Tickets on sale for WYP Xmas shows

West Yorkshire Playhouse has released ticket details for its 2011 Christmas shows, Annoie and SJack and the Beanstalk.

Annie will see the Quarry stage transformed into 1930s New York with Nikolai Foster’s production. In a revival of the original Broadway version of this famous tale, families will join Annie as she tries to escape the clutches of orphanage supervisor Miss Hannigan.

Annie tells the uplifting story of a young girl’s resilience and determination to find a family. Set in the midst of America’s great depression of the 1930s, the musical follows orphan Annie who unwittingly becomes the centre of a dark and desperate plot for money but her faith in friendship and love ensure that, even in times of austerity, the sun will come out tomorrow. Director Nikolai Foster said: “This show will not only fill the Quarry stage, but the entire auditorium, placing the audience in the centre of New York City following Annie's extraordinary journey.

“We’ll celebrate the brilliance of this traditional Broadway musical, the terrific story and these joyful songs. This will be Annie with edge and verve.”

For younger audiences Olivier Award-winning playwright Mike Kenny and director Gail McIntyre return with Big Stories For Little People, presenting their adaptation of the classic adventure story Jack and the Beanstalk in the Courtyard theatre.

The play is set in a farmyard inhabited by intelligent animals. The chickens, desperate to get back the girl that feeds them and plays the most beautiful music, hatch a plot involving a cow, some magic beans, the rather hopeless Jack and an unexpected beanstalk.

Kenny said: “I love Jack as a central character. He’s not a brave Prince. He’s rubbish. He can’t get anything together. He’s possibly the most spectacularly lacklustre of all the fairy tale heroes, but that’s why we root for him.

“He’s all of us on a bad day. When he takes the beans in exchange for the cow even the three year olds in the audience go, ‘Oh, for goodness sake...’ But we all feel sorry for him when his mother gives up on him and throws those beans away, and we’re all with him when he climbs that beanstalk.”

Tickets for both these shows are now on sale from West Yorkshire Playhouse’s Box Office on 0113 213 7700. www.wyp.org.uk

ANNIE - Tickets from £15 - £30; Family Tickets from £9 - £24

JACK AND THE BEANSTALK; Tickets from £10.50 - £15.50; Family Tickets from £9 - £14.50