New Alexandra Theatre

Growing up it was all about Paul Daniels and the magic kit I got for Christmas! Seeing magic live was amazing. I am convinced there are some real Harry Potters in the world. Of course it had its fair share of cheese but that’s to be expected. All in all a good show and def worth a see.

The New Alexandra is not very big and you wouldn’t assume it’s a theatre from the outside if the name wouldn’t say. But if you go inside, you feel as if you have stepped into a different building… The bar area is lit up with colourful lights and the theatre is comfortable. The drinks here are quite pricey which I would say is normal for a theatre. The Alex has a cool and varying program.

I always enjoy going to the theatre, it is one of my favourite things to do. I have visited the Alex lots of times over the years, the last time being last week to see Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. The shows are always great and the programmes are reasonably priced as are the refreshments. However I have to complain about the seating. There are parts of the building where the view is incredibly restricted. To the point where throughout the show you have to sit at a 45 degree angle to see anything. It doesn’t have to be like this when compared to the hippodrome where it doesn’t matter where you sit, it is always a good seat. Plus the amount of toilets and quality leave a lot to be desired.

Now, I love a theatre, I do!
Last time I came to the Alex was for Pam Ann and I’ll tell you about that in a moment.
The Alex, The Hippo and the Old Rep were the three theatres of Birmingham when I was a Kid. The Alex is part of the Ambassador Theatre Group but still manages to maintain it’s feel as a locally focused venue showing national tours.
The main entrance feels quite 70s on the outside and has a sweeping staircase leading from the box office to the main bar upstairs. There are three levels to the main house. I like to sit in the stalls near the front here.
Last time I went was to see Pam Ann who is an Air Hostess Character played by Caroline Reid. Pam Ann seems to take the worst flights ever and tells us all about terrible incidents on planes through videos and songs.
The audience at a Pam Ann show can get quite loud as Pam likes to see a lot of interaction from the audience, even though some of the audience might have had a few too many premixed drinks in the pub prior to departure.
At the end of a show there’s no need to walk all the way back to the main foyer as the side exits lead right to the street and you can nip into the Victoria right underneath for a swift drink before heading home.

«I christen her Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. God bless all those who rider her!»
Well, we where taken on a whistle stop tour of the outback and back again with a stellar cast and a fabulous chorus full of colour, innuendo, debauchery and more camp than singing Around The Old Campfire at Butlins!
Liberating at it’s time, the story follows three drag queens as they travel in Priscilla, who’s first appearance is more complimentary then waking up next to Katie Hopkins, who now apparently loves the gays by the way, from Sydney to a gig in Alice Springs.
‘Les Girls’ are Bernadette, an ageing transexual, sharp-​tongue Felicia and sensitive-​flower Mitzi, played by the every graceful Jason Donavon, and the celebration of camp takes them where no lip-​synching drag-​queens have ever gone before.
What it lacks in «La Cage“‘s narrative, it makes up for with the guilty-​pleasure indulgence of high-​end camp and flamboyancy not seen since the days of Dame Edna herself!
The director of the film Stephan Elliot also had a hand in developing the stage version, recreating the hits for the stage-​version — Madonna through to the Village People and Kylie, and throwing in to the mix a wardrobe complete with gargantuan club-​kid rubber platforms, topiary headpieces and hot-​pink-​and-​orange sheath constructed entirely of flip-​flops. I had planned this for my Pride outfit for this year.
It’s just fabulous dear!

A Christmas present to my dad was tickets to the opening of East to East on Tuesday. After a lovely meal at Côte we dashed over and joined the queues, although there was a fair bit of waiting and shuffling along to our seats everyone was polite and for the amount of people we were sat down pretty quickly.
I love the theatre and it holds some great memories for me, so I’m sad to see in some places it’s looking a little tired, however I know how much these things can cost.
That said the show was great and on our shuffle to our seats I spotted at least two more shows I want to attend.
Great place to go with family or friends and lots of places to eat and drink close by as well as easily accessible to the train station.

Have watched shows at the Alex many times in my life, was even in a drama club there when I was young! The most recent time was to see Avenue Q. It’s not incredibly glamorous or impressive, more cosy– and there’s nothing wrong with that! There are lots of places to purchase sweets and drinks (including alcoholic) and the queues go down quickly. I purchased a bottle of water and some chocolates and this came to £5.50.
The show looked and sounded great. We had seats in the stalls and this gave us a great view. It was a little too warm.
The theatre isn’t huge but that adds to the atmosphere!

The first time i went with my brother and sister and even though we enjoyed the act it would of been so much better if there was leg room. All our legs were in pain and i kept been kicked by person behind me how was also trying to find position to be slightly comfortable. In the end both times i had to move the chair at slight angle so at least i was not cramped. Luckily second time i went it was a concert so for about 45 mins i could stand up but we had wait for 30 mins for act to come one so my legs ached again. Hopefully i won’t have to go again any time soon unless im at the end of row so can stretch my legs or by some miracle they add more space between seats

When I first went to the Alexander Theatre everyone was cross dressing, whipping each other, people dressed as gimps and an insane amount of glitter.
I’ll leave you to guess what I was seeing there.
The venue it’s self is known to hosting quite big shows, and even though it’s the smallest in scale of out the Birmingham Theatre gang it’s surprising how much actually goes on there.
The inside is what you expect, with three levels of seats, which with its own price tag; but I was sitting pretty far back and was crammed in a corner and still got a great view of the stage.
The stage was a good size and you could see a live band playing the score In a window above where all the action was going on. A great set up.
There’s places to buy your drinks, but the prices are high in price. Have a few before you get here and save your cash, you’ll need it for the merchandise in the foyer.

Alexandra Theatre offers a fabulous mix of big name musicals, stand-​up comedy and other general showbiz razzmatazz.
The programme is always a bit brash and refreshingly unpretentious — you get Psychic Sally listed next to the English National Ballet and Legally Blonde the Musical.
I caught Legally Blonde their last year and had an absolute blast — the production was clearly big budget and the performances were up there with the West End version.
The theatre itself is a lovely space to be in, with tiered seating and fancy chandeliers. Legroom is a bit sparse when you are up in the gods, but you still get a good view.
There are a couple of bars for pre-​show and interval drinks. You’ll find show merchandise stands and an ice cream and sweets stall in the lobby.

Perhaps unfairly dismissed as the ‘ugly sister’ to the city’s premier league Hippodrome and the more visible REP, the Arcadian is a little off the beaten track and its exterior perhaps not as inviting. However, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t feature an appealing schedule — and, due to attracting music acts and comedians as well as theatrical shows, it probably offers a broader appeal.
Inside, the theatre is a pleasing proposition with three tiers offering a choice of perspectives, although the downward slope of each means you won’t have to peer behind someone’s head to get a good view. The space itself is a decent size, not too cavernous but not tiny either; I’ve never actually attended a show here, but watching Laura Marling play was a night that felt widescreen but intimate at the same time.
Can’t wait to catch Simon Amstell here in a week’s time! Whenever you do your next big browse through the listings, remember to check out the Alexandra — you might miss a great night.

anne bolyen 21 mar good production some times the audio was a bit poor but good story and players were good loved cromwell sooo evil yay

Has a lovely old fashioned feel to it and ticket prices are very reasonable.
They could do with more toilets as they get very busy in the intervals and I found the bar prices quite expensive.
On the night that i went about a month ago, i found they turned the air conditioning on full blast when the play started and it was rather frosty throughout. Even the play writer/​star of the show commented on this to the audience at the end.
The actual comedy play i went to see though was hilarious so this more than made up for it.

There is nothing I like better than getting a bit dolled up and going to the theatre and seeing a great show. I have done this a few ties this year and as I am in Birmingham for most of my week I usually check what is on around the theatres here. The main theatre by me is the Alexandra because it is central in town and right next to all of the public transport links. I am going to tell you all in this review exactly what this theatre is like and why I think it is a great place to go to see all your theatrical things (when there is something decent on of course).
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The Alexandra Theatre:
Birmingham has quite a few places where you can see theatre, plays and live music. The Alexandra is one of the smaller theatres and specifies not just in theatre but you will often find comedians, musical nights out and then also some of the biggest names in television can stop by. Of course it is purely just luck what you do get to see but it is usually things that are touring around the UK at the moment so we have just had Chicago and in a couple of weeks we have puppetry of the Penis and also Russell Brand.
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Where to go:
So you are in Birmingham and you have no idea where the Alexandra is. It is quite hard to find so here is the address;
Station Street,
Birmingham,
B5 4DS.
You can also go to
where you will be able to find information about what is on and also you can buy tickets.
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Location:
One thing I can say about this theatre is that it does have the perfect location. It is located on the Queensway road which is very busy but it is easy to get to and easy to cross over everywhere where you are. It is conveniently a two minute walk away from the city centre so you can go for something nice to eat before or after the show or something to drink and you are in close distance to get there in time. It is also very close to the Mailbox which is a lovely and lively place to go at any point in the day.
Public transport is rife in the city centre and the Alexandra theatre is a five minute walk away from New Street train station and then just a few minutes from all of the bus routes. The metro and Snow Hill station is about a twenty minute walk so everything is pretty close and you should not have any problem with catching them as even the later shows will still let you out in time to make your journey home.
At first it seemed like I would get lost finding the theatre but when you know where it is you cannot get lost. Everything is signposted everywhere and although it seems like it is well out of the city centre it really isn’t.
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The Theatre:
Outside;
From outside the theatre does not actually look much. It is a square building with ‘Alexandra Theatre in huge bold pale letters at the top. It is a dark building apart from the posters (which are huge) of whatever is playing there at the moment and sometimes it will show you forthcoming events. It does not look a big building from the outside and it is situated on a main road so I cannot say it looks great from the outside, it is when you get inside that you feel a bit better about the place.
The Entrance Area;
When you walk into the theatre the first thing I think is how small it all is. You can see stairs to your left which lead you up to the seating and then you will see in front of you and sort of to your right you will see the bar area where you can go and get some pre-​performance drinks. The decoration is very red and bold and exactly the type of thing you expect to see in a theatre. You will also see as you walk in the door a small desk which is where you can buy tickets from if you prefer not to do it online. There is also a small desk which is where you can get information from.
When you are actually viewing a performance you will see that on your left by the stairs there will be a desk which sells programmes and then your usual memorabilia to do with the show such as key rings and T-​shirts.
The Theatre;
So you have actually found your way here and now you are ready to view the performance. After you have had somebody check your tickets you will make your way to the actual theatre. When you get to the theatre I think you may be shocked at how small it is as I know I certainly was. After being to huge rooms this one has a sort of cosy feel to it. The seats are small and not that comfortable but as they are slightly staggered in a slope I have never had any problems seeing the stage. There are hundreds of seats and you have the stalls and the circle so similar to any other theatre.
The stage is not that big but if you look around you will see that there are no poles or anything like that so you should have no problem viewing the stage. I hate it when you get to some theatres and seats have restricted viewing but here I couldn’t see anything that would cause a problem. Now I have sat at the front and at the back of this theatre and because it is quiet small you get a good view from

Although the shows I have seen at the Alex have always been good, I have to say that the whole place is in need of a major refurb. The Hippodrome really puts the Alex’s interior to shame! The auditorium itself is quite dark and dated. The seats are uncomfortable and crammedmy knees are always pressed up against the back of the row in front, so how taller people cope I have no idea?!
The main entrance faces onto the busy Smallbrook Queesway, but you then have to go up a staircase and over a bridge link to the main auditorium. Wheelchair/​disabled access and provision seems cumbersome because of all these level changes, but the staff seem helpful and accommodating.
Still, all these issues aside, the theatre is centrally located and attracts some impressively big productions. It also needs all the support it can get, so do pay it a visit, just don’t expect the comfort of the REP or Hippodrome!

Not as posh or large as the Hippodrome but still a really nice venue. As a disabled person, I’ve always found the staff really helpful and there is a seperate disabled entrance down the side which saves all the faff of the front entrance.
There is normally a good programme of events going on — normally for one night only. Worth a visit

Lovely spacious theatre with ample seating.
Good shows and good variety.
Staff are always friendly and helpful and assist in any way they can.

I have visited the alex theatre many times and have performed on stage for a week aswell. the theatre itself is very oddly shaped and u have to go through the bar to get to the stage area unless you go through the back door and therefore bypass the box office and bar.
The shows are always top class and they often have many famous actors on board.

The Alexandra Theatre is located in Birmingham City centre. It is one of the top touring theatres in the country. The theatre features a wide range of entertainment from West End musicals, dramas and comedies to one night concerts.

Located in the city center, this theatre always puts on a number of quality plays and concerts especially stand up comedians. Normally, you’ll get artists or plays touring the country. Compared to the majority of theatres, this one is relatively cheap. On other hand, tickets tend to get sold out easily, so the best way to get hold of tickets is by buying them from usual ticket agents.