The theatre continues to attract a diverse range of exciting companies and performers to the region giving audiences access to an un-paralleled array of live entertainment.

This season it is also launching a new fundraising initiative called Harrogate Theatre Benefactors which allows people who join the opportunity to receive exclusive ticket discounts and other benefits. Fifty per cent of each Harrogate Theatre Benefactor membership fee will go directly towards a variety of the theatre’s outreach projects as well as contributing to its restoration appeal.

Season Highlights

Cinderella

This Christmas at Harrogate Theatre promises to be a special one as for the first time in more than a decade it stages the greatest fairy story of them all – Cinderella.

Full of the classic pantomime characters including Buttons, Prince Charming and the Ugly Sisters this year’s show will continue Harrogate’s reputation for staging a family pantomime.

Last year Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs broke all Harrogate Theatre box office records – with well over 27,000 people enjoying the magic and spectacle - and this years sales are already high with over a third of tickets sold by July.

Phil Lowe returns to direct Cinderella and writer Nicholas Pegg returns for his twelfth pantomime at Harrogate Theatre. Nicholas has enjoyed another hectic year working on Doctor Who, combining his role as a writer and director on the audio series for BBC7 with appearances as a Dalek in the tense series four finale on the BBC1 show. He has also written a story for the 2009 Doctor Who Storybook which is due to be published at the end of the year.

l Cinderella runs from Friday November 28 to Sunday January 11.



Absolutely Frank

Following Dick Barton-Special Agent, Harrogate Theatre is co-producing Tim Firth’s comedy on the edge of a building, Absolutely Frank with Oldham Coliseum and Anvil Arts, Basingstoke.

Tim Firth is the acclaimed writer of such hits as Neville’s Island, Our House, All Quiet On The Preston Front and the hit films Calendar Girls and Kinky Boots. Absolutely Frank began as a one act play A Man Of Letters which was commissioned by Alan Ayckbourn and performed at the Stephen Joseph Theatre in 1991.

The cast will feature Des O’Malley, who appeared regularly in BBC3’s Ideal, alongside Geoffrey Hughes who is best known for his role as Onslow in Keeping Up Appearances, Twiggy in The Royle Family, Vernon Scripps in Heartbeat and Eddie Yates in Coronation Street.

Noreen Kershaw makes her Harrogate Theatre debut as director. She recently directed the Liverpool Nativity for BBC and has also directed episodes of Coronation Street and Shameless.