There is still something wonderfully indulgent about a night at the theatre.
The lights dim, conversations stop and for the next couple of hours the outside world disappears. And in Birmingham, you are particularly well placed to enjoy it.
At the centre of the city’s theatre scene is Birmingham Hippodrome. Located in Southside, the venue has become one of Birmingham’s great cultural landmarks and provides the city with a constantly changing mix of major musicals, ballet, dance, drama and family entertainment.
For audiences, its appeal goes beyond the performance itself.
A trip to the Hippodrome can become a proper Birmingham night out. Chinatown is on the doorstep, meaning dinner can be part of the occasion, while Southside provides plenty of choices for drinks afterwards.
But Birmingham theatre isn’t simply about touring West End productions.
The city’s wider performance culture embraces new writing, comedy, dance, experimental work and productions that would struggle to find space in a purely commercial theatre landscape.
That matters.
Great cities need places where audiences can see something familiar, but they also need stages on which artists are allowed to surprise them.
Birmingham increasingly offers both.
There is another reason theatre deserves rediscovering. In an age when almost every form of entertainment is available on a screen, live performance remains stubbornly unrepeatable.
An actor misses a beat. An audience laughs longer than expected. A singer receives an ovation that temporarily stops the show.
You were either there or you weren’t.
That shared experience is something streaming simply cannot reproduce.
It also explains why theatre can work so well across generations. A spectacular musical can introduce children to live performance; drama can provoke a conversation on the journey home; comedy provides uncomplicated escapism; dance can communicate without saying a word.
Birmingham’s cultural geography makes all of this remarkably accessible.
You can combine theatre with dinner, shopping, a hotel stay or drinks, creating anything from a relatively inexpensive afternoon matinee to a full celebration weekend.
Our suggestion? Occasionally book something you know almost nothing about.
The famous shows will always attract attention, and deservedly so, but look further down the programme. Find a new play. Try contemporary dance. See a comedian before they graduate to arenas.
The thrill of Birmingham’s entertainment scene lies partly in knowing the city can deliver the blockbuster.
Its real strength lies in everything happening around it.
So dress up if you want to. Don’t if you don’t.
Buy the programme, order the interval drink and take your seat before the bell.
For a few hours at least, Birmingham has another story to tell.
