Five major musicals to run at Theatre Royal


Newcastle Theatre Royal will run five major musicals as part of its spring/summer season this year. The Grade-I listed theatre will


host Evita (May 22-26), Hairspray (June 25-30), Dusty the Musical (July 17-21), Calendar Girls (September 18-29) and Kinky Boots (October 29-November 10). Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s show Evita returns to Newcastle in May, starring Madalena Alberto (Les Misérables) and Gian Marco Schiaretti (Tarzan). Telling the story of Eva Peron –


wife of former Argentine dictator Juan Peron – Evita follows Eva’s journey from humble beginnings through to iconic status and features some of the most famous songs in musical theatre. Returning, after a sell-out visit in spring 2016, Hairspray tells the story of Tracy Turnblad, who’s on a mission to follow her dreams and dance her way on to national TV. New show Dusty the Musical is based on the authorised biography


Kinky Boots


of Dusty Springfield, and features many of her pop hits, including I Only Want to Be with You, Son of a Preacher Man and You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me. Calendar Girls the Musical, by Gary Barlow and Tim Firth, is a musical comedy based on the true story of a group of ordinary ladies who achieved something


extraordinary. The production features an all-star cast. Perhaps the most anticipated


show of the season is Kinky Boots. Featuring songs by pop icon Cyndi Lauper, the show is a story of Brit grit, taking audiences from the factory floor of Northampton to the catwalks of Milan. theatreroyal.co.uk


New education play is ‘love letter to ’90s schools’


Theatre company The Wardrobe Ensemble has announced the upcoming production of its own play Education, Education, Education at London’s Shoreditch Town Hall in April. The play first appeared in


Edinburgh at the Fringe last year before embarking on a UK tour in autumn.


The Bristol-based theatre company makes and tours new plays, which dissect the 21st-century experience with humour and inventive theatricality. Told through criss-crossing storylines, Education, Education, Education follows a group of teachers in a British secondary school at the dawn of Blair’s Britain. It’s May 1997. Tony Blair has


won the election and Katrina and the Waves have won Eurovision. Channel 5 is a month old. No one


30 TravelGBI | February 2018


Dino-tour returns in the spring


Following a successful tour in 2017, So You Think You Know About Dinosaurs will return this year for another national tour, opening at Theatre Severn in Shrewsbury on March 1.


Dinosaur aficionado Dr Ben


Garrod stars in the stage show, which will take audiences on a pre-historic adventure through an interactive, educational and entertaining show.


With the help of TV film


footage from the BBC’s Planet Dinosaur and photos of his own palaeontological dinosaur digs, Garrod will tell audiences everything they ever wanted to know about dinosaurs. Garrod is an English evolutionary biologist, primatologist and broadcaster – and a teaching fellow at Anglia Ruskin University. He has presented several


television shows, including Attenborough and the Giant Dinosaur with David Attenborough, Hyper Evolution: Rise of the Robots for BBC Four and The Day the Dinosaurs Died on BBC Two. The tour will visit 26 venues including Cambridge, Winchester, Bury St Edmunds, and a limited run at the Pleasance Theatre in Islington, finishing in Teignmouth Pavilions on April 14. josarsby.com


knows who Harry Potter is. At the local secondary school, it’s


a different story. Miss Belltop-Doyle can’t control her year nines, Mr Pashley has been put in charge of a confiscated tamagotchi and Miss Turner is hoping that this muck-up day goes more smoothly than the


last. Things can only get better. Education, Education, Education


follows bright but disruptive student Emily Greenslade through the day, as she takes justice into her own hands with far-reaching consequences. thewardrobeensemble.com


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