Matthew Bourne’s award-laden modern classic ‘The Midnight Bell’ is coming to Newcastle for the first time this July. Wows at the ready…!

Critics have been united in their praise for ‘The Midnight Bell’, the Guardian calling it “up there with his best”, and both The I (“Silky, sexy, intoxicating”) and The Arts Desk (“Dance theatre at its most compelling”) giving it five stars. Inspired by the great English novelist Patrick Hamilton, it’s set in 1930s London. Ordinary people emerge from cheap boarding houses nightly to pour out their passions, hopes and dreams in the pub and fog-bound streets of Soho and Fitzrovia. At the heart of the action is The Midnight Bell, a tavern where one particular lonely-hearts club gather to play out bitter comedies of longing, frustration, betrayal and redemption.

The Midnight Bell, 8-12 July, Theatre Royal, Newcastle, 7.30pm (mats Thurs 2pm & Sat 2.30pm), from £17, theatreroyal.co.uk