company is celebrating their 20th anniversary this year having produced the highly successful Of Mice and Men earlier in the year.
 
Jenny King said, “The company was created in 1996 in response to a need expressed by chief executives of several of the UKs leading touring venues for quality text based drama that reached out to new, young audiences as well as sustaining the interest of core theatre goers. Since its creation we have produced over 25 productions and played to over a million people, involving some 25,000 young people in our workshops and creative learning programmes.”

A Tale of Two Cities will play at at Wolverhampton Grand from Wednesday 19 – Saturday 22 October 2016, tickets are on sale now from the box office, by calling 01902 42 92 12 or online at grandtheatre.co.uk.

Twenty-four ‘extras’ from across the Midlands are taking part in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s current production of King Lear, which features Antony Sher in the title role, and is directed by RSC Artistic Director, Gregory Doran. The extras appear on stage in a number of scenes as Lear’s knights, soldiers and vagrants, in a production that runs until 12 October in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon.

Back in June the RSC put out a call asking for people to get involved in the production.  A number of ‘taster’ workshops took place, involving movement, acting, singing and fight sessions, to give those interested a glimpse of what the experience would entail.  From the 140 people who applied, twenty-four will now get to tread the stage of the world-famous theatre, appearing in alternate performances in two groups of twelve.

Gregory Doran, RSC Artistic Director, and director of King Lear, said:
“Lear often refers to his ‘one hundred knights’ but rarely do we get to see full their riotous presence on stage. We wanted the audience to experience what his daughter Goneril has to go through when entertaining his ‘insolent retinue’ and maybe understand why she would want to cast him and his people out into the storm. It felt like a wonderful opportunity to engage with the local community, as we did back in 2012 with Julius Caesar with great success, to bring to life these ‘debauched and bold’ knights. It is going to be very exciting to watch our supporting cast of twenty-four Midlanders bring a new energy and life to one of Shakespeare’s most celebrated plays.”

Those taking part include a local government officer from Birmingham; a warehouse logistics officer in Atherstone; a Customer Services advisor for Royal Mail from Kenilworth; a school groundsman from Solihull; and a rowing coach from Stratford-upon-Avon.

In order to understand more about the way in which the RSC mounts a production, the extras have been spending time with members of the King Lear creative team, including Anna Girvan (Assistant Director), Bret Yount (Fight Director) and Michael Ashcroft (Movement Director).

For more information and to book tickets visit rsc.org.uk.

LGYT are set to present another Lichfield premiere with Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical masterpiece, Sunset Boulevard, this October.

Based on the Billy Wilder film, the musical version of Sunset Boulevard, with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Christopher Hampton and Don Black, had its world premiere at London’s Adelphi Theatre on July 12, 1993.

The show received its American premiere on 9 December 1993 at the Shubert Theatre in Los Angeles. The LA production starred Glenn Close (Norma Desmond), Alan Campbell (Joe Gillis), Judy Kuhn (Betty Schaefer) and George Hearn (Max von Mayerling), with Close, Campbell and Hearn going on to recreate their roles for the show’s 1994 Broadway opening at the Minskoff Theatre on 17 November 1994 – they were also joined by Alice Ripley as Betty Schaefer. That production opened with the highest advance in Broadway history at the time ($37.5 million in ticket sales).

Sunset Boulevard weaves a magnificent tale of faded glory and unfulfilled ambition. Silent movie star Norma Desmond longs for a return to the big screen, having been discarded by tinsel town with the advent of “talkies.” Her glamour has faded in all but her mind. When she meets struggling Hollywood screen-writer Joe Gillis in dramatic circumstances, their subsequent passionate and volatile relationship leads to an unforeseen and tragic conclusion.
​
Ex-Youth Theatre members Siobhan Dillon and Katie Kerr have recently completed a run in the West End revival by the English National Opera at the London Coliseum which saw movie star Glenn Close return to the role of Norma Desmond, Siobhan played the leads love interest Betty and Katie was a featured performer in the ENO company.
 
Our cast of over 40 will be supported by the usual high standard LGYT orchestra conducted and musically directed by Oliver Rowe, with Direction from Richard Poynton and Choreography by Jessica Lambert.
 
The show runs from Tuesday 4 October until Saturday 8 October. Book online now at www.lichfieldyouththeatre.co.uk or by calling the box office daily from 11am on 01543412121.

​Demand for this Lichfield Premier production are expected to be high, so book early to avoid disappointment. Discounted tickets are available for the Tuesday and Wednesday performances.

Sutton Coldfield’s award-winning company Trinity Players are preparing to walk a little on the wild side for their next production. The Players are busy rehearsing The Wind in the Willows ready for opening night in September.

The Alan Bennett play based on Kenneth Grahame’s children’s classic is a new challenge for the company who celebrated their 40 year anniversary in 2015.

The story follows friends Ratty, Mole and Badger as they endeavour to stop the inimitable Mr Toad from getting in to trouble. However, Toad’s love of motorcars and being in the limelight, coupled with his determination to do everything his own way makes their task a tough one. First performed at the National Theatre in 1990 this adaptation is a delight for audiences of all ages; a beautiful children’s story told with Bennett’s wry humour.

Although the story of Mr Toad is well known however, Trinity Players were keen to put their own spin on it, as director, Jennifer Mears explains: “Alan Bennett’s script focuses on the wonderful characters and their quirky personality traits rather than any animalistic qualities. We made the decision early on to stage the production without any animal masks, face paints and fluffy tales; but to rely on bringing out these characters instead. The cast have been working extremely hard to create the world of the riverbank, making it accessible for modern audiences. 

This really is a production that the whole family can enjoy – the perfect treat to look forward to once the new school term has started!”

The Wind in The Willows runs at Sutton Arts Theatre from 20 – 24 September. Tickets are £10 (£9 matinee concessions) and are available via www.trinityplayers.com or 07843 928830.

Don’t miss X-Factor’s Rhydian in the charming, kooky and hilarious 1950s musical, Little Shop of Horrors at the Lichfield Garrick this September

Rhydian, who rose to fame as a runaway success on ITV’s X Factor, will play the Dentist in the Sell a Door Theatre Company’s production at the city centre theatre from 20 to 24 September. 

The hit musical comedy tells the story of Seymour Krelborn, the assistant at Mushnik’s Flower Shop in downtrodden Skid Row, becomes an overnight sensation when he discovers a strange and exotic plant. He names it Audrey Two in order to impress glamorous Audrey, the colleague he’s secretly in love with. 

Audrey Two quickly starts to wilt, putting Seymour’s job and dream future with Audrey at risk. Accidentally pricking his finger, Seymour discovers Audrey Two needs a little more than plant food to thrive. The plant grows into a bad-tempered, foul-mouthed carnivore whose voracious appetite becomes increasingly difficult to satisfy.

With music by the legendary Alan Menken, best known for his numerous Walt Disney film scores, Little Shop of Horrors is a cult film and one of the longest running off-Broadway shows of all time.

Sell a Door Theatre Company have previously toured critically acclaimed productions of Avenue Q, The History Boys, American Idiot and Seussical the Musical.

Little Shop of Horrors runs at the Lichfield Garrick from Tuesday 20 to Saturday 24 September with a variety of evening and matinee performances.
 
Tickets cost £15 to £28.50, and can be booked online at www.lichfieldgarrick.com or by calling Lichfield Garrick’s Box Office on 01543 412121.

TV and West End star Wendi Peters, much loved for her acclaimed portrayal of Cilla Battersby-Brown in Coronation Street, will headline the upcoming 2017 UK tour of Wonderland as Queen of Hearts alongside musical theatre favourite Dave Willetts, who has previously starred in tours of South Pacific,42nd Street and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, as White Rabbit.

West End and Broadway leading lady Kerry Ellis, best known for playing Elphaba in the West End and Broadway productions of Wicked, will guest star as Alice.

Completing the principal cast are Stephen Webb as Jack / White Knight, Natalie McQueen as Mad Hatter, Kayi Ushe as Caterpillar, Dominic Owen as Cheshire Cat,Ben Kerr as March Hare and Carolyn Maitland as Alternate Alice / Mad Hatter. They are joined by an ensemble comprising Sharif Afifi, Toyan Thomas Browne, Divine Cresswell, Jessica Croll, Francesca Lara Gordon, Benjamin McMillan, Bree Smith, Benjamin Yates and swings Lewis Easter and Collette Guitart.

Following sold out seasons in Tampa, Texas and Tokyo, the multi Grammy, Tony and Drama Desk Award nominated Frank Wildhorn’s Wonderland comes to the New Alexandra Theatre from Monday 6 to Saturday 11 February 2017.

In addition to the previously announced dates, the inaugural UK tour of Wonderland has added Swansea and Bournemouth to its nationwide schedule, both of which will be on sale soon.

Hailed by the New York Times as “inspirational”, Wonderland is an enchanting musical adaption of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, with a huge heart, a medley of magic and a whole lot of wonder. Here a timely and touching story of love in all its forms, it’s an adventurous exploration of who we are, who we want to be and the power of everyday magic in our lives.

In the tradition of the best stage musicals,Wonderland boasts a catchy score full of songs from Frank Wildhorn, writer of pop hits including Whitney Houston’s ‘Where Do Broken Hearts Go?’ and theatre classics including ‘This is the Moment’ from his internationally acclaimed show,Jekyll & Hyde.

Wendi Peters has worked extensively on both stage and screen, but it was the iconic role of Cilla in Coronation Street which truly made her a household name. Her appearance led to her being asked on numerous TV programmes such as Celebrity Sewing Bee for Children In Need,Celebrity Mastermind, The F Word with Gordon Ramsay and Celebrity Masterchef,where she reached the finals. Wendi currently plays regular character Cook Jenkins in BBC's Hetty Feather. Alongside her screen work, Wendi is in much demand as a stage actress with recent credits including Hatched ’n’ Dispatched (Park Theatre), Oh What a Lovely War! (UK Tour) and White Christmas (Dominion Theatre).

Dave Willetts is one of the UK’s foremost musical theatre stars having played numerous leading roles including Jean Valjean in Les Misérables (London and Australia), Phantom inThe Phantom of the Opera (London and Manchester), for which he won the Manchester Evening News Award for Best Performance, Old Deuteronomy in Cats (London), the title roles in Jesus Christ Superstar (London and Europe), Sweeney Todd (UK Tour) and Sundayin the Park with George (UK Tour), Max Von Mayerling in Sunset Boulevard (London), and Adam Pontipee in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Emile de Becque in South Pacific, Julian Marsh in 42nd Street and Professor Callaghan inLegally Blonde (all UK Tours). Dave has also made many international concert appearances, including performances at the concert halls of Monterey, Mexico City, Los Angeles, Rotterdam, Munich as well as the Royal Albert Hall.

His latest album, Once in a Lifetime, celebrates 25 years in show business.

Kerry Ellis is the leading lady of her generation. Her extensive theatre credits include Grizabella in Cats, Nancy in Oliver!, Fantine inLes Misérables, Ellen in Miss Saigon, Meatloaf in the original cast of We Will Rock You and Eliza Dolittle in My Fair Lady, as well as Svetlana in Chess in concert at the Royal Albert Hall alongside Josh Groban and Idina Menzel.

As well as her theatre career, Kerry performed her own solo tour around the UK culminating in a sell-out performance at the London Palladium and the release of her own self-titled album. She also continues to tour and perform all over the globe with her long time writing and performing partner Queen’s Brian May. The pair are due to release a new album early next year.

Produced by Neil Eckersley, Wonderland has music by Frank Wildhorn, lyrics by Jack Murphy, book by Jack Murphy and Gregory Boyd with UK adaptation by Ava Eldred. It is directed by Lotte Wakeham (Associate Director of Matilda, West End & Broadway), with musical supervision by Jason Howland (Beautiful, West End & Broadway), choreography by Lucie Pankhurst (Dogfight at the Southwark Playhouse), set design by Andrew Riley (Songs for a New World at the St James and Flight at Opera Holland Park), costume design by Grace Smart (2015 Linbury Prize winner) and lighting design by Tony Award nominee Nick Richings (current UK tours of Priscilla Queen of the Desert & The Rocky Horror Show).

For more information and to book tickets visit atgtickets.com/birmingham.

Belgrade Theatre’s brand new production of Roll Over Beethoven, an original British rock ‘n’ roll musical, is set to arrive on the Main Stage from 3 – 17 September 2016.
  
Roll Over Beethoven is a fun, high-energy new musical that tells the story of how dreary, post-war England was transformed forever by American Rock ‘n’ Roll. Bringing a blaze of neon colour to the monochrome streets of blighty, this thrilling new juke-box musical is the latest in a series of smash-hit productions by Writer/Director Bob Eaton, best known to Coventry audiences for scoring a hit with Three Minute Heroes back in 2014.
 
Relocating Shakespeare’s classic tale of adolescent angst, teenage rebellion, family feuds and the ghosts of generations’ past to Britain in the late 1950s, Roll Over Beethoven is, at once, a playful and highly entertaining tribute to a defining moment in UK music history, the birth of Rock ‘n’ Roll.
 
Writer/Director Bob Eaton said:
"My idea was always to tell the story of the coming of Rock ‘n’ Roll to the UK and how the music gave an energy to the rebellion of youth against the old, grey, black and white world of 1950s austerity England. The play takes place in 1956 against the backdrop of a typical, English suburban town, 1956, in my mind, being the crucial year when rock ‘n’ roll first exploded onto the scene in this country and, incidentally, the year in which ‘Roll Over Beethoven’ by Chuck Berry was first released. This was a whole generation before The Beatles, before the whole British invasion even took place. These were the original young ones, trail blazers who took the music that was setting America alive across the waters and made it their own!"
 
This feel-good musical-drama features a talented cast of actor-musicians including West End actor Michael Fletcher in the role of Johnny Hamlet, best known to TV audiences for reaching the final 20 in ITV’s Superstar, a nationwide search to find an actor to play Jesus in a UK wide arena tour of Andrew Lloyd Webber's hit musical Jesus Christ Superstar.
 
He will be joined by Chloe Edwards-Wood as Ophelia, Niall Kerrigan as Waltzer, Oliver Beamish as Claud, Al Twist as Ronny Rozencrantz and The Vicar, Matt Devitt as The Ghost, Georgina Field as Gertie, Steve Marwick as Henry Polonius, Adam Langstaff as Guy Guildenstern and Horace and Joe Eaton-Kent as Larry, who was last seen at the Belgrade starring in Bob Eaton’s smash-hit 2014 production of Three Minute Heroes.
 
Having begun his career as a Director, Writer and Actor back in 1971, Bob’s incredible career in theatre has seen him direct more than eighty professional productions in English regional theatre, London, New York, Dublin and Hong Kong as well as writing or co-writing over twenty plays, musicals and musical adaptations. As a former Artistic Director of The Everyman Theatre, Liverpool, The London Bubble and The Belgrade Theatre between 1995 and 2003, Bob’s life-long passion for bringing popular music and theatre together has inspired many a smash-hit production including the Olivier award-nominated Lennon,first produced at the Liverpool Everyman in 1981, Our Day Out – The Musical with Willy Russell and the hugely popular 2-Tone musical Three Minute Heroes which premiered at the Belgrade Theatre in 2000 starring Tupele Dorgu and was later revived in 2014 to great critical and audience acclaim.
 
The production will run for two weeks on the Belgrade Main Stage from Sat 3 – Sat 17 Sept. Tickets for Roll Over Beethoven are priced from £19 - £27 with concessions available.

A brand new production of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest launches Birmingham Repertory Theatre’s exciting 2016 Autumn season.
 
The Importance of Being Earnest, which will run from 9-24 September, provides audiences with the chance to see this new production for the first time in Birmingham before completing its run at Leicester Curve from 11-29 October.  
​
The production will star actress Cathy Tyson as the iconic Lady Bracknell. Cathy who has a string of theatre credits to her name including Golden Girls (RSC), The Merchant of Venice (Birmingham Repertory Theatre), and Mum’s the Word, received BAFTA and Golden Globe nominations for her role in the film Mona Lisa which this year celebrates 30 years since its release.
 
Cathy says:  
“Lady Bracknell is so well known. I’ve played Ophelia, I’ve played Cleopatra and lots of other famous characters but people have a really personal view on Lady Bracknell. They quote lines back at you! It’s lovely because it’s theirs as well.”
 
Further cast members include Sharan Phull as repressed romantic Cecily Cardew, Edward Franklin as upper-class playboy Algernon Moncrieff, Fela Lufadejue as the dependable John (Jack) Worthing, Angela Clerkin as the uptight nanny Miss Prism, Dominic Gately as the incorruptible Reverend Chasuble, Darren Bennett as the ever-faithful servants Lane and Merriman and Martha Mackintosh as prim and proper Gwendolen Fairfax.
 
Bachelor Jack Worthing and his best mate Algernon Moncrieff hope to marry society’s most eligible ladies, Gwendolen Fairfax and Cecily Cardew. But the lads’ courtship of the women is far from straight forward. With double identities, handbag mishaps and hostile encounters with the formidable Lady Bracknell, the pair become embroiled in a web of mistaken identities with hilarious consequences.
 
Regarded as one of the finest comedies in the English language, Wilde’s play explodes with his trademark razor-sharp wit and uncovers the hypocrisies of a society where what is seen on the outside is very different to the truth that lies beneath. 
 
The Importance of Being Earnest is directed by Nikolai Foster, Curve’s Artistic Director, who gives Oscar Wilde’s class comedy a stylish, fresh and contemporary spin.
 
Nikolai says: 
"We are delighted that Cathy Tyson is Lady Bracknell.  She is so hugely intelligent, intuitive and imaginative. Those three things brought together with this role will create something incredible.  I first saw Cathy in ‘Band of Gold’ on TV growing up and I still remember very clearly her rawness and visceral attack. I was blown away by her!"
 
The creative team will also include Dougal Irvine as composer, Ben Cracknell as lighting designer, Dan Hoole as sound designer and design by Isla Shaw.

To book, call 0121 236 4455 or visit birmingham-rep.co.uk.