WITH the revival of a classic play, its first in-house musical since March last year and some exciting visiting companies, Salisbury Playhouse has launched its new spring/summer season.

Artistic director Gareth Machin launched the new season on Friday and told the Friends of the Playhouse they have a “tremendous programme”

lined up.

Once the theatre’s pantomime, Sleeping Beauty, has finished, the new season kicks off with four special one-night shows.

On January 11 the Swingle Singers celebrate their 50th anniversary with a show in the main house. Playwright Michael Frayn comes to the theatre on January 12 to talk about his plays and his new novel Skios.

A one-man performance of Animal Farm is on January 18, and musical actress Ruthie Henshall will take the audience on a journey through her career on January 19.

The first show the Playhouse is producing this season is a revival of the JB Priestley classic Dangerous Corner, a drama about a group of young publishing executives on a country retreat. This will be followed by Alan Ayckbourn’s Joking Apart from February 27, a co-production with Nottingham Playhouse Theatre.

After three sell-out seasons in the West End, Yes, Prime Minister is coming to the Playhouse for a week in April before the Everyman Theatre Cheltenham brings Laurie Lee’s Cider With Rosie to the main house.

From April 25 the Playhouse will be performing its first musical since Guys and Dolls, A Man of No Importance. The musical has been successful in America but this will be the first time it has been produced in regional theatre in Britain.

Romantic comedy Less Than Kind by Terence Rattigan follows in May and Laura Wade’s Alice, a retelling of the classic Lewis Carroll tale, sees Stage ‘65, the Playhouse’s youth theatre, in the main house in June.

There will be a host of innovative contemporary productions in the Salberg Studio, including Portraits in Song and My Perfect Mind.

And Theatre Fest West offers a host of shows in March and April, celebrating what theatre has to offer in the region, and there are also lots of shows for young theatregoers.

For more information go to salisburyplayhouse.com.