THE BAND, BEAUTIFUL and SHREK to Hit The Marlowe Theatre in 2018

A new season of shows has been unveiled by The Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury. Highlights include The Band, Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, and the return of Shrek The Musical.

The Band is a new musical comedy featuring the music of Take That. "The band" is everything to five 16-year-old friends in 1992; some 25 years later, the women, now in their 40s, try to once again to fulfil their dream of meeting their heroes.

The Band will be played by AJ Bentley, Nick Carsberg, Yazdan Qafouri Isfahani, Curtis T Johns and Sario Watanabe-Soloman, who, as Five to Five, won BBC's Let It Shine.

Take That said, "We are incredibly proud and excited that our first production as theatre producers is The Band - a musical that we think will touch the hearts of not just our fans, but everyone."

Written by Olivier Award-winning writer Tim Firth (Calendar Girls), it comes to The Marlowe in February and March 2018.

Beautiful: The Carole King Musical is The Olivier and Tony Award-winning Broadway and West End hit that tells the story of the woman who wrote the soundtrack to a generation.

Carole had a remarkable rise to stardom, from writing songs with her husband Gerry Goffin, to becoming one of the most successful solo acts in popular music history. Featuring classics such as (You Make Me Feel) Like A Natural Woman, You've Got A Friend, and It Might As Well Rain Until September, Beautiful: The Carole King Musical is at The Marlowe in March 2018.

Shrek The Musical is based in the story and characters from William Steig's book Shrek! and the Oscar-winning Dreamworks Animations feature film. It features the more than 100 much-loved fairytale characters, a 14-ft dragon, and new songs, along with the cult anthem, I'm A Believer.

The first tour of Shrek The Musical (2014/15) was seen by nearly 800,000, and sold out The Marlowe for its three-week run. It returns to the theatre in July 2018.

Other highlights include a new production of Arthur Millar's Death Of A Salesman, starring Tim Piggot-Smith; The Railway Children, adapted for the stage from E Nesbit's classic novel; Grease, the original high school musical starring Tom Parker of The Wanted; and Northern Ballet's The Little Mermaid, based on Hans Christian Anderson's fairytale.

Romantic comedy musical Crazy For You stars Tom Chambers and features classic songs from the Gershwin brothers; John Steinbeck's landmark play Of Mice And Men is the powerful story of George and Lennie, two migrant workers who dream of owning their new ranch; all-singing, all-dancing romantic comedy Legally Blonde stars Rita Simons, ex-EastEnders and seen in Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs at The Marlowe; Andrew Lloyd Webber's Tony Award-winning Sunset Boulevard is one of the all-time great musicals and is a story of romance and obsession.

Musical comedy Hairspray returns; Matthew Bourne's next offering is Cinderella; and Flashdance - The Musical is based on the film and tells of a welder by day and a dancer by night.

Glyndebourne Opera bring their tour to The Marlowe, and The Philharmonia, The Marlowe's resident orchestra, return for a new season.

One-night performances include comedians Reginald D Hunter, Simon Amstell and Henning When, gospel musicians Ladysmith Black Mambazo, and singers Tony Christie, Lulu, and Jack Jones.

Tickets for some shows are already on sale; others go on sale to Marlowe Friends on Monday 10 April and the public on Monday 24 April. Call the Box Office on 01227 787787, or go to marlowetheatre.com.

There will be audio-described, captioned and British Sign Language-interpreted performances for many of these shows; for full details go to marlowetheatre.com.

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