INDEX
The Snow Queen is an easy rider in this sparkling production at The Old Rep as Hans Christian Andersen's dark fairy tale is given a modern twist of the throttle More
It's a touch of the Vorsprung durch techniks with Welsh National Opera's collaboration with Bonn's Oper der Stadt Bonn to create their Verdi Machine to be seen for the first time in La forza del destino at Birmingham Hipporome. More.
Zizi Strallen talks about acting and her role as Mary Poppins which opens at Birmingham Hippodrome on 9 March. More
The stars of The New Alexandra Theatre's Christmas cracker talk about their roles in the new touring version of Hairspray More
Welsh National Opera are bringing the blood and gore of Stephen Sondheim's dark musical Sweeney Todd to Birmingham Hippodrome and we have been along to see the preparations More
David Walliams talks about his novel Gangsta
Granny and the Birmingham Stage Company adaptation which comes to the
Alex in November and Coventry Belgrade in February next year.
More
Adrian Jackson talks the next chapter in the
life of Wolverhampton Grand as he starts his first season in charge as
chief executive
More
Jack Trott and Princess Jill are getting ready for a traditional panto treat with Jack and the Beanstalk at Lichfield Garrick More
Birmingham Weekender has given its first hint of what is to be launched on the streets of Birmingham in what has been dubbed Super September More while the Weekener's creative director, Roxana Silbert, talks about her first time running a festival More
The man selling BRB to the world, Doug Nicholson, Head of Scenic Presentation at Birmingham Royal Ballet More
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels: The stars of the hit musical comedy which starts its national tour at The New Alexandra Theatre have been talking to the Arras. Noel Sullivan, Carley Stenson and Mark Benton
SHREK - The Musical is a love story between an ogre and a Princess and we have been looking behind the scenes with Shrek, Princess Fiona and backstage.
VINCE is an aging club singer who still dreams of hitting the
big time, Teena is a Polish karaoke enthusiast with a voice that could
just be Vince’s ticket to stardom.
Welsh National Opera need hundreds of costumes a year on the grand scale and Diane Parkes has been to see how they do it More
Co-director Jane Aston talks to Gary Longden about the touring production of Open All Hours at Lichfield Garrick More
Dominic Antonucci, Ballet Master at Birmingham Royal Ballet, talks about his new venture as a music promoter More
Interactivos? Birmingham is a mix of workshops and perfromance to bring art and digital technology togther, Diane Parkes investigates. More
John Godber's gentle comedy September in the Rain opens at Lichfield Garrick this week and We have been talking to its stars More
Thirty years ago the Miners Strike changed the face of industrial relations and policing and a generation on its effects are still felt today. Brassed Off is set in the aftermath of the strike, ten years on, as pit closures threaten a whole community . . . and the Colliery Band More
Roger Clarke explains why he thinks Wet 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.
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.
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
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.
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