Tickets for the new season’s shows will go on general sale at 10am on Thursday 29 June.
The Corn Exchange will kick start their jam packed music season with an evening of hits from Andy Fairweather Low & The Low Riders on Wednesday 6 September, and will continue into the colder months with gigs from the likes of folk-rock legends, Fairport Convention, who are on their 50th Anniversary Tour (Tue 24 Oct).
A host of sensational tribute acts will have you dancing in the aisles at shows such as The Bee Gee’s Story: Night’s On Broadway (Fri 8 Sep), Buddy Holly and The Cricketers (Thu 28 Sep), The Cavern Beatles (Sat 14 Oct) and Stand by Me (Fri 20 Oct). For an evening of hit soul tunes, join the Soul Legends on Saturday 18 November, and to get you into the festive spirit, come along to the annual Carols at the Corn Exchange concert on Saturday 25 November.
Well known comedians such as Jason Manford (Wed 20 Sep), Jeremy Hardy (Sat 21 Oct) and Danny Bhoy (Sat 11 Nov) will take to the stage to tickle your funny bones; John Culshaw and Dead Ringers producer Bill Dare will present their latest, totally spontaneous and unscripted show The Great British Take Off! (Sat 9 Sep); while America’s Got Talent winning ventriloquist Paul Zerdin (Fri 15 Sep) returns to the UK with his unique, puppet assisted brand of stand-up; and for something a little different, comedy theatre show Dirty Dusting (Thu 2 Nov), starring Crissy Rock (Benidorm, ITV), will tell the story of three senior cleaning ladies who are inspired to start up a naughty phone chat line.
Enter a fantasy world of circus, puppetry, monochrome, movement and mime in Elusive Circus’ Dust (Thu 7 Sep) where anything is possible, and nothing is quite as it seems; join The Demon Barbers for The Lock In ‘Remixed’ (Thu 14 Sep) and see highly talented hip-hop artists dance off to BBC Radio 2 Folk Award winning music; and set your pulses racing as Tap Factory (Wed 11 Oct) blend mind-blowing dance, acrobatics, cirque and comedy in two high-energy, tap performances.
For comedy theatre lovers, Theatre Chipping Norton’s witty spoof of Sherlock Holmes and the Crimson Cobbles(Tue 26 Sep) will keep you guessing and giggling through the mystery; award-winning comedy duo LipService will celebrate the 200th commemoration year of Jane Austen with their affectionately irreverent spin off of Pride and Prejudice in Mr Darcy Loses The Plot (Thu 12 Oct); and be intrigued by the gothic tale of what happens when one woman becomes the confidant of a whole town’s sordid secrets in The Secret Keeper (Fri 10 Nov).
Renowned full-mask theatre company Vamos Theatre will also bring their award-winning show, Finding Joy (Tue 14 & Wed 15 Nov) to the Corn Exchange, telling the true story Joy, who has dementia, and her teenaged grandson, who decides to take care of her, with humour, poignancy and warmth.
For younger audiences aged 3+, the fantastic adaptation of much loved children’s book, The Gruffalo (Fri 22 – Sun 24 Sep) is set to be a perfect family treat; and Nonesense Room Productions present a fin-tastic family musical adaptation of Nick Sharratt’s Shark in the Park (Wed 25 & Thu 26 Oct) in October half term.
The Corn Exchange’s expanding Outdoor Arts programme carries on into the darkening nights as action theatre company PAN.OPTIKUM join with more than 30 young people from across nine European countries to present a dance performance of giant proportions in The Power of Diversity: The Crossing Lines Project on Saturday 12 August.
And the highly anticipated annual Festival of Lights: Lantern Procession returns to Northbrook Street on Sunday 10 December, illuminating Newbury’s town centre with beautiful handmade lanterns and sparkling lights; free lantern making workshops are also offered in advance of the event. Both of these exciting outdoor events are free to attend.
The Lantern Procession isn’t the only festive activity taking place in the town centre. Tickets for the Corn Exchange’s popular annual pantomime are already on sale and selling fast! This year Beauty and The Beast are the stars of the family friendly Christmas show, which will run from Friday 1 December 2017 to Sunday 7 January 2018.
More information on all of these events, plus a whole host of other shows can be found at the Corn Exchange website www.cornexchangenew.com or by calling the Box Office on 0845 5218 218 (calls cost 2p per minute plus your telephone company’s access charge).