On a mission to provide that “goosebumps” feeling through memorable and extraordinary experiences, Birmingham Hippodrome has a long history of working with the young people of our city and region, from our work in schools to our curtain raiser events, young community drop ins, Young Advocates, the list goes on.

In 2024 and in partnership with Cameron Mackintosh Ltd. we opened the doors of live theatre to thousands of young people across the West Midlands, offering access to special Unlocked performances of two major musicals: Hamilton (2024) and Mary Poppins (2025).

Cameron Mackintosh Ltd. generously subsidised the cost of tickets allowing us to invite groups from across our Hippodrome Education Network (HEN) and wider community engagement programmes whose young people face significant barriers to attending theatre. The result was transformative: over a fifth of Hamilton attendees had never been to a theatre before, and 86% of the audience at Mary Poppins came from areas with the highest child poverty rates in the UK.

As many of those attending had never attended a theatre performance before, it was important that everyone felt welcome with complimentary programmes, individual hosts on hand from our Visitor Service team, and pre-show welcome emails.

Each performance was followed by an exclusive look behind-the-scenes, including post-show demonstrations of scene changes, costumes plus a Q&A with the cast. These sessions offered young audiences an opportunity to get a rare glimpse behind the curtain and discover the breadth of work and skills required to stage a world-class production.

As audiences spilled out of the theatre at the end of both shows, the excitement was palpable and reflected in our post show surveying, with 99% of attendees to both Hamilton and Mary Poppins saying that they wanted to see more theatre following their Unlocked visit. 88% wanted to take part in more theatre activities, and 80% reported being interested in a future career in the sector.

One of our attendees fed back that it had been her “biggest wish” to see Hamilton and that she would not have been able to go without the ticket offer. “What a magical experience,” she said. “I couldn’t stop smiling the whole time”.

In curating these events with our producing partners, we are undoubtedly providing those “goosebump” moments in abundance. Longer term, we hope that we are cultivating the next generation of theatre lovers and further to that, maybe even future Olivier or Tony award-winning writers, musicians, producers and sound technicians, theatre artistic directors and communications specialists. As one student shared in our post-show survey, “It’s my dream to perform on a large stage like Birmingham Hippodrome and inspire people as everyone has done today for me.”