Birmingham Hippodrome Archives

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...

8Jan

By Peter KinnockNo Comments

West Midlands

Peter Pan – Birmingham Hippodrome

Sprinkled with producer, Michael Harrison’s, hallmark pizzazz and glitter, Peter Pan explodes on to the stage of the Birmingham Hippodrome with all the traditional elements of British pantomime deftly blended with a beguiling swathe of new and exciting ideas. Of course, we know the story, of course, we know the characters, of course we know what will happen - but do we? One of the joys of pantomime is its endless ability to subvert the expectation of the audience and deliver something with proud aplomb which says, “You didn’t see that coming, did you?” - and in many cases tonight we didn’t! Another delight of pantomime is catching up with players we see year in year, year out and Matt Slack is the Hippodrome’s go-to chucklemeister with a vast array of comic routines and monologues dutif...

1Jul

By Peter KinnockNo Comments

West Midlands

Hamilton – Birmingham Hippodrome

Battling over who becomes the next American president took place twice last week. Once as two white men - one stumbling inarticulately, the other lying shamelessly - battled on TV, the second as a vibrantly talented and culturally diverse cast of astonishing performers retold the tale of the early days of America and its constitution. The former making me weep for the future of our planet, the latter filling me with hope for the future of our species. “Hamilton” is Lin-Manuel Miranda’s barn-storming, hip-hop, rapping Broadway smash which has enchanted the world for nearly a decade. And though, the rapping occasionally narrows the bandwidth of what is possible in a musical, this is undoubtedly a writer aware of his theatrical heritage. Listen carefully and you’ll hear traces of Gilbert a...

22May

By Peter KinnockNo Comments

West Midlands

Come From Away – Birmingham Hippodrome

I’d never heard of Gander and I probably couldn’t put my finger on Newfoundland without Google Maps but in the week following the 911 in attacks in 2001 38 planes were redirected from their intended destination and landed there instead. 7000 passengers unexpectedly arrived on the island and this is their story. Not the most obvious subject for a musical or is it…? “Come From Away” opened in San Diego in 2015 and, after moving to Broadway, went on to win Best Musical, Best Original Score, Best Book, Best Actress and Best Direction - quite clearly the ideal subject for a musical, then. In the safe hands of composer/lyricist Irene Sankoff and husband, David Hein, both of whom where in New York when the twin Towers fell, “Come From Away” has proved itself a heart-warming and humbling work whic...