Goodnight Mister Tom -  Milton Keynes Theatre

Tuesday 1st - Saturday 5th March 2016

The Olivier award-winning Chichester Festival Theatre production of Goodnight Mister Tom returns!

Now a modern classic, Michelle Magorian’s wonderfully uplifting tale is brought gloriously to life in this magical stage adaptation by David Wood.

Set during the dangerous build up to the Second World War, Goodnight Mister Tom follows young William Beech, who is evacuated to the idyllic English countryside and forges a remarkable and heart warming friendship with the elderly recluse, Tom Oakley. All is perfect until William is suddenly summoned by his mother back to London.

Winner of the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize and commended for the Carnegie Medal, Goodnight Mister Tom is now a world-wide literary favourite and BAFTA award-winning TV film (starring John Thaw), and continues to inspire audiences and bring generations together.

Tickets are on sale now!  Book at Milton Keynes Theatre Box Office, call 0844 871 7652 (bkg fee) or visit www.atgtickets.com/miltonkeynes (bkg fee)

An Inspector Calls - Milton Keynes Theatre February 2016

JB Priestley's An Inspector Calls, directed by Stephen Daldry is definitely a classic.  So much so, that it's a novel that has become part of the G.C.S.E English curriculum.

Set before the First World War, this is a thrilling tale of an upper class family celebrating their successes within their warmly lit decadent capsule of privilege but once the inspector has called they are riddled with guilt and self-pity...



The Birling family home is precariously perched on stilts from which they are slowly forced to descend into the desolate wasteland beneath by the unexpected visitor.  Their house of cards is about to come crashing down around them.

A young girl had been brought to the infirmary after taking her own life by drinking disinfectant - the inspector calling to divulge reasons for each one of the Birling's having a hand in pushing this sad and desperate girl to her death...or did they?

There are good performances all round, but Hamish Riddle as Eric Birling making his theatre debut was outstanding.

There is not an interval in this play to keep the suspense and momentum going - it keeps you enthralled for the whole time.  There are many highly charged moments, however, the steely Inspector Goole brings such tension throughout.  Goole's anger building in a brilliantly controlled performance by Liam Brennan.

The Inspector picks away at each of the characters with his implacable knowledge.  Is Goole an imposter or a supernatural manifestation of a higher ethical court?

"We don't live alone...We are members of one body.  We are responsible for each other. And I tell you that the time will soon come, when if men will not learn that lesson, they will be taught in fire and blood and anguish."

Fantastic theatre, five stars all the way.

Lily B x

Matthew Bourne's Sleeping Beauty
Milton Keynes Theatre 

A beautiful, Gothic telling of Sleeping Beauty set against fantastic sets and the music of Tchaikovsky.

Like any traditional fairy tale it begins with “Once upon a time…..”

The Royal couples’ neglect of expressing their gratitude for their newly born daughter leads to events involving vampire fairies, betrayals, a virgin sacrifice, a tennis party, abduction and a palace gardener waiting around for a 100 years for his one true love.

This tale moves from late Victorian period, through Edwardian times to the present day, exceptionally cleverly done.

A fantastically glamorous set and costumes designed by the legendary Les Brotherston added to the music of Tchaikovsky, amazingly talented dancers - this was totally brilliant from start to finish.

The baby Aurora produces much laughter from the audience in the first Act  – very cleverly manipulated by blacked-out puppeteers.  Although I did find the baby a little bizarre and creepy at the end when Leo and Aurora consummate their marriage and all fly off to live "Happily Ever After..."

A travelator plays an intrinsic part giving a powerful sense of movement to the dramatic entrances and exits. 

I loved the sleepwalkers’ scene with the sleepwalkers weaving across the stage with arms outstretched then, unable to control their need for sleep, drop effortlessly to the moving floor.

The one disappointment is not to have a live orchestra for Tchaikovsky’s manipulated score.

Sleeping Beauty has all of Bourne’s trademark moves – especially in the nightclub scene.  Matthew Bourne never disappoints.

Lily B X

Spring Season at Milton Keynes Theatre...and beyond!

Take a look at the great shows that are coming to MK Theatre...

Kicking off the spring season – or rather leaping, gloriously, into it, romance was never quite so Gothic or evocative as Matthew Bourne’s dazzling production of Sleeping Beauty.

Boogie beauties return to MKT, ready to give you the ride of your life, as Jason Donovan and the cast of Priscilla Queen of the Desert hop aboard the party bus again, back by overwhelming popular demand.

There’s more smash hit musical entertainment later in the season when the razzle-dazzle, double–trouble cell block chicks of Chicago hit town while you can really let your hair down as the feel-good factor gets a mighty boost with the award-winning musical, Hairspray. 

And finally, rounding off an amazing season of smash-hit musicals, comes award-winning show, The Bodyguard starring Alexandra Burke.

Theatre wouldn't be quite so entertaining without a certain amount of mystery and suspense. Hailed as ‘the theatrical event of our generation’ the National Theatre’s production of An Inspector Calls is every dinner party host’s nightmare while, if it’s mind-boggling bafflement you hanker after, you can’t get more provocative than Derren Brown Miracle. 

In any theatre season programme there should be something for everyone – whatever age you are!

The world premiere of the stage production of David Walliams’ best-selling story for children, Gangsta Granny, is brought to the stage by the acclaimed producers of Horrible Histories and then, barely three weeks later there’s another treat for kids when the Chichester Festival Theatre’s enchanting and award-winning production of Goodnight Mister Tom arrives.

 And to introduce even the very smallest member of the family to dance Northern Ballet present a delightful child-friendly performance of Tortoise & the Hare.

There’s nowt as queer as folk…and definitely nowt as queer as Henry Horatio Hobson, the anti-hero of Harold Brighouse’s comedy drama, Hobson’s Choice starring Martin Shaw which comes to MKT in advance of a transfer to the West End.

With a return visit from the wonderful Welsh National Opera, who bring a trio of works charting the life and loves and losses of one of opera’s most enduring creations, Figaro, and the legendary family favourite, Swan Lake, performed by Northern Ballet the spring season at Milton Keynes Theatre is going to be a sparkling start to the new year!

A glimpse of what’s coming to Milton Keynes Theatre this summer reveals the fantasmagorical musical Chitty, Chitty Bang Bang, cheeky irreverence from the Avenue Q puppets, summer holiday romance in Save the Last Dance for Me and one for ALL the family, Annie.   A whole raft of show-stopping numbers make Guys and Dolls one of the great Broadway musicals, while Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat, starring X Factor winner Joe McElderry, is always a must-see for the kids. 

With the Rocky Horror Show to look forward to – get out those basques and stockings fellas – and an all new production of Sister Act coming in the autumn, entertainment has never been so... entertaining!

Tickets are on sale now!  Book at Milton Keynes Theatre Box Office, call 0844 871 7652 (bkg fee) or visit www.atgtickets.com/miltonkeynes (bkg fee)