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With its big hair, 1960s fashion, tightly choreographed dance routines and wall-to-wall hits from the dawn of pop music, Hairspray: the Musical, which runs at Bristol Hippodrome from Tuesday to Saturday, August 6 to 11, looks, on the face of it, like the archetypal feel-good show.
The story takes us back to Baltimore, 1962: the Fifties are out – and change is in the air.
Tracy Turnblad, a local teenager with big hair and an even bigger heart, has just one passion: dancing. Tracy wins a spot on the local TV dance programme The Corny Collins Show – and is transformed overnight from outsider to teen celebrity. She even looks set to beat evil Amber to the crown of Miss Hairspray – and to win the heart of local heartthrob Link Larkin. So far, so much fun.
In fact, though, there is more to Hairspray than its bubblegum image suggests. Tracy's challenge is not to just grab herself a slice of fame and romance – she's also on a campaign to inject some racial integration into Corny's all-white show. There's serious social commentary here, albeit worn lightly: this is early 1960s America, after all, where racial segregation was still very much the norm.
The musical is touring the UK this year, arriving at Bristol Hippodrome on Tuesday.
Studio dips into a rich Spanish treasure-chest
This autumn sees a new Spanish Golden Age season at Bath's Ustinov Studio. The new season will bring to the stage three brand new translations of rarely-seen plays from the last unopened treasure-chest of world drama.
This is a significant cultural event in the UK and a major innovation in the history of Golden Age translation and performance.
After their premieres in Bath, the plays will be performed at London's Arcola Theatre and the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry.
The plays are Punishment Without Revenge, A Lady of Little Sense and Don Gil of the Green Breeches. One is a devastating tragedy, two are outrageous comedies and all three are extraordinary discoveries.
This autumn, the Ustinov will have its own resident ensemble of ten actors, the largest company for the theatre's most audacious and ambitious season so far.
Ten actors all playing a range of roles in these great plays from Spain, so as you come to see the plays over the season you will get to know these performers and see their great skill and versatility as they play ... masters in one play and servants in the next.
Laurence Boswell has decided to bring back some of the very best actors who have already been seen by audiences in the Ustinov's previous four highly-acclaimed and award-winning seasons, including Frances McNamee (The Phoenix of Madrid) Simon Scardifield (The Double) Katie Lightfoot (In The Next Room or the Vibrator Play) and Chris Andrew Mellon (In a Garden).
The Spanish Golden Age Company is Nick Barber, Jim Bywater, Hedydd Dylan, Annie Hemingway, William Hoyland, Katie Lightfoot, Frances McNamee, Chris Andrew Mellon, Doug Rao and Simon Scardifield.
Stage trip into the world of Horace – Keynsham
Anyone who grew up on Radio Luxembourg will know the name Horace Batchelor even if they never did more than listen to the adverts for his foolproof method of winning the football pools.
Now Horace's name is up in lights again, this time for the world premiere of An Audience With Horace Batchelor: King of Keynsham which is currently being presented at Bristol's Tobacco Factory Theatre, where it runs until Saturday, August 10.
It is written by Kevin Cattell and directed by Ed Viney and is being performed by Roland Oliver.
Design is by James Helps and it is produced by Blue Brook Productions.
It's 1974. Horace's Infra-Draw Method for winning the pools has not only brought him a lot of money but also a heap of infamy to a small town near Bristol.
In this rags-to-riches story (your rags, his riches), Horace takes you into his world before he leaves it. It's a world not far from here – Keynsham.
Roland Oliver is known locally for his performances with the critically-acclaimed Shakespeare at the Tobacco Factory having played King Lear and appeared in several productions to date including Richard II, Hamlet and Taming of the Shrew.
Roland originated the roles of Andrew McKinlay MP and Michael Mates in the verbatim plays at the Tricycle Theatre. His television credits include Bad Girls and appearances in numerous popular drama series including Skins, Vera, Coronation Street and EastEnders.
Ed Viney trained at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and the National Theatre where he was director in residence at the National Theatre Studio.
A former documentary maker, this is Kevin Cattell's professional debut as a playwright.