Political comedian leads Bridgnorth theatre's line-up

The venue will host its own panto, Sleeping Beauty, with a run starting tomorrow and lasting until January 28. There will be performances each weekend and full details are available from the venue.

Brummie comic Shazia Mirza will bring her new show, The Kardashians Made Me Do It, to the venue on February 4.

The show was inspired by three girls who left Bethnal Green to join ISIS, and an unrelated radio piece Shazia contributed to the BBC, which subsequently received a record number of complaints. The show tells of the confusion it caused as she looks into the nature of offence, the dangers of politically correct liberalism versus the sinister and terrifying intrusion of ISIS into the lives of young British Asian women.

Shazia has performed her stand-up shows across the world – from the Edinburgh Fringe to Texas, USA to Dubai and Kosovo. She has particularly travelled extensively across Europe, where she has performed sell out tours of Norway, Sweden Denmark, Holland, India and Pakistan.

Black Country comedy actors The Fizzogs will bring their new show, Suck It And See, to Bridgnorth on February 9, 10 and 11.

A spokesman for the venue said: "The Fizzogs are back with a brand new comedy sketch show, with all new material from our favourite characters...Mags and Barb, Wayne Kerr, The Kids, Mr & Mrs Cadabra and, of course, the world famous Dancing Grannies. Forget the doom and gloom and join The Fizzogs for a night of hilarity and mayhem...let's keep the country loffin."

The venue will welcome tribute band Darkside, who play the music of Pink Floyd, on February 17, 18, 24 and 25.

A play dedicated to Marilyn Monroe will follow on March 3. Marilyn has been written by Gwynne Edwards. The spokesman added: "Marilyn is a solo show portraying the most celebrated and controversial female icon of the 20th Century.

"It is the story of what lay behind her struggle to be taken seriously as an actress and to be understood as a woman, despite all obstacles that were part of her early life. It focuses on her shining talent in all the film roles that she played, her compassion, her generosity for others less well off and her true grit in a male dominated world."

A series of tribute shows will follow with Wings Over Abbey Road on March 11 and Sensation, who play music by The Who, featuring on March 18.

Shropshire singer/songwriter Chris Quinn will follow on April 1.

When not playing his own brand of solo acoustic folk and roots music Chris also performs regularly as an accompanying guitarist for some of the world's very best gypsy jazz guitarists, most notably as a regular member of the Robin Nolan Trio and with gypsy legend Paulus Schafer.

Over the past few years Chris has played live concerts and studio recordings with many renowned acoustic artists from the folk, jazz and blues worlds; Eamonn Coyne, Frank Vignola, Clive Carroll, Cormac Byrne, Gary Potter, John Doyle, Dan Cassidy, Dan Walsh, Arthur Ebeling and Tim Kliphuis to name a few.

He's shared the bill and been invited to open shows for some of the biggest names in music; artists like Katie Melua, The Levellers, Bellowhead, Seth Lakeman and Loudon Wainwright III.

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West End leading lady Maria Kesselman will headline on April 8 in a production called With A Song In My Heart.

The venue spokesman added: "With A Song in My Heart

is a magical musical tour-de-force; an emotional rollercoaster ride through the Great American Song Book of Gershwin, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Sondheim, Bernstein and many more, with stops along the way to explore the musical magnificence of Lloyd Webber, Jacque Brel, Franz Lehar, etc."

Kesselman has starred in many leading roles in London's West End and throughout the world, including Maria in West Side Story, Eliza in My Fair Lady, Jenny Lind in Barnum and Maria in The Sound of Music.

She also appeared as Christine in The Phantom of the Opera opposite Michael Crawford, with whom she was recently reunited at the 30th Anniversary Concert.

Tribute shows to The Shadows, Pet Show Boys, Coldplay, Duran Duran and Led Zeppelin will follow. While further shows paying homage to Abba, Dire Straits, Blondie and The Eagles will make for a busy autumn programme.

Tickets for all shows are available from the box office or online at www.theatreonthesteps.co.uk