Funny Girl, London
If you failed to get tickets for Funny Girl at the Menier Chocolate Factory (the four-month run, which opens this week, sold out in a couple of hours) your parade has not been completely rained on: there is now a West End run planned for 2016. The reason for such clamour was two-fold: firstly, the show hasn’t been staged in London since the 1966 production starring Barbra Streisand, and who doesn’t want to hear such classics as People? The second reason is that it stars the multi-award-winning Sheridan Smith, making a welcome return to theatre after rather too much TV. Smith has vowed that she will be putting her own stamp on the role, based on 30s radio comedian Fanny Brice.
The Menier Chocolate Factory, SE1, Fri to 5 Mar
MC
Contained, Wolverhampton
What makes life special? Often it’s not the big moments but the small achievements, the kind word, the unexpected hug or kiss. And what about those moments that change lives, too, a sudden rejection, a feeling of failure? It’s those things that are explored in the latest show from Mind The Gap, England’s largest learning-disabled theatre company. With many years of experience, Mind The Gap uses performance, film, dance, photography and music to make eye-catching and truthful theatre mined from the everyday lives of company members, and makes a virtue of the fact it often has a different aesthetic from other professional theatre shows.
LG
The Homecoming, London
This is a high-profile production for the Trafalgar Studios, with director Jamie Lloyd returning with his company for a 50th anniversary production of what is considered Harold Pinter’s finest play. Crackling with Pinter’s customary tension, power-plays and dark humour, The Homecoming finds a son returning with a new wife after a spell in America to his working-class north London home, a testosterone-fuelled place ruled over by a foul-mouthed patriarch. A terrific cast comprises Keith Allen, Gemma Chan, Ron Cook, Gary Kemp, John Macmillan and John Simm, the latter of whom starred in Lloyd’s last Pinter offering, The Hothouse. Tickets priced only £15 will be released on the first day of each month. Bargain.
Trafalgar Studios, SW1, Sat to 13 Feb
MC
Going Viral, Exeter
The passengers in an aeroplane flying towards Heathrow are afflicted by an outbreak of weeping. What is causing this phenomena? An outbreak of hysteria or perhaps a previously unknown virus? As panic spreads, and the authorities seek the cause of the weeping and who is responsible for the outbreak, one person on the plane goes to ground. An award-winning hit at this year’s Edinburgh fringe, Daniel Bye’s one-man show is a thoughtful exploration of how viruses spread from ideas to panic. Part performance lecture and part compelling storytelling, this is a clever show from a distinctive theatre-maker, and one that is as terrifying as it is informative.
The Bike Shed Theatre, Wed to Fri
LG
The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe, Birmingham
Christmas comes early in Birmingham but not in Narnia, where the rule of the evil White Witch means that it is always winter. Adrian Mitchell’s stage version of CS Lewis’s famous story was commissioned by the RSC back in 1998 and has done sturdy service ever since. The quest nature of the story means that it is a little episodic but it’s a show that benefits from really clever, magical design and there is always fun to be had with the portrayal of the animals, including the noble lion Aslan. Forget the Christian overtones and just enjoy all those adorable beavers and fauns. Meanwhile, Theresa Heskins’s more recent adaptation can be found at the Lyceum in Edinburgh (28 Nov to 3 Jan).
LG
Queen Anne, Stratford-upon-Avon
Deputy artistic director Erica Whyman has made a real difference at the Royal Shakespeare Company, increasing the number of plays by women being programmed on its Stratford stages and seeing a rise in the number of female directors, too. Natalie Abrahami directs this new play by Helen Edmundson about the difficult relationship between childhood friends Queen Anne (Emma Cunniffe) and Sarah Churchill (Natascha McElhone). Can they remain close when one’s sense of duty clashes with the other’s designs on power? And is there a place for friendship when the future of the country is at stake?
Royal Shakespeare Theatre: Swan, Fri to 23 Jan
LG
