CityLife

New season announced at Lowry

HIGHLIGHTS of the just-announced new season at Salford's The Lowry include a distinct local flavour with a brand-new version of the Salford-set classic, Hobson's Choice, and a new stage presentation of Salford-born Mike Leigh's Abigail's Party.

Current Manchester Evening News Theatre Awards Best Actor Ben Keaton will be appearing in the Kenneth Branagh-directed hit comedy, The Play What I Wrote, while the M.E.N. Theatre Award-winning English Touring Theatre return with their version of Romeo And Juliet, and The Graduate also arrives direct from its West End success.

Dance highlights include a unique version of The Nutcracker, created by Olivier Award-winning Matthew Bourne, the choreographer behind the all-male Swan Lake and The Car Man as well as the return of Rambert Dance Company with an all-new programme and the enormously popular Stomp!, which sold out there last year.

We can also exclusively reveal that the Royal New Zealand Ballet, will be coming to the theatre next April with the UK premiere of their Romeo And Juliet.

A hugely impressive opera line-up boasts not only the previously-announced (and instantaneously sold-out) Ring Cycle from Scottish Opera on its only English dates but also both Autumn and Winter seasons from Opera North, including their much-acclaimed La Traviata.

Christmas treats include a new pop panto version of Peter Pan, starring Paul Nicholas and popular local comedian Justin Moorhouse, as well as the Boy George musical, Taboo. Oh, and there's Kyle Minogue too{hellip} sort of!

SEPTEMBER

Opening the season on Tuesday, September 9, is the new adaptation for the Young Vic Theatre Company by Tanika Gupta of the much-loved Northern comedy Hobson's Choice.

Unlike the more-faithful recent version at the Royal Exchange, starring John Thomson, Joanna Riding and Trevor Peacock, this version is set in a present-day Salford Asian community, where widower Hari Hobson has a successful business and three daughters.

Eldest daughter Durga, is the brains behind the operation but when Hari says she is too valuable to lose and must give up all thoughts of getting married, she takes her fate into her own hands. Until September 13.Rambert Dance Company, accompanied by its Associate Orchestra, London Musici, appear from Wednesday, September 24, until Saturday, September 27.

Their latest programme includes Visions Fugitives, by leading Dutch choreographer Hans van Manen; 21, by Rambert's own Rafael Bonachela, which features Kylie Minogue in a specially produced short film.

The evening ends with the world premiere of Elsa Canasta by flamboyant Venezuelan choreographer Javier De Frutos. Performed to music and songs by Cole Porter, it includes a rarely heard jazz-ballet score, which Porter wrote in 1923.

Northern Stage Ensemble's pulsating, mud-soaked version of George Orwell's Animal Farm has been acclaimed throughout Europe and it's at The Lowry from September 30 until October 11.

They do warn that this production features "flying mud - don't sit at the front if you are wearing your Sunday best!", so the lucky folk on their way to see Scottish Opera's Ring Cycle - Wagner's gigantic four-part epic in an acclaimed new staging by Scottish Opera, with an outstanding cast of 30 principal singers and orchestra of 96 - from October 3 until Saturday 11 better watch out, too!

OCTOBER

The next week, from Tuesday, October 14, until Saturday, October 18, features Shared Experience's brilliant Madame Bovary: Breakfast With Emma, adapted from Flaubert's novel by Fay Weldon, and also the return of Stomp.

They're followed from Monday, October 20, until Saturday, October 25, by The Graduate, straight from the West End and with an all-star cast promised but not yet announced for its first UK tour.

That same week, the apparently ever-popular John Godber comedy, Bouncers, returns in a version which we are promised will be "bigger and badder than ever before"!

Again "Straight from the West End" from October 27 is Abigail's Party, Salford-born Mike Leigh's comedy classic in a 25th anniversary production until Saturday, November 1.

NOVEMBER

The acclaimed Royal Shakespeare Company production of The Lieutenant Of Inishmore by Martin McDonagh (Winner of Best New Comedy at this year's Olivier Awards) arrives from November 4 (until November 8).

Rarely has any new comedy received the kind of praise heaped upon this savagely funny black satire, but be warned that it contains scenes of graphic violence.

Meanwhile The KAOS Alice (from November 3 until November 5) is an urban nightmare inspired by Lewis Carroll's Alice stories that's recommended for over-fourteen year olds.

From November 10, Northern Broadsides apply their "maximum inpact, minimum fuss" approach to Antigone by Sophocles, in a new version penned by poet Blake Morrison. Until November 15.

You may have seen The Nutcracker before, but you've never seen a Nutcracker! like the one created by Olivier Award-winning Matthew Bourne, the director and choreographer behind the all male Swan Lake, and The Car Man.

This dazzling new production, at, The Lowry, from November 13 until September 22 uses Tchaikovsky's score but a completely new setting, from a Dickensian orphanage, through an ice-skating wonderland, to the story of Oliver Twist and on to the icecapades and the kaleidoscopic fantasy of Busby Berkeley musicals.A partner company and regular visitor to The Lowry, English Touring Theatre, make a welcome return after last year's acclaimed and Manchester Evening News award-winning King Lear with their take on Shakespeare's star-crossed lovers Romeo And Juliet, with ETT's artistic director Stephen Unwin at the helm for six days from November 18.

Sponsored by Manchester Airport, Opera North open their Autumn season from Tuesday, November 25 with their popular production of La Traviata, followed by two new productions, Manon from Wednesday, November 26, and Rusalka on November 29.

The company's winter season in February includes that indestructible masterpiece, The Barber Of Seville, and the "ultimate feelgood opera" The Bartered Bride.

On Wednesday, November 26, and Thursday, November 27, Phoenix Dance Theatre present Planted Seeds, a new work by artistic director Darshan Singh Bhuller. Inspired by the true story of lovers divided by religion and community, Planted Seeds depicts a nation at war with itself where loyalties are tested to the limit.

DECEMBER

In London and New York every review was a rave, every show a sell-out, for The Play What I Wrote.

Kenneth Branagh again directs for the first British tour of this celebration of England's greatest comedy double act, Morecambe and Wise, and the same team of comedy actors who brought the Marx Brothers to life in the Exchange's Duck Soup, including the MEN award-winning Ben Keaton, are due to bring Eric and Ernie miraculously back to life too from December 1 until December 13.

On the heels - or should it be nails? - of her sold out show here last autumn, Simply Barbra (alias American superstar impersonator Steven Brinberg) returns with her j-j-j-jingle bells and mistletoe Christmas Show on December 5 and 6, while this year's "pop panto" from Saturday, December 20, is Peter Pan, with Paul Nicholas as Captain Hook, Justin Moorhouse (from Phoenix Nights) as Smee and an all-star cast "to be announced".

There are even more camp goings-on as Taboo - The Boy George Musical makes its north west debut at The Lowry prior to an extensive UK tour.

Following rave reviews for his performance in the flamboyant and extravagant West End production, Stephen Ashfield will play the role of Boy George in this gender-bending story of the times when shoulder pads packed the power punch, Thatcher was in Downing Street, only yuppies had mobiles, and even Romantics had to be New. From Thursday, December 11, to Saturday, January 17.

For more information or to book please call 0870-111 2000. Please note that tickets for the Royal New Zealand Ballet will not be on sale until September 1, although a waiting list should already be in operation.