Spring Summer Season
Theatre Royal Brighton
Theatre Royal Brighton’s new What’s On Guide is out now! Packed with top quality entertainment, there’s a fabulous choice of shows from dazzling musicals to gripping dramas, dance and comedy. With something for all ages and artistic tastes, audiences will be spoilt for choice.
Drama highlights include Private Lives,starring Patricia Hodge and Nigel Havers, Sheila’s Island,a sharp-witted new comedy from Tim Firth (Calendar Girls) and The Rise and Fall of Little Voice starring Christina Bianco, Shobna Gulati and Ian Kelsey allin April.In May, Harold Pinter’s The Homecoming arrives on stage, starring Mathew Horne, Keith Allen and Ian Bartholomew. June brings brand new comedy thriller, CLUEDO from the director of The Play That Goes Wrong, starring Michelle Collins.
Musical Theatre fans will delight in the return of SIX, which wowed audiences last summer, and first visits from London’s smash hit musical comedy Waitress, The Osmonds: A New Musical and The Cher Show, which promises to be a dazzling glitter-fest of flamboyant glory.
PRIVATE LIVES
TUE 12 – SAT 16 APRIL
Noël Coward’s gloriously entertaining Private Lives is the inaugural show from The Nigel Havers Theatre Company. Elyot and Amanda, who were once married, find themselves on honeymoon with their new partners, in the same hotel on the French Riviera, admiring the view from adjoining balconies. Their initial horror quickly evaporates and soon they are sharing cocktails. Who knows what the future holds for them now… Olivier Award-winning actress Patricia Hodge plays Amanda. Nigel Havers, ever suave and thoroughly charming, plays Elyot, the role taken by Noël Coward himself in the original production in 1930.
SHEILA’S ISLAND
TUE 19 – SAT 23 APRIL
Sheila’s Island is a sparkling, sharp-witted new comedy from writer Tim Firth (Calendar Girls), starring Olivier Award winner Sara Crowe (Private Lives), Judy Flynn (Dinnerladies), Abigail Thaw (Endeavour) and Rina Fatania (The Empress). Sheila, Denise, Julie and Fay are Team C in Pennine Mineral Water Ltd.’s annual team-building weekend. Somehow, Sheila has been nominated team leader and has unwittingly stranded her team on an island in the Lake District. Can Sheila keep tempers from fraying, nails from breaking and get her band of top-level executives safely back to shore?
THE RISE AND FALL OF LITTLE VOICE
MON 25 – SAT 30 APRIL
TheOlivier Award-winning comedy-drama, The Rise and Fall of Little Voice by Jim Cartwright, stars TV favourite Shobna Gulati (Coronation Street, Dinnerladies), British soap royalty Ian Kelsey (Emmerdale, Casualty) and ‘the girl of a thousand voices’ Christina Bianco, as Little Voice. Featuring music from Judy Garland, Shirley Bassey, Billie Holliday and many more, this life-affirming production will rouse even the weariest of souls.
THE HOMECOMING
MON 2 – SAT 7 MAY
Harold Pinter’s 1960s masterpiece The Homecoming is widely regarded as his finest play. This bleakly funny exploration of family and relationships has become a modern classic and winner of the Tony Award for Best New Play. Stars Mathew Horne (Gavin and Stacey), Keith Allen (The Young Ones) and Ian Bartholomew (Coronation Street).
BRIGHTON FESTIVAL
THE PATIENT GLORIA – WED 11 – SAT 14 MAY
A punky mash-up of re-enactment, actual footage and lived experience, The Patient Gloria is a gloriously ballsy meditation on therapy, misogyny and female desire.
WUTHERING HEIGHTS – TUE 17 – SAT 21 MAY
Emily Brontë’s masterpiece is transformed into a powerful, uniquely theatrical and musical experience, with Emma Rice’s trademark playfulness. Lucy McCormick (Post Popular) and Liam Tamne (The Prince of Egypt, Doctors) lead the company.
CIRCA SACRE MON 23 – SAT 28 MAY
Ten acrobats from the exhilarating Circa ensemble bring Stravinksy’s seminal The Rite of Spring to the circus stage.
RAMBERT
TUE 31 MAY – WED 1 JUN
An evening with Rambert is always exhilarating, entertaining and thought provoking. Their brilliant and daring dancers want to invite you to change how you see the world through three very different short pieces that connect directly with the audience.
CLUEDO – A NEW PLAY
THU & SAT MATS 2.30PM
Starring Michelle Collins (Eastenders, Coronation Street) as Miss Scarlett, and Daniel Casey (Midsummer Murders) as Professor Plum. CLUEDO is an exciting, comedy thriller based on the hit 1985 film CLUE and the classic board game loved by generations. Directed by Mark Bell, director of the award winning The Play That Goes Wrong and A Comedy About A Bank Robbery. Just like the game, this brand new play promises a nostalgic, fun and thrilling evening of entertainment.
OTI MABUSE – I AM HERE
FRI 8 & SAT 9 JULY
Prepare for a night of electrifying choreography as Strictly Come Dancing and The Greatest Dancer star Oti is joined by some of the world’s greatest dancers and the West End’s finest singers and musicians.
WAITRESS
MON 11 – SAT 16 JULY
Meet Jenna, a waitress and expert pie-maker who dreams of some happiness in her life. When a hot new doctor arrives in town, life gets complicated! Starring Chelsea Halfpenny (9 to 5, BBC’s Casualty, ITV’s Emmerdale) and David Hunter (Kinky Boots, Once).
SIX
MON 19 – SAT 23 JULY
From Tudor Queens to Pop Princesses, the six wives of Henry VIII take to the mic to tell their tales, remixing five hundred years of historical heartbreak into an 80-minute celebration of 21st century girl power. These Queens may have green sleeves but their lipstick is rebellious red. Multi award-winning, with a spectacularly successful sound-track storming charts across the globe, this sell-out Tudor take-off is “pure entertainment” (The New York Times).
PEPPA PIG BEST DAY EVER!
TUE 26 & WED 27 JULY
Peppa Pig is excited to be going on a special day out with George, Mummy Pig and Daddy Pig. Packed full of songs, games and laughter – it’s going to be her best day ever!
THE BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL
TUE 20 – SAT 24 SEP
Based on the Sunday Times bestseller which inspired one of this century’s most treasured films, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel takes us on a journey to India with an eclectic group of British retirees as they embark on a new life. The luxury residence is far from the opulence they were promised, but as their lives begin to intertwine and they embrace the vibrancy of modern-day India, they are charmed in unexpected and life-changing ways. The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is a joyous comedy about taking risks, finding love and embracing second chances, even in the most surprising of places.
THE OSMONDS: A NEW MUSICAL
TUE 27 SEPT – SAT 1 OCT
Directed by Shaun Kerrison and choreographed by Olivier Award-winning Bill Deamer, The Osmonds: A New Musical tells the official story from Jay Osmond about the five brothers from Utah who were pushed into the spotlight as children and went on to create smash hits decade after decade, as one the world’s biggest ever boybands.
NOISES OFF
TUE 18 – SAT 22 OCT
One of the greatest British comedies ever written, starring one of our best-loved stage and screen stars, Felicity Kendal. Michael Frayn’s celebrated play serves up a riotous double bill – a play within a play. Hurtling along at breakneck speed, Noises Off follows the on and offstage antics of a touring theatre company as they stumble their way through the fictional farce, Nothing On.
THE MOUSETRAP
MON 24 – SAT 29 OCT
Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap is the world’s longest-running play. This thrilling West End production is THE genre-defining murder mystery from the best-selling novelist of all time… case closed! For almost 70 years, The Mousetrap has kept millions of people from every corner of the globe on the edge of their seats. COULD YOU BE NEXT?
THE CHER SHOW
TUE 1 – SAT 12 NOV
The Cher Show tells the incredible story of Cher’s meteoric rise to fame, flying in the face of convention at every turn. This HUGE new production features a fresh take on her show-stopping costumes which earned her the title of “the ruler of outré reinvention” (VOGUE). Three West End stars play Cher as we span her iconic career: Millie O’Connell (SIX, RENT) as BABE, Danielle Steers(Bat Out of Hell, SIX) as LADY and the Olivier Award nominated Debbie Kurup (Prince of Egypt, The Bodyguard) as the ultimate diva, STAR.
AN INSPECTOR CALLS
TUE 15 – SAT 19 NOV
Stephen Daldry’s multi award-winning National Theatre production of JB Priestley’s classic thriller returns. Hailed as the theatrical event of its generation, winning more awards than any other production in history, An Inspector Calls has thrilled more than four million people worldwide.