#ben cracknell

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Sweet Funny Addams

THE ADDAMS FAMILY Birmingham Hippodrome, Friday 12th July 2025 The thing about comic-strip characters like The Addams Family for example, and Peanuts for another, is they endure over the decades because they never change.  They never age.  They never even change their clothes.  The sitcom version of The Addams Family from the 1960s adhered to these constraints.  The film versions thirty years…

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Mean Girls

HEATHERS – The Musical The Alexandra Theatre, Birmingham, Tuesday 16th May 2023 Based on the cult 1989 film starring Christian Slater and Wynona Rider, this high school musical is named after the mean girls who rule the school.  Three girls named Heather, far from the nicest kids in town, form an unholy trio into which loner Veronica is inducted after she does them a favour.  Veronica’s life is…

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Turn Again

DICK WHITTINGTON Birmingham Hippodrome, Tuesday 20th December, 2022 After all these years, Hippodrome pantomime favourite Matt Slack finally lands a title role.  At last he is able to make a Dick of himself.  If you’ve seen him before you know exactly what you’re going to get, and Slack delivers exactly what they pay him for.  No one does what Matt Slack does better than Matt Slack, but there…

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Phat Lot of Seuss

Phat Lot of Seuss

HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS – The Musical

Alexandra Theatre, Birmingham, Tuesday 3rd December, 2019

  Dr Seuss’s Christmas classic is given the Broadway treatment in this vibrant musical version by Timothy Mason (book and lyrics) with music by Mel Marvin.  As the years pass, I feel a growing affinity with the Grinch, a hermit-like, curmudgeonly Scrooge of a creature who begrudges the simple…

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