Wales - South Wales

In 2017 & 2018 the Centre will continue to have exciting events, with the Festival of Voice returning for it’s second year in June 2018. The Centre will hold the world premiere of the new musical Tiger Bay in November 2017, produced by the Wales Millennium Centre and Cape Town Opera. Some of the UK’s biggest touring musicals will be coming to the Donald Gordon Stage in 2017, including Hairspray, Crazy for You, Slava’s Snowshow, Beautiful – The Carole King Musical & Miss Saigon. In 2018 Matilda will be at the Centre, on it’s first tour of the UK. Sunset Boulevard, War Horse and Wicked will also be at the Centre in 2018.

To make organising a group visit simple and stress-free, Wales Millennium Centre offers a fantastic range of group benefits, including priority booking, discounts on a selection of performances, pre-bookable catering, regular newsletters or emails from the Groups team and flexible payment terms wherever possible.

Discounted group tours can also be pre-booked, offering a wonderful opportunity to discover more about the impressive building. Either combine one with a show, or book one on its own, and find out some of the Centre’s best-kept ‘behind-the-scenes’ secrets. (Groups 10+ - Tour Only: £5 per person, Groups 25+ - Tour Only: £4.50 per person, Groups 10+ - Tour booked along with a show: £4 per person).

For further information on group bookings and to book tickets visit www.wmc.org.uk/groups or call 029 2063 6464 - Option 4 for the groups line.

LISTINGS

Hairspray
16th August – 26th August 2017
The international smash-hit musical comedy Hairspray the Musical is coming to Cardiff!

It’s Baltimore, 1962. Tracy Turnblad, a big girl with big hair and an even bigger heart, is on a mission to follow her dreams and dance her way onto national TV. Featuring the hit songs Welcome To The 60s, You Can’t Stop The Beat, The Nicest Kids in Town and many more, don’t miss this irresistible feel-good show that will have you smiling for days.

Crazy for You
5th September – 9th September 2017
High energy, high kicking and gloriously glamorous, the acclaimed Watermill Theatre production of Crazy for You is the ultimate feel-good musical. Strictly Come Dancing winners Tom Chambers and Caroline Flack star in this multi-award winning, romantic comedy, featuring a fabulous score from the Gershwin brothers' songbook.

Crazy For You charts the troubled love story of Bobby, son of a wealthy New York banking family and frustrated Broadway hoofer, and Polly, daughter of the proprietor of a failing theatre in Deadrock, Nevada. Sent to close the theatre down, Bobby falls for Polly and, in the guise of a Hungarian impresario, decides to save the theatre by putting on a show.

Mistaken identities, plot twists, heartbreak, happiness and a wealth of memorable tunes, including I Got Rhythm, They Can’t Take That Away From Me, Nice Work If You Can Get It and Embraceable You, all feature in this exhilarating celebration of the great Broadway musicals.

Slava’s Snowshow
17th October – 21st October 2017
The multi-award-winning international sensation returns to Wales by popular demand. Having wowed audiences in 2007, this truly unique theatrical adventure is filled with heart, humour and stunning spectacle, promising a breathtaking multi-sensory delight. A wonder of a show that is equally enjoyed by adults and families alike, Slava’s Snowshow has entertained audiences in over 80 counties receiving universal worldwide acclaim.

Enter Slava’s snowy world for a once-in-a-lifetime, joyous, fun packed event culminating in a blizzard that puts you firmly at the centre of the action!

Beautiful – The Carole King Musical
30th October – 3rd November 2017
Beautiful - The Carole King Musical, the Olivier award-winning West End show is coming to Wales Millennium Centre as part of its first ever UK tour. 'The audience loves Beautiful' (Daily Mail) and critics agree! Called 'slick and beautifully played' (The Times), the 'amazing story of the songwriting talents of Carole King told through laughter and tears' (BBC Radio 2), critics are celebrating this 'tapestry of greatest hits' (The Guardian).

Long before she was Carole King, the chart-topping music legend, she was an ordinary girl with an extraordinary talent. Beautiful tells the inspiring true story of King's remarkable rise to stardom, from being part of a hit songwriting team with her husband Gerry Goffin, to her relationship with fellow writers and best friends Cynthia Weil and Barry Mann, to becoming one of the most successful solo acts in popular music history. Along the way, she wrote the soundtrack to a generation, with countless classics such as You Make Me Feel Like a Natural Woman, Take Good Care of my Baby, You've Got a Friend, So Far Away, It Might As Well Rain Until September, Up on the Roof, and Locomotion.

Tiger Bay
14th November – 25th November 2017
Tiger Bay, early 1900s. Extreme poverty meets supreme wealth. Gangs of street children roam the docks. Coal is king. A revolution is brewing in the dark and restless world beneath the genteel surface of Cardiff’s Butetown…
This epic new musical follows a young woman’s determination to challenge society’s injustices, follow her heart and realise her dreams. With rousing music and unforgettable characters including John Owen-Jones as the Third Marquess of Bute, Tiger Bay will transport you to the notorious public houses and alleyways of the city’s underworld at this extraordinary turning point in history. With book and lyrics by Michael Williams and an original score from Welsh composer Daf James, Wales Millennium Centre proudly presents this spectacular musical drama that brings Tiger Bay roaring to life on stage.

Miss Saigon
29th November 2017 – 6th January 2018
Cameron Mackintosh’s acclaimed new production of Boublil and Schönberg’s legendary musical Miss Saigon – a recent smash hit in the West End – is embarking on a major UK Tour.

Winner of a record-breaking nine Whatsonstage Awards 2015 including Best Show, this epic love story tells the tragic tale of young bar girl Kim, orphaned by war, who falls in love with an American GI called Chris - but their lives are torn apart by the fall of Saigon. Don’t miss this “thrilling, soaring and spectacular” (The Times) musical when it lands at the Centre.

The Band
9th January – 20th January 2018
The Band is a new musical written by Tim Firth and stars the winners of BBC’s show Let It Shine. The musical is about a group of young girls who grow up following a boyband. The musical features the songs of Take That.

Sunset Boulevard
26th February – 3rd March 2018
Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Tony Award®-winning (Best Musical, Best Original Score & Best Book of a Musical) masterpiece Sunset Boulevard, directed by Nikolai Foster and starring Ria Jones as Norma Desmond, is coming to the Centre. One of the all-time great musicals, Sunset Boulevard is a compelling story of romance and obsession, based on Billy Wilder’s legendary film, with Don Black and Christopher Hampton's wonderful book and lyrics.

In her mansion on Sunset Boulevard, faded silent-screen goddess, Norma Desmond, lives in a fantasy. Impoverished screen writer, Joe Gillis, on the run from debt collectors, stumbles into her reclusive world. Persuaded to work on Norma’s ‘masterpiece’, a film script that she believes will put her back in front of the cameras, he is seduced by her and her luxurious lifestyle. Joe becomes entrapped in a claustrophobic world until his love for another woman leads him to try and break free - with dramatic consequences.

With internationally acclaimed musical theatre star Ria Jones, who received standing ovations every night when performing the role at the London Coliseum, and its much-loved score (including Sunset Boulevard, With One Look, The Greatest Star Of All and The Perfect Year) performed with full orchestra, this “majestic, mesmerising and teasingly seductive” (The Evening Standard) production promises to be a spectacular evening.

Birmingham Royal Ballet’s Sleeping Beauty
14th March – 17th March 2018
The curse of a wicked fairy, one touch of a spindle, and a beautiful princess falls into a deep, enchanted sleep which can only be broken by a kiss from a prince.

The Sleeping Beauty is transformed into one of the grandest ballets ever created, with a marvellous mixture of virtuoso dance, fairy tale characters and dazzling spectacle that has delighted audiences for over a hundred years. With live music from the acclaimed Royal Ballet Sinfonia, The Sleeping Beauty is an enchanting production for all the family.

Mathew Bourne’s Cinderella
3rd April – 7th April 2018
Following the sold-out and critical success of The Red Shoes and Sleeping Beauty, New Adventures return to the Centre with one of their most popular and beloved productions, Matthew Bourne's Cinderella - a thrilling and evocative love story, set in London during the Second World War, which forms part of the company's 30th anniversary celebrations.

Matthew Bourne's interpretation of the classic fairy tale, has, at its heart, a true war-time romance. A chance meeting results in a magical night for Cinderella and her dashing young RAF pilot, together just long enough to fall in love before being parted by the horrors of the Blitz.

With Lez Brotherston's sumptuous costumes and sets, which won an Olivier Award for his original designs, and lighting by Olivier Award-winning Neil Austin, Cinderella will be performed in Surround Sound, designed by Paul Groothuis and featuring a specially commissioned recording played by a 60 piece orchestra. Matthew Bourne's vivid story telling has never been more heart-stopping and touching, and will take the audience into the heart of Prokofiev's magnificent score, and the sights and sounds of war-torn London.

Shrek
10th April – 22nd April 2018
Based on the story and characters from the Oscar®-winning DreamWorks Animation film, this hilarious and spectacular production turns the world of fairytales upside down in an all-singing, all-dancing, must-see musical comedy.

Join Shrek, our unlikely hero, and his loyal steed Donkey as they set off on a quest to rescue the beautiful (if slightly temperamental) Princess Fiona from her tower, guarded by a fire breathing love-sick dragon. Add the vertically challenged Lord Farquaad, a gang of fairytale misfits, and a biscuit with attitude, and you’ve got an irresistible mix of adventure, laughter and romance, guaranteed to delight audiences of all ages!

War Horse
4th July – 28th July 2018
Following 8 record-breaking years in London’s West End and having played in 11 countries around the world to over 7 million people, the National Theatre’s acclaimed play War Horse will return to Wales in summer 2018 following a sell-out season in 2014.

Based on the beloved novel by Michael Morpurgo, this powerfully moving and imaginative drama, filled with stirring music and songs, is a show of phenomenal inventiveness. At its heart are astonishing life-sized horses by South Africa’s Handspring Puppet Company, who bring breathing, galloping, charging horses to thrilling life on stage.

War Horse is an unforgettable theatrical event which takes audiences on an extraordinary journey from the fields of rural Devon to the trenches of First World War France.

Wicked
31st October – 24th November 2018
Winner of over 100 major awards, Wicked has been casting its magical spell across the world for over a decade and continues to break records at London’s Apollo Victoria Theatre, where it is already the 18th longest running show in West End theatre history.

An ingenious and witty re-imaging of the stories and characters created by L. Frank Baum in ‘The Wonderful Wizard of Oz’, Wicked tells the incredible untold story of an unlikely but profound friendship between two young women who first meet as sorcery students. Their extraordinary adventures in Oz will ultimately see them fulfil their destinies as Glinda The Good and the Wicked Witch of the West.

This multi record-breaking production, acclaimed as “the ultimate Broadway experience for theatre audiences all over the UK” (Northern Echo), flies back for a return engagement complete with all the spectacle and magic that make this spellbinding show an unforgettable experience for audiences of all ages.

Matilda
4th December 2018 – 12th January 2019
Seen by over 7 million people and the winner of over 85 international awards, Matilda The Musical is the multi-award winning musical from the Royal Shakespeare Company, inspired by the beloved book by the incomparable Roald Dahl.

With book by Dennis Kelly and original songs by Tim Minchin, Matilda The Musical is the story of an extraordinary girl who, armed with a vivid imagination and a clever mind, is determined to change her own destiny, even if it means being a little bit naughty.

Now embarking on its first UK tour, we’re delighted to be welcoming it to the Centre for Christmas 2018!

When booking please quote: Blueprint Guide.