Councillor Liz Clements cried last Tuesday as she talked about the prospect of Birmingham city council’s culture budget being wiped out as part of its plan to save £300m over two years. Birmingham Rep is prepared for the coming shocks. In recent years, the theatre has developed strong relations with producers, at home and abroad, that enable it to present a richly varied, audience-engaging programme.
Bhangra Nation is one such co-production. Big, bright, bouncy and bursting with enough energy to propel it across the Atlantic, this dance-centred, coming-of-age musical, first presented in San Diego in 2022, has been reworked especially for its UK premiere by the original creative team, including Rehana Lew Mirza and Mike Lew (co-authors of the book), Sam Willmott (music and lyrics) and Stafford Arima (director).
