Birmingham Stage Company

Horrible Histories LIVE ON STAGE celebrates 5 years in the West End!


2 September 2016

Five years ago the Commercial Director of Nimax Theatres rang our office to ask if we’d ever thought of bringing HORRIBLE HISTORIES into the West End. Five years later we’re coming to the end of our latest season, which has turned out to be the most successful run we’ve ever had in London.

BARMY BRITAIN has been a joy to work on from beginning to end. In the age of the music hall, some performers would do the same acts for thirty or more years, honing and perfecting the scenes. I feel the same about BARMY BRITAIN. Five years in the West End has given us a chance to continuously work on the three different versions until we have something we really know is working – and we continue to find new things every day.

It never used to be this way. When I worked with the wonderful Israeli playwright Oren Lavie, he turned to me one afternoon to say “Why do you go from one production to the next? When you’ve got something good, you should keep doing it, to make it better and to make it pay its way”. He was right and it changed the way I ran the company. When something was working, I have kept it going to make it better and better each time and have been thrilled by the experience.

We’ve been producing HORRIBLE HISTORIES now for eleven years and I’m still loving every minute it. So here’s to eleven more years and a few more seasons in the West End; 2017 is already being planned!


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