Ballet or Black Sabbath? Why Not Both at Birmingham Hippodrome

Birmingham Royal Ballet is cranking the amps to full volume this autumn as they storm into their 2025/26 season with the return of the smash-hit Black Sabbath – The Ballet. The production opens at Birmingham Hippodrome, the company’s home turf, from 18–27 September, before heading off on a UK tour that promises to shake audiences to their core.

This groundbreaking collaboration first premiered at the Hippodrome in 2023, selling out houses before jetting off to Europe and the USA to thunderous applause. Now it’s back—revamped, recharged, and louder than ever.

A Symphony of Steel and Sinfonia

The show fuses the world of ballet with the grit of heavy metal, weaving Black Sabbath’s legendary riffs into sweeping orchestrations. Composer Christopher Austin—with guidance from Sabbath’s own Tony Iommi—has created a full-bodied score that transforms eight iconic Sabbath tracks into an explosive ballet experience. Songs like Paranoid, Ironman, and War Pigs are reimagined for the Royal Ballet Sinfonia, with live guitar from Marc Hayward shredding alongside the dancers on stage.

Tony Iommi himself summed it up perfectly: “Black Sabbath have always been innovators and never been predictable, and it doesn’t come any more unpredictable than this!”

A First for Freefall Dance Company

Sharing the spotlight is BRB’s Freefall Dance Company, who will make their main stage Hippodrome debut with Luminous—a 5-minute curtain raiser inspired by both Black Sabbath’s back catalogue and Elgar’s Enigma Variations.

Directed by Lee Fisher, a former BRB Soloist, Freefall brings together a group of ten exceptional dancers with learning disabilities, supported by BRB staff and freelance artists. With specially composed music by Richard Syner, Luminous promises to be a radiant, history-making moment for the company.

Their one-off performance will premiere on Friday 26 September at 7.30pm, just before that night’s show of Black Sabbath – The Ballet.

Rock Royalty in Conversation

As if that wasn’t enough, BRB Supporters will have access to an exclusive event: a conversation between Tony Iommi and BRB Director Carlos Acosta on 8 September, available both in person and online.

Ballet has never sounded like this before. With steel strings colliding with pointe shoes, Black Sabbath – The Ballet is set to prove, once again, that Birmingham is the beating heart of both heavy metal and groundbreaking performance.

18–27 September, Birmingham Hippodrome
Tickets and info: www.brb.org.uk

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Who Is Andrew “The Guvnor” of Theatre Village? (As delivered by Grace Hatchell, 2nd Act Couriers, First Class & Slightly Nosy Service) Now then… if you’ve spent any time wandering through Theatre Village, you’ll have felt it. That hum. That buzz. That sense that somewhere, behind the curtain, someone’s pulling the strings, brewing the tea, and making sure the spotlight actually turns on. That, my lovely lot, would be Andrew. Or as I’ve taken to calling him… The Guvnor. I

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