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# SPOTLIGHT ON: Disco, Drag, Drama and Dinosaurs
- URL: https://www.scenemag.co.uk/spotlight-on-disco-drag-drama-and-dinosaurs/
- Published: 2022-10-08T09:00:25.000Z
- Updated: 2022-10-07T13:55:33.000Z
- Description: Brian Butler finds the Theatre Royal’s winter season has it all
- Author: Brian Butler
- Tags: Arts, Comedy, Previews, Theatre, John Baldock, Sir Ian McKellen, Theatre Royal Brighton

Launching the latest season of shows at **Brighton’s Theatre Royal**, the theatre director **John Baldock** summed it up as: “ disco, drag, drama and dinosaurs”. He could have added campness, comedy and criminality.

He told me: “we re-opened after Covid in July 2021 and it seems an age ago now. This season has it all – from Cher songs, to crime capers, a drag mystery and of course Sir Ian McKellen in a panto which will be stunning and amazing”.

![](https://www.scenemag.co.uk/content/images/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/feunoqgxwau23lq-jfif.jpg)

October’s offerings are: **Spike** – a play about the anarchic comedian and writer Spike Milligan, co-written by Private Eye editor and Have I Got News For You panellist Ian Hislop. It runs 11-15 October. It’s followed by the ultimate comedy of theatrical chaos and confusion, Michael Frayn’s Noises Off, starring among others Felicity Kendall and Matthew Kelly. It runs 18-22 this month.

![](https://www.scenemag.co.uk/content/images/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/fetglm_wiaakipv-jfif.jpg)

The month ends with EastEnders royalty Todd Carty and John Altman in the 70th anniversary tour of the best known whodunnit Agatha Christie’s **The Mousetrap** – the launching pad for many a theatrical career. It’s on from 24-29 October.

November sees 35 smash hit songs in **The Cher Show** – if you miss it you won’t be able to turn back time. It runs from 1-12 November.

More whodunit material follows in the National Theatre’s ground-breaking re-imagining of J B Priestley’s **An Inspector Calls** – worth it for the scenery alone. It can be seen 15-19 November. Classic Ealing comedy **The Lavender Hill Mob** hits the stage starring comedians Miles Jupp and Justin Edwards from 21-26 November.

![](https://www.scenemag.co.uk/content/images/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/fd03masxgae3uhf-jfif.jpg)

That stunningly ingenious and funny cocktail of a drag murder mystery **Death Drop** re-appears in a new show Back In The Habit, featuring a gaggle of famous nuns trapped in a convent by a serial killer. It features RuPaul star Cheryl Hole, female drag act Victoria Scone, drag queen River Medway and drag King LoUis CYfer. It sounds to be an absolutely hoot of a night.

![](https://www.scenemag.co.uk/content/images/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/fdmguetxgaa_9nj-jfif.jpg)

If raptors and such are your thing then **Jurassic Live** is for you with the stage ruled by an array of animatronic dinosaurs. It plays 27-30 December.

![](https://www.scenemag.co.uk/content/images/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/600-john-bishop-mel-giedroyc-and-ian-mckellen--photo-craig-sugden.jpg)

And the icing on the cake of this season has got to be **Mother Goose the panto**, written by brilliant Queer writer Jonathan Harvey and starring Sir Ian McKellen in the title role supported by John Bishop and Mel Giedroyc. It opens in Brighton from 3-11 December before going on an extensive tour until next Easter.

[**Booking information at atgtickets.com**](https://www.atgtickets.com/?ref=scenemag.co.uk)

![](https://www.scenemag.co.uk/content/images/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/feivn4nwqaavk3m-jfif.jpg)