‘Underrated: Birmingham – the Musical’, is the latest production from Birmingham based Women & Theatre.
Developed in partnership with; Queensbridge Secondary School, Priestley Smith School for the Visually Impaired, and The Children’s Society’s – ‘Strong Voices, Strong Lives’ project, ‘Underrated’ sets out to discover ‘what our city means to our most dynamic residents’, i.e. it’s children and young adults.
The premise is simple; a guide book researcher comes to Birmingham, looking to ‘rate’ the city to outsiders. Preparing to ‘write it off’, they then encounter some of Birmingham younger residents; who ‘take them on a whirlwind tour of the cities delights and assets.’
Following the supposition ’Birmingham is the UK’s second city, so why should we struggle with a second-rate reputation?’ the narrative looks ‘beyond the Bullring and the Balti triangle’, in a ‘theatrical extravaganza celebrating the best bits of Brum’.
‘Underrated’ ustilises a range of media to deliver its message; including ‘film and multimedia combined with live performances, and songs’, with compositions coming from ‘the young people’ involved in the show.
Women & Theatre Artistic Director, Janice Connolly, says, “The project aims to bring together three groups of young Birmingham people to create a new piece of musical theatre.
The piece acknowledges the underrated reputation of the city through new songs written by the young people, and the aim is to begin to celebrate what is unique about our city. One of Birmingham’s main strengths is it’s super diversity which is reflected in the young talented cast.”
‘Underrated’: Birmingham – the Musical’ is held at, and supported by, the MAC (Foyle Studio).
It runs for two performances, over two consecutive nights; 6pm & 7:30pm on 14th/15th June.
For more information visit http://www.womenandtheatre.co.uk/projects/underrated-birmingham-the-musical/
To book online, visit http://tickets.macarts.co.uk/PEO//show_events_list.asp