INDEX

whatsin a name Roger Clarke looks at his best productions of 2017 More  
hypocrite Roderic Dunnett looks at his best productions of 2017 More  
invincibles Gary Longden looks at his best productions of  2017 More  
aladdin Alison Brinkworth looks at her best productions of 2017 More  
billy elliot Billy Elliot - The Musical, based on the hit film, is on its first national tour More  
cinderella feature Birmingham Royal Ballet's pro-am version of Cinderella has its world premiere at Birmingham Hippodrome More.  
revelations Robert Battle now leads Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, the company that inspired him to dance when he was a small boy, bow-legged and wearing leg braces. He has been talking to Diane Parkes as the company return to Birmingham Hippodrome after six years. More.  
 Roger Clarke explains why he thinks West Side Story is the best musical ever More  
Birmingham Royal Ballet star Iain Mackay talks about the daily slog of four and a half hours intensive work on the long hard road back to fitness after crippling injury in The Nutcracker More  
The Strictly Live Tour 2014 opens again in Birmingham's NIA on January 17 and Behind The Arras has been talking to some of the stars of the smash hit show More  
Birmingham Royal Ballet dancer Ruth Brill talks about choreographing George Gershwin's iconic Rhapsody in Blue for BRB's Evening of Music and Dance at Symphony Hall  More  
Nick Arnold, creator of Horrible Science, tells Diane Parkes how he was a horrible child and has always been fascinated by gore . . . More  
  Welsh National Opera who arrive at Birmingham  Hippodrome on November 12 have 50 ticket every performance at a fiver in their Under 30s scheme aimed at attracting young people to opera More  
Students from Birmingham Conservatoire have been finding out what it takes to play in a professional orchestra with Welsh National Opera More  

After six years as Kelly Crabtree in Coronation Street Tupele Dorgu is going back to school as a working class hairdresser looking to learn about English Literature at lichfield Garrick in Willie Rushton's Educating Rita. More

 
The final touches to the spectacular scenery, last minute adjustments to the lighting and The Phantom of the Opera is ready to go in its eight week run at Birmingham Hippodrome More  
Who is the man behind those words in the sky to tell you what is is being sung when WNO perform opera at Birmingham Hippodrome? Diane Parkes has been finding out. More  

Lisa Riley, the surprise star of the 2012 series of Strictly Come Dancing talks about the current tour of Strictly live More

Bonnie Langford talks to Roger Clarke of Behind The Arras about her role in hit musical 9 to 5 which runs at The New Alexandra Theatre over Christmas - More

Sir Derek Jacobi talks about amateur theatre, Birmingham Rep, retirement and . . .  could we yet see him as a pantomime dame . . .

Sir Alan Ayckbourn's hidden gem, Haunting Julia, which he describes as a "supernatural love story", is on its first National Tour and arrives at Wolverhampton Grand on Monday, October 15. Roger Clarke has been talking to Tracey Childs, who along with director Andrew Hall is producing the ghostly story and then looks at some of the background to the play More

Terry Deary, the man who brought us Horrible Histories has been talking to Diane Parkes about how the idea started and how it has grown into books, TV and stage shows More

Dirty Dancing has been breaking box office records  around the country. Pproducer Karl Sydow has been talking to Roger Clarke about the film and the smash-hit show More 

CAPE Town Opera's acclaimed production of George Gershwin's Porgy & Bess arrives at Birmingham Hippodrome this month and Nancy Groves has been talking to the opera's managing director Michael Williams and one of its stars, Italian based soprano Tsakane Maswanganyi about the current tour. More

Rob Joiner,whose play Without a Helping Hand is one of the centrepices of the Capital Theatre Festival at the MAC, has been talking to Diane Parkes about his work More

Gary Longden has been talking to Simon Quinn, the man who is bringing a new stage  version of Pink Floyd's The Wall to Tamworth Assembly Rooms More

It is 14 years since Birds of a Feather was on our TV screens but the show is still remembered with affection as can be seen by full houses as their stage show tours the country - and it is picking up new fans as it goes. Here Roger Clarke talks to one of the stars, Linda Robson, who plays Tracey More

Birmingham Hippodrome closes for four weeks next summer to replace its 30-year-old stage and has now launched an appeal to find the money to pay the £1.13 million bill. More

Behind The Arras is now running its own theatre starting on October 19-20 at The Station Pub in Sutton Coldfield with Confessions of Honour, a play and cast which had a successful run in the West End More

The National Theatre's acclaimed production of R. C. Sherriff's Journey's End comes to Wolverhampton Grand in October. Paul Marston has talked to one of the stars while Roger Clarke has looked at the background to the play More

Top Hat was widely seen as the best of the 10 musicals made by Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. Now, 76 years on, the Top Hat has been dusted off, the white tie ironed and tails pressed for a new stage musical. Roger Clarke looks back at the film and the pair who inspired it all. More

Yes, Prime Minister sees our nation's leader Jim Hacker  once again boldly leading the nation in any direction Sir Humphrey Appleby wishes him to go – which is usually a journey which starts and ends somewhere around the status quo. Creators Sir Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn explain why they decided to bring politics' best known double act back twenty three years after they left our screens. More

Wallop Mrs Cox is Brum's very own musical, the story of the Cox family and the Bull Ring but how did it come about? Laurie Hornsby who wrote the songs puts it down to a lazy afternoon and the helpful spirit of his granddad. More

Paul Grace, Birmingham Royal Ballet's technical director, talks to Roger Clarke about the two and half year journey from idea to reality for the world premiere of Cinderella at Birmingham Hippodrome. More

Actress Caroline Nash talks to Roger Clarke about her funny, sad, and very human one woman play From Me to 3792 about a bored housewife who starts to write to a death row inmate in the USA. The play is at The Other RSC pub theatre at The Station in Sutton Coldfield on Wednesday and Thursday November 3 and 4 before heading off to Nottingham and Northampton. More

John Owen-Jones returns to Birmingham Hippodrome in February 2011 for the Three Phantoms with Earl Carpenter and Matthew Cammelle in a show which promises to be a celebration of musical theatre. Roger Clarke has been listening to the latest CD by the man voted the best Jean Valjean ever. More

 

Christopher Timothy who heads the cast of Haunting Julia which opens at Lichfield Garrick Studio on October 14 has been talking to Roger Clarke about why he took the role.  More The Director The Play

 

Roger Clarke has been talking to Andrew Hall director of Haunting Julia,Sir Alan Ayckbourn's 1994 ghost story and  the Lichfield Garrick Rep's autumn production and has been looking at the background of the play. The Director The Play Christopher Timothy

Former Young Birmingham Poet Laureate Matt Windle manages to mix  poetry and amateur boxing and talks to Gary Longden about his two passions

Adrian Jackson is the executive and artistic director of the Lichfield Garrick but he talks to Roger Clarke about his other career as an international conductor and musical director. More

Jo Bell is the director of National Poetry Day on October 7 and this year was Glastonbury's website poet in residence. She has been talking to Gary Longden. \More

Keith Jack, runner up in Any Dream Will Do,  has finally got his hands on Joseph's amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and is heading for the Hippodrome. More

Actor turned producer, director and now theatre owner Ian Dickens talks about hi repertory seasons and his fears for the future of theatre to Roger Clarke. More

Jean Bayless, seen left as Maria in the very first British production of The Suund of Music, loaned us her copy of the programme from that 1961 production and as the show opens at Birmingham Hippodrome, Roger Clarke has been taking a look to see how times have changed. More

Norman Pace plays Inspector Pratt in Peter Gordon's Murdered to Death in the final play of Wolverhampton Grand's month long repertory season of four Ian Dickens productions. Roger Clarke met him on stage at the Grand to talk about the play and his life as an actor. More

Christopher Biggins set to play Widow Twanky at the Grand tells Roger Clarke why panto is much more than knockabout fun at Christmas. More

Roger Clarke caught up with Joan Collins in Birmingham where she was at the Hippodrome to talk about her pantomime debut in Dick Whittington. More

Jean Bayless, seen here with Connie Fisher, the latest Maria in a half century of The Sound of Music, was the first to set the hills alive in 1961. She has been talking to Roger Clarke ahead of the musical arriving at the Hippodrome in July. More

clifford 

As Birmingham Royal Ballet opens its 20th anniversary season  with Sleeping Beauty Roger Clarke talks to  the man who keeps the dancers on their toes - Shoe Master Michael Clifford. More

 Sir Laurence Olivier in what was perhaps his greatest role, Archie Rice in The Entertainer which was revived by Tom Roberts at the Lichfield Garrick studio in October, 2009.
 Roger Clarke looks back at the Britain and theatre of 1957 when John Osborne's play first appeared at the Royal Court. More

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