The legendary Nottingham Playhouse panto reaches new heights with a giant of a show – Jack and the Beanstalk! When Jack exchanges the family cow for mysterious beans, he begins an epic adventure when they grow into an enormous beanstalk. Join Jack as he bravely climbs to discover a land above the clouds, where a ferocious giant lurks in his castle. Will Jack outwit the giant and leave with his magic harp? And can he bag the golden egg-laying goose that will change his family’s fortunes forever?

To everyone’s surprise, they’re nothing like the rest of the family. As the seasons change, the duckling heads out on a mission to find some new friends. Along the way they encounter some crafty creatures and have exciting adventures before discovering that the best thing to be, is yourself. Specially created for children ages 3 – 8, our brand-new version of this charming tale is the perfect introduction to live theatre. Full of music, creative captioning and plenty of opportunities to join in, this 50-minute-long show is a great festive treat for little ones.

ELO Again really give you a dramatic taste of what a legendary ELO concert would have been like back in their heyday, the whole experience is professionally re-enacted with a great sound reproduction, light show and visual effects. They perform all the big hits – Mr Blue Sky, Livin’ Thing, Sweet Talkin’ Woman, Shine a Little Love, Confusion, Last Train to London, Roll Over Beethoven, Wild West Hero, Don’t Bring Me Down, The Diary of Horace Wimp, Telephone Line, Turn to Stone plus many more. As the UK’s No.1 tribute show, ELO Again provide you with the spectacular live effect of ELO’s famous orchestrations, soaring strings and vocals. They certainly know how to entertain too, as the hits just keep on coming.

Approximately 2 Hours 30 mins

Ever since he was a kid, kicking footballs on the streets of East London in the shadow of Canary Wharf’s skyscrapers, Gary wanted something better. Then, he won a competition run by a bank: ‘The Trading Game.’ The prize: a golden ticket to a new life – which Gary took with both hands to become the youngest and most successful trader in the city. In a journey equal parts extraordinary and unsettling, Gary will take us deep inside the high-stakes world of trillion-dollar trades, where profit and moral compromise collide. What happens when winning starts to feel like losing? When the easiest way to make money is to bet on millions becoming poorer and poorer – and, as the economy begins to crumble, how do you stop your own sanity slipping with it?

Approximately 1 Hour 50 mins

The Banff Mountain Film Festival is back with a brand-new line-up of captivating short films packed with extreme journeys, intriguing characters and stunning cinematography. Join the world’s top outdoor filmmakers and adventurers as they climb, ski, paddle, run and ride through the wildest corners of the planet! With exciting nightly prize giveaways and a theatre packed with adventure lovers, this is an unmissable event from the world’s most prestigious mountain festival. Spark your passion for adventure, action and travel at the Banff Mountain Film Festival!

Approximately 2 Hours 25 mins

Fairport Convention have been entertaining music lovers for over half a century, having formed in 1967. During that time the band that launched British folk-rock has seen many changes, but one thing has remained the same - Fairport’s passion for performance. This year’s Winter Tour will present a mix of long-established Fairport favourites and some surprises from albums old and new.

Approximately 2 Hours 30 mins

It starts as a typical love story – boy meets girl and sparks fly. An intense, passionate relationship begins. In time they settle down, have children and live ordinary, chaotic lives. But beneath the veneer of normality, a disturbing undercurrent is growing. Their seemingly perfect world unravels, revealing shocking truths about family, violence and what really goes on behind closed doors. Girls & Boys is a tour-de-force – a gripping one-woman show full of savage humour and raw intensity, performed in 90 minutes in a breathtaking, powerhouse performance.

Approximately 1 Hour 30 mins

Radio 4 favourite, comedy legend, and ‘the 42nd best reason to love Britain’ (The Telegraph) John Shuttleworth, is back with more hilarious stories and songs performed on his trusty Yamaha organ (with built-in auto accompaniment). In Raise the Oof John celebrates 40 years in showbiz. Yes, it was 1985 when he met TV’s Clarinet Man – next door neighbour Ken Worthington who came last on New Faces in 73 (Tony Hatch crucified him!) “When I met Ken he was eating a CurlyWurly” recalls John, “although initially I thought it was a packet of sparklers, so I gave him a wide berth”, and the rest, as they say, is hysterical! “ Actually, I feel rather calm” muses John, “although after forty years and still no chart success, perhaps I should be slightly anxious. My wife Mary says I should get a proper job, but there’s not time – I’m about to retire! Besides, Comet – where I used to demonstrate audio equipment – no longer exists. As for the sweet factory in the Rotherham area where I worked as a security guard in the 1980’s – that’s now an Axe Throwing Centre. Oof!”

Approximately 1 Hour 50 mins

M is a woman. M is a writer. M is a mother. Catapulted from the crest of a hit play and hijacked by motherhood – the wild nights out have been replaced by evenings in with baby and a breastpump. Suddenly M is burnt out, angry, lonely, unsure and, quite frankly, terrified of the future. She wants to tell her story, her way. But, as she spills her guts and starts to write, everyone around her shares their opinions on who she is, who she should be and how she’s f*cking everything up.

Larry’s been spending a lot of time with his granny lately. He wants to tell you about it. Join the thrice Edinburgh Comedy Award-nominated, two-time star of Live At The Apollo for a hilarious new show about identity, heroes and the benefits of being a dafty. As seen on Mock The Week, House Of Games, Fandan (Channel 4 Comedy Special) and Michael McIntyre’s Big Show.

Approximately 1 Hour 40 mins

Packed with personality and humour, Crooners has been wowing audiences with its witty and exhilarating show full of hilarious one liners, laugh out loud silliness and superb musical numbers with the outstanding 9-piece The Mini Big Band live on stage. The show pays homage to some of the greatest Crooners of all time with a splendiferous injection of Britishness. Featuring humour, tap dance and some of the most quintessential songs from Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr, Matt Monro, Nat King Cole, Bobby Darin. Expect some Come Fly With Me, Fly Me to the Moon, Mack the Knife and many, many more…

Approximately 2 Hours 20 mins

Queenz are back with a brand new show! Join the gals for an electrifying, live vocal, drag-stravaganza, where Dancing Queenz and Disco Dreams collide for the party of a lifetime. After two trailblazing years of touring the country, a run in London’s West End, and accumulating countless 5-star reviews, Queenz has rapidly ascended as one of the world’s most successful drag shows. Featuring more sequins and surprises than ever before, the gals are ready to drag you to the dance floor and serve up the ultimate celebration of powerhouse popstars & dazzling disco divas.

Following a sell out performance in 2024 Miles Jupp returns with critically acclaimed show ON I BANG Since Miles’ last tour finished at The London Palladium in 2017, he’s been in The Full Monty on Disney Plus, The Durrells and Why Didn’t They Ask Evans? on ITV, as well as a heap of episodes of Frankie Boyle’s New World Order and Have I Got News For You. He’s made an award-winning radio series and he’s published a novel. But for Covid, he would have played a lead at the RSC. Hey ho. Nevertheless he’s done a play in the West End and played the Emperor of Austria and Europe in a Ridley Scott film.

Approximately 1 Hour 45 mins

This year saw Science lead the way in getting our lives back to normal. Now, the UK’s favourite science team are back and more explosive than ever! Join our presenters as they dive deep into the world of science and look at how science shapes the modern world we live in with a few loud bangs along the way! They’ll take an anarchic approach to science communication whilst looking at the scientists, engineers and inventors who have shaped the modern world that we live in whilst proving that each and everyone of you have the ability to change our world for the better!

With glamorous tales from behind the camera and less glamorous anecdotes of first-time fatherhood, Joel remains a charming, exhausted, happy idiot. As one of the nation’s most familiar faces on television, Joel has established himself as one of the UK’s most trusted and beloved presenters and a firm favourite in UK households. As presenter of Saturday night smash-hit The Masked Singer, ITV2’s I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here: Extra Camp, BBC’s reboot of Survivor, the hugely popular quiz show In With A Shout and the front man of the National Television Awards, Joel has also hosted BBC’s Live at the Apollo and co-hosts hit podcast, Never Have I Ever with his wife, Hannah.

Approximately 1 Hour 50 mins

When a group of exploited animals rebel against their human farmer-tyrant and take control of the land that they live on, they hope to create a world where they can be equal, happier and free. As power shifts and a new leader emerges, they soon face the age-old question: is the grass truly greener on the other side? In the year George Orwell’s political fable marks its 80th anniversary, Director Amy Leach and Designer Hayley Grindle introduce a fresh interpretation to the stage that explores the erosion of ideals and the seductive allure of greed. Adapted by Tatty Hennessy, this chilling and thought-provoking story of treachery and rebellion provides a timely reminder of the perils of unchecked power.

Pam Ayres has spent a lifetime providing hilarious and profound insights into the delights and tribulations of everyday life. She comes to Nottingham to talk about her latest book, Doggedly Onward – A Life in Poems, 1970 to 2020s, published in October 2024. Pam has gathered her career’s work of poetry into this book, which traces the course of her life, and illustrates how her work has provoked laughter, and some tears, to people around the world.

Approximately 2 Hours 10 mins

In this brand new show, Lee shares his stage with a tough-talking werewolf comedian from the dark forests of North America who hates humanity. The Man-Wulf lays down a ferocious comedy challenge to the culturally irrelevant and physically enfeebled Lee. Can the beast inside us all be silenced with the silver bullet of Lee’s unprecedentedly critically acclaimed style of stand-up? Stewart Lee (“The world’s greatest living stand-up comedian” The Times), is in danger of being left behind. He’s approaching sixty with debilitating health conditions, his TV profile has diminished, and his once BAFTA award-winning style of stand-up seems obsolete. But can Lee unleash his inner Man-Wulf to position himself alongside comedy legends like Dave Chappelle, Ricky Gervais and Jordan Peterson at the forefront of side-splitting stadium-stuffing sh*t-posting?

DETENTION, Gary Clarke Company’s sequel to COAL and WASTELAND, explores Section 28, which ‘prohibited the promotion of homosexuality’, forcing the LGBT+ community into a place of secrecy, fear and shame; set to a backdrop of nationwide industrial turmoil and the onslaught of AIDS. Gary Clarke uses powerful storytelling, drawing on verbatim testimonies with vivid choreography performed by a company of exceptional dancers, narrator, and local cast of LGBT+ people. Featuring music tracks by the iconic Test Dept, DETENTION is a bold and moving portrayal of the remarkable resilience of individuals and organisations of the time.

It aimed to help the wives and girlfriends of servicemen deployed to Afghanistan – helping them to express themselves through song. Within a year, the choir was number one on the UK singles chart with the Christmas hit Wherever You Are. A number one album, In My Dreams, followed. The choir performed at the opening of the Olympic Stadium, performed for the Queen, and scored a second number one album, Sing, with Gary Barlow and Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber. Open, today, to all women whose lives are impacted by their connection with the military, including serving women, veterans, wives, partners, mothers, sisters, daughters and with a thriving network of 1800 members in 70 choirs worldwide, Military Wives Choir is now on tour, for a rousing, uplifting evening that will inspire and delight.

Approximately 1 Hour 50 mins

In 1992 in an Afghanistan ravaged by war, an orphaned Laila is left alone in an increasingly threatening world. Her older neighbour Rasheed is quick to open his home and takes Laila as his second wife. Rasheed’s first wife Mariam has no choice but to accept her younger, and now pregnant, rival. As the Taliban take over, life for all of them becomes a desperate struggle against starvation, brutality and fear, and the two women find themselves unlikely allies.

Join the multi-award-winning comedian as he guides us through family life, his new found fame and the joys of Costco in this hilarious new stand up show. As seen on Taskmaster (C4), Live at the Apollo (BBC), Celebrity Gogglebox (C4), Would I Lie to You (BBC) and The Last Leg (C4).

A good mother, a good daughter, a good partner, a good friend, a good person. To be ambitious but not ruthless; a success but not a sell-out. A gentle parent but not a pushover. To be smashing life and make it look easy. The juggle. Suzi is exhausted and she hasn’t even started. This is a stand-up show and a support group! The Juggle is a brand new tour from confessional multi-award winning comedian Suzi Ruffell.

Approximately 1 Hour 50 mins