Here at The Bridgewater Hall, we pride ourselves on the wide variety of events that comprise our live programme and of late, we’ve picked up on one performance format proving particularly popular, best represented by the broad and intriguing proposition of ‘An Evening With…’. We’ve found our audiences increasingly keen to spend time in the company of – or even in conversation with – their favourite actors, musicians, authors, and pop culture personalities, eager to build upon their bond with them in person and experience their charisma up close. In recent years, the Hall has hosted household names from Little Mix’s Leigh-Anne Pinnock to actor Alan Cumming, comedian Bob Mortimer to musician Nick Cave, who’ve all taken unique advantage of the intimate ambience of our auditorium – and over the coming months, we’ve more stars, savants and storytellers stopping by with whom we hope you’ll want to spend one special night.
Already responsible for having changed tens of thousands of lives with their best-selling books – including cult favourite, The Fast 800 – husband-and-wife duo Dr Michael Mosley and Dr Clare Bailey return to the Hall on Friday 23 February with an informative, entertaining and interactive live show in which audiences can expect to hear health tips, watch cooking demos and sneak a peek behind the scenes of their upcoming TV series, showing how tiny changes have the potential to be transformative and teaching all of us how to Eat (well), Sleep (better) and Live (longer)!
Boasting an entirely different set of expertise, this month also sees Kaleb Cooper – Chipping Norton’s finest celebrity farmer and breakout star of Prime Video series, Clarkson’s Farm – take to our stage on Sunday 11 February as part of his first ever tour, The World According to Kaleb. The perfect opportunity for audiences to enjoy the unique observations and deadpan delivery that made him such a hit on screen in the flesh, he’ll be sharing his views on all sorts – from hairstyles to celebrities, farm animals to New York, not to mention some of the challenges British farmers are facing and how we can help support them – as well as inviting attendees to participate in some rather… interesting rural pastimes.
For something far more traditional – but no less entertaining – actor and comedian Rob Brydon returns on Monday 18 May for a sold-out Night of Songs and Laughter. He’ll be joined by his nine-piece orchestra for a very special evening in which he’ll share more about his musical journey from South Wales to Hollywood and back, performing an ‘unexpected selection’ of songs from a setlist spanning Tom Waits all the way to Tom Jones, as well as those famed impressions, including fan favourites Mick Jagger, Michael Caine and Steve Coogan.
Recounting an equally colourful life to a sold-out auditorium on Tuesday 2 July is ‘reliably outrageous’ actress, Miriam Margolyes, swapping the chat show sofa for the stage as she celebrates the paperback release of Oh Miriam!, the memoir-meets-manifesto in which she shares more ‘juicy, jaw-dropping stories’ with her trademark wisdom and wit. Ticketholders can look forward to ‘a riotous evening’ as surprising as the woman herself as she digs into her inventory of anecdotes to divulge never-before-told-tales as well as the many life lessons she’s amassed over the course of her incredible career, having entertained us for over sixty years, both in and, increasingly, out of character. Better still, the price of every ticket includes a copy of the book.
Avid readers might also be interested in An Evening with Elizabeth Gilbert – best known for her international bestsellers Big Magic and genre-defining memoir Eat, Pray, Love – on Wednesday 24 April, an on-stage manifestation of the inspiration and empowerment that readers of all ages and backgrounds have drawn from her books. Balancing spirituality and pragmatism, she’ll be offering her unique perspective on creativity, curiosity and inspiration, digging deep into her own ‘generative process’ and discussing the attitudes, approaches, and habits she believes all creatives must abide by in order to live their most fulfilling lives.
We’re also delighted to be welcoming one of America’s most celebrated satirists and humourists, David Sedaris, to the Hall on Tuesday 9 July, a writer for whom performance and in-person interaction is just as much a part of his process as actually putting words down on the page. Known for making readers laugh, cry and think in equal measure with his keenly observational and deeply moving work, he’ll be with us to read new and unpublished stories, take questions, sign books and meet his audience.
‘How thrilling it was to literally sit at the feet of writers I admired,’ he writes of first attending other authors’ events in his latest book, Happy-Go-Lucky – part of a larger essay centred on the fun and profundity he now finds his own to be such a rich source of. Why not come and experience said thrill for yourself – on this night or one of many others – at The Bridgewater Hall this Spring?