Blackpool Grand Theatre has recently announced a new commitment to providing open access to families. It’s three objectives are: To provide a big smile. To offer family friendly shows. To make it easier for families.
Alongside improved baby changing facilities, a new buggy park area, a range of healthier drinks and snacks, a Family Friendly Guide plus a live performance feed into the Stage Door Bar, they are now also offering a more flexible family ticket and a great new line-up of family favourite shows beginning in March and continuing throughout the year!
The hi-light of this season for many will be when the inimitable best-selling children’s author David Walliams’ world premiere of Gangsta Granny Live On Stage! arrives in Blackpool for a full week.
Birmingham Stage Company, the acclaimed producers of Horrible Histories and George’s Marvellous Medicine have teamed up with much-loved comedian, actor, talent show judge, fundraiser and now best-selling author for children in the country; David Walliams to tell the story of how on Friday nights Ben knows one thing – he has to stay with Granny!
There will be cabbage soup, cabbage pie and cabbage cake and Ben knows it’s going to be sooooooooo boring! But what Ben doesn’t know is that Granny has a secret – and Friday nights are about to get more exciting than he could ever imagine, as he embarks on the adventure of a lifetime with his very own Gangsta Granny!
David said of the show ‘I am over the moon that ‘Gangsta Granny’ is coming to the stage. It’s the most popular of all my books and I am sure this production will delight not just children but their parents and of course grandparents’.
Gansta Granny will be at Blackpool Grand Theatre Wednesday 27 April to Sunday 1 May. (Weds & Fri 10:30am & 7pm; Thurs 1:30pm & 7pm; Sat 1:30pm & 5pm; Sun 3pm). Tickets cost Adults £17, Children £13 and a Family Ticket of 4 available.
The rest of the family-friendly season includes:
Wednesday 18 May; UK Ballet Theatre’s Pinocchio takes centre stage. This favourite children’s story of a wooden puppet who comes to life is set to a stunning classical score which will delight ballet audiences and families alike.
(Later in the year local hip-hop collective Skool of Street will be presenting their own young people’s take on the same story called Pop-nocchio on Wednesday 28 September at 7pm – more to follow on this soon).
On Saturday 21 May Sadler’s Wells groundbreaking international festival of hip hop dance theatre and culture, Breakin’ Convention, returns to the town after huge success in 2014. This phenomenal night of dance from the very best international and UK poppers, lockers, house dancers, b-boys and b-girls includes world champion b-boy crew The Ruggeds (The Netherlands), experimental b-boys Iron Skulls (Spain), and leading street dancer Antoinette Gomis (France), alongside a host of local acts including Urban Dance Project, Wingz Theatre Works, FY Wingz, Freefly Crew, B-girl Goldie Lox and Chad Taylor Dance Company.
Saturday 13 and Sunday 14 August brings Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler’s captivating sequel Gruffalo’s Child to life in a magical, musical adaptation.
On Friday 5 to Sunday 7 August, travel back 65 million years to meet The T-Rex! Direct from the West End, Dinosaur Zoo is stampeding across the country and returns to Blackpool with it’s presentation style show of cute baby dinos to teeth gnashing giants, including an Arctic Tyrannosaur, baby Triceratops and baby Parasaurolophus!
Something for the younger audiences in the form of Peppa Pig’s Surprise on Monday 15 to Wednesday 17 August will feature interactive fun, games and, of course, surprises. This colourful new show features new songs and new life-size puppets.
Aliens Love Underpants Live! will delight the whole family on Friday 2 and Saturday 3 September. This zany tale based on the best-selling children’s book by Clare Freedman and Ben Cort, adapted and directed by Adam Bampton-Smith, is brought to life on stage for the very first time from London’s West End.
On Sunday 13 November, BAFTA Award-winning TV presenter, adventurer, naturalist and children’s author, Steve Backshall brings his 2016 stage show Wild World! to Blackpool taking us on a tour of the real life expeditions that have inspired his books The Falcon Chronicles and his new novel in the series, Shark Seas.
No family friendly line-up of shows would be complete without Pantomime, and the headliners for this year’s production of Aladdin include Barney Harwood (who made his premiere at The Grand in Peter Pan in 2009/10) and comic Steve Royle who was recently made a Patron of The Friends of The Grand and has been performing at the theatre for the past 14 years.
Aladdin runs from Friday 9 December to Sunday 8 January 2017 with two performances daily including morning, afternoon and evenings. Last year’s panto played to packed houses so book early to ensure you don’t miss out!
To book for any of the Family Friendly productions visit www.blackpoolgrand.co.uk/familyfriendly, or call 01253 290190. To view the New Season click here.
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