Birmingham Hippodrome Archives

17Oct

By Peter KinnockNo Comments

West Midlands

Moulin Rouge – Birmingham Hippodrome

It Does What It Says On The Can-Can! Baz Luhrmann’s deft capacity to envision new worlds in new ways through new eyes has placed him at the peak of Hollywood artistry. Not only his ability to find, fashion and formulate dazzling new images and inspired panoramas but also to deliver something equally as valuable and important, putting the biz in show biz - money! His works tingle with extravagance and shimmer with opulence especially in his 2001 oddity “Moulin Rouge!”, which, though toffing its top hat to history, reinvents, reimagines and reupholstered the lot. It fizzes with unique ideas and iconic vistas which linger long after the final shot has faded into celluloid oblivion coupled with a bubbling, melting pot of eclectic songs and music - little of which is of the period but drawn ...

19Jul

By Peter KinnockNo Comments

West Midlands

Mary Poppins – Birmingham Hippodrome

P.L.Travers, by all accounts, cried at the opening of the Disney adaptation of her famous children’s novel - and not in a nice way. She was a stickler for accuracy and precision and wanted her book recreated almost exactly as she had envisioned it - Disney had other plans. Disney often did. In reinventing her novel (and ignoring Traver’s demands) he gave the world one of its most beloved family films which has woven itself in the DNA of our shared culture for over sixty years. It gave us those indelible Sherman Brothers songs coupled with an endearing, cute plot and one of the worst cockney accents committed to celluloid. So when Cameron Mackintosh landed on the idea of staging the show he not only took on the behemoth of a cultural icon, the might of Disney but, perhaps most intimidatingl...

The Addams Family – Birmingham Hippodrome

13Jul

By Peter KinnockNo Comments

West Midlands

The Addams Family – Birmingham Hippodrome

Photo: Jay Brooks With its familiar theme song (click, click) and enduring characters (click, click) the Addams Family has established its own gruesome niche in the global comedy/horror market (click, click). Since it emerged from the fetid and grim brain of Charles Addams way, way back when horror was in black and white both in film and print and his cartoons adorned the pages of the New Yorker it has, like the many creatures it apes, transformed, transmuted and transmogrified and spawned many and varied offspring. Famously a TV series which evolved from the simmering depths of the ABC network in 1964 (not to be confused with “The Munsters” which sprung from the same gothic horror tropes with a similarity bordering on plagiarism, but shown on an entirely different channel), which then ...

The National Youth Music Theatre leads innovative new Birmingham partnership project alongside ambitious outdoor theatre finale of its 2025 Season

26May

By NewsdeskNo Comments

NEWS

The National Youth Music Theatre leads innovative new Birmingham partnership project alongside ambitious outdoor theatre finale of its 2025 Season

The National Youth Music Theatre (NYMT) proudly announces FairGround, a bold and inclusive arts festival for children and young people from all backgrounds across the whole of Birmingham. Hosted at City Academy, FairGround will offer free creative workshops in partnership with other leading arts organisations and schools in the city. The festival is committed to providing tailored opportunities for participants that reflect the diverse needs and experiences of its participants. Among those opportunities will be specialist drama and music workshops for newly arrived children who attend CORE Hello - a groundbreaking education programme which supports children from around the world to integrate positively into Birmingham schools and the community. FairGround features a series of four creat...

13May

By Peter KinnockNo Comments

West Midlands

Peter Grimes – Birmingham Hippodrome

For many, opera is another country; they do things differently there. Images of armour-clad Rheinmaidens and vain bass baritones with over-inflated girths and egos have permeated popular iconography for decades and not without reasons - in some places those stereotypes have and do exist, but not tonight, not at the WNO. The Welsh National Opera Company is peopled with performers, creatives and technicians clearly with their feet on the ground intent on delivering work which is accessible, engaging and truthful - and a prime example of this is tonight’s offering “Peter Grimes” which, on paper, could read as a dreary, sodden coastal tract but on stage is dances with wit, insight, and perception. The opera, I’m sure I don’t need to remind you, has a libretto by Montagu Slater (a name itsel...

The Marriage of Figaro – Birmingham Hippodrome

9May

By Peter KinnockNo Comments

West Midlands

The Marriage of Figaro – Birmingham Hippodrome

So what have Eddie Murphy and the Welsh National Opera got in common? Give in? I’ll tell you - the famous music at the beginning of his movie “Trading Places” is the overture to The Marriage of Figaro presented tonight by Welsh National Opera. See? We’re all connected in little ways and it only goes to show the manner in which Mozart has permeated our cultural DNA on nearly every level. I’m sure there are many other examples of his music seeping into films, TV and commercials, because they are a) cracking tunes and b) out of copyright. Mozart took up his quill in 1786 to match his music to the words of the eccentric Lorenzo Da Ponte (who himself deserves an opera all about his life) and between them presented a solid gold, 100% perfect classic full of melodies you don’t know you know but y...

17Apr

By Robert BartleyNo Comments

West Midlands

Kinky Boots – Birmingham Hippodrome

Undeniably the best musical ever to be set in Northampton, the story of ‘Kinky Boots’ first came to the nation’s attention back in 2005 in the non-musical film version. Although brilliant, it always felt that this story was born to be brought alive with sequins, sparkles, and as its leading diva describes them, “a gaggle of fabulous Drags”. So just shy of a decade later, Broadway legend Harvey Fierstein and icon of pop Cyndi Lauper got their hands on it, and turned it into the glittering musical that we know and love today. One of the rare examples of a musical adaptation being better than its original source material, the story of the failing shoe factory that turned its fate around by manufacturing outrageous boots for drag queens has seen great success both on Broadway...

27Mar

By Peter KinnockNo Comments

West Midlands

Dragons – Birmingham Hippodrome

Set amidst an effusive of silver piping which wouldn’t look out of place in an industrial park, “Dragons” is a bright, engaging and slightly potty amalgam of dance, movement and physicality which, despite lacking plot, character and much we can get a grip on, proves itself a shining and engaging piece of theatre. South Korean choreographer, Eun-Me Aha, who’s company’s first appearance in the UK this is, presents herself as a book-ended sage opening and closing the show between which six buoyant young dancers carry the bulk of the performance - Gaon Han, Deokyeong Kim, Hyekyoung Kim, Seven Kim, Doohee Lee, Hyeonseo Lee and Yongsik Moon. The energy is palpable and the joy tangible as we are presented with a fluctuating series of vignettes rooted in ancient dance culture but living very much ...

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang – Birmingham Hippodrome

5Mar

By Peter KinnockNo Comments

West Midlands

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang – Birmingham Hippodrome

“Chitty Chitty Bang Bang the Musical” first took off over 34 years after the original film starring the eternal Dick van Dyke was released based on the original book by Fleming, Ian Fleming with malicious additions by a pre-Chocolate Factory Roald Dahl - who else could have invented one of the most terrifying characters in all cinema - the Child Catcher? Though I’m reluctant to place it among the spate of tribute theatre we’ve seen of late (name a favourite film from your childhood/teens and add “the musical” and wait for the tills ching) it does smack of that genre. Nonetheless, though the film is a haphazard sub-Disney confection, it has wormed its way into our collective hearts not least through an endearing and irresistible score from the ever reliable Sherman Brothers. Our fine fou...

Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake – Birmingham Hippodrome

8Feb

By Peter KinnockNo Comments

West Midlands

Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake – Birmingham Hippodrome

This elegant old bird glides into the Hippodrome after swooping across the world for nearly thirty years and proves itself to be in turns vibrant engaging, compelling and comic. Matthew Bourne first envisioned and delivered his barn-storming creation to the world back in 1995 way before most of the cygnets in tonight’s performance were even hatched and it maintains and sustains its artistic integrity, vision and panache without a single feather out of place. Bourne has given the world something stunningly unique and intelligent which remixes the familiar tropes and tunes of the Tchaikovsky ballet rearranges, reimagines and reupholsters them in a breathtakingly new, yet recognisable, manner using the swan imagery as a metaphor for our young princess’s sexual awakening coupled with a thri...