Music and laughter galore across Lancashire

As the first Golden Buzzer act to win TV’s Britain’s Got Talent, Jon Courtenay is capitalising on success with a UK tour that brings him to Chorley Little Theatre next Monday.

Before triumphing in the 2020 final, he had decades of experience, gradually developing his stage act. Now it revolves around comedy and music with tales of his family, relationships and life on tour. The show includes his BGT songs and music spanning the classics to rock n roll.

Details: www.chorleytheatre.com

Miss him there and he’s at the Lowry in Salford November 9.

Details: www.thelowry.com

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Star of The Fast Show and Two Doors Down, Arabella Weir has rescheduled dates for her 37-date, UK tour Does My Mum Loom Big In This? And will be at Lancaster Grand next Tuesday.

It’s described as the mother of all confessional shows – true and devastatingly funny.

The TV comedy star and bestselling author recounts stories from her dysfunctional childhood and life as a single working mother exploring the pain, pitfalls, embarrassment and unintentional hilarity of motherhood.

She starred in The Fast Show, for which she wrote all of her characters, as well as her BBC2 series Posh Nosh, starring alongside Richard E. Grant.

Details: www.lancastergrand.co.uk

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Powerful, insightful and wickedly funny, Katori Hall’s Olivier Award-winning play The Mountaintop is staged at Manchester’s Royal Exchange from next Saturday until October 27.

Hall’s deceptively simple premise – two people in a motel room – reveals far more than at first appears. Race and class, gender and politics, leadership and responsibility are placed unapologetically under a sharply focused lens.

At the height of America’s Civil Rights Movement, in Room 306 of the Lorraine Motel, Memphis, Tennessee, after giving what was his final galvanising speech, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr has his hopes and dreams picked apart by Camae, a young, attractive, foul-mouthed maid.

Details: https://www.royalexchange.co.uk

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Bolton Octagon Theatre’s autumn programme includes a selection of entertainment for audiences to enjoy at home.

The Olivier Award-winning comedy Home, I’m Darling and the digital world premiere of brand new comedy Going the Distance are available to watch online.

Laura Wade’s sharp and witty comedy Home, I’m Darling opened at the Octagon earlier this month and the venue have a video on demand option available until October 2.

It was filmed in front of a live socially-distanced audience and ticket holders can watch the show for two days after pressing play. Tickets start from £12.

The Octagon are also one of a number of partner venues to present a digital production of brand new comedy, Going the Distance by Henry Filloux-Bennett and Yasmeen Khan about a little theatre with a huge challenge.

Set in March 2020, as theatre across the country go dark, Matchborough Community Centre fight to save their venue with a fundraising production of Wizard with a stellar cast including Sara Crowe, Nicole Evans, Stephen Fry, Shobna Gulati, Sarah Hadland, Merch Husey, Matthew Kelly, Emma McDonald and Penny Ryder.

Details: www. octagonbolton.co.uk

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Oldham Coliseum hosts a joyful return to the stage with Tanika Gupta’s heart-warming, silly, but thoughtful comedy Love N Stuff.

It runs until October 2.

Bindi and Mansoor were star-crossed lovers and now they’re everyone’s favourite couple. They’ve been happily married for years and have built a great life for themselves in the UK. But something’s not right; Mansoor’s decided to move back to India and is waiting in the departure lounge! Bindi’s hatched a plan to get him to stay and half the neighbourhood are involved.

The characters were first introduced in Tanika Gupta’s British Bollywood musical Wah! Wah! Girls in 2012; and proved so popular that this play was commissioned, premiering at Theatre Royal Stratford East the following year. The comedy tells a tale of love, marriage and the family you choose.

Komal Amin plays Bindi with Maanuv Thiara as Mansoor. In a laugh-out-loud performance they also play more than a dozen other characters including a streetsmart teenager, a hippy and a Scottish policewoman.

Tanika Gupta has penned more than 20 stage plays, 30 radio plays for the BBC, and several original television dramas, as well as script for EastEnders, Grange Hill and The Bill.

Details: https://www.coliseum.org.uk