Theatre Severn's galaxy of stars in 10 glittering years
They've been tickled, they've been rocked, they've been lectured, and they've been left rolling in the aisles with laughter.
There's been music, drama, dance, panto, and much else besides.
It's stood firm in the face of flooding and even the blast from an explosion.
For 10 years they've been packing 'em in at the Theatre Severn, Shrewsbury, and the list of acts has been a kaleidoscope of entertainment, from national stars to the cream of local talent.
And it all started with the local scientific star, one Charles Darwin. Because the first public event was a talk about Shrewsbury's most famous son on February 22, 2009, to mark the 200th anniversary of his birth.
There was a sell-out audience of nearly 640 people for the lecture by Professor Lord May of Oxford.
Honours
But the official opening of the new theatre did not come until a few weeks later, on March 25, 2009, with the honours being performed by Prince Edward.
Since then the theatre has hosted a checklist of contemporary big names, and has seen everything from the Sound of Music and Fiddler on the Roof, to Russian Cossack Dancers and Sooty.
There has even been a dose of politics. The BBC's Question Time debate, hosted by David Dimbleby, landed in January 2012.
Dimbleby afterwards said it had been a particularly strong programme.
"They were a very lively audience," he said.
It was lively outside too, with about 20 protesters from the Shropshire Fights Back campaign group gathered before the filming began to highlight government cuts to the county’s public services.
The Shrewsbury panel that night was made up of Baroness Warsi, co-chairman of the Conservative Party, shadow education minister Stephen Twigg MP, Caroline Lucas, the Green Party’s MP, feminist writer Dr Germaine Greer and Charles Moore, columnist and former Daily Telegraph and Spectator editor.
Politics leads us on naturally to pantomime, and the Theatre Severn's annual panto has always been a big hit.
The very first back in 2009 was Peter Pan, and since then we've had, in order, Cinderella, Aladdin, Jack and the Beanstalk, Sleeping Beauty, Peter Pan (again, in 2014), Dick Whittington, Cinderella again (2016), Snow White, and Mother Goose. Oh yes we have.
Who have been the stars? Well, let's take a peek at just that spectacular first year of 2009, when the first 20 shows were all sold out, and the theatre took £2 million and sold 123,760 tickets.
You could have knocked Shrewsbury down with a feather duster when the legend that was Ken Dodd came to town. Tickets for his Happiness Show in July sold out in hours so he added a second performance, which also sold out.
In true Doddy fashion, they proved marathons of mirth, running late into the night.
Also taking the stage during the first year was another familiar contemporary comedy giant, Michael McIntyre, while among the musical fare was Midge Ure in October, when he gave a well-received acoustic set, soul men The Drifters, and Brit award winning singer James Morrison.
From the world of drama, famous actor Timothy West was there from the very first, on opening day, as narrator for the Shropshire musical Romany Wood.
All this was just the start.
Who else? What else? It's like a checklist with no end.
Comedian Reginald D Hunter was 15 minutes late for his show in June 2010, but took seconds to bring the house down with laughter.
The theatre's had The Osmonds (but not Donny) as part of their farewell tour (March 2012) and an Osmond – Jimmy as a solo act – in October 2016.
Let's run through just a handful of the galaxy of stars to have come to Theatre Severn, in some cases more than once – Greg Davies, Jason Donovan, Wayne Sleep, Aled Jones, Rick Wakeman, Lenny Henry, Fairport Convention, The Chuckle Brothers, Martin Kemp, Paul Carrack, Pasha from Strictly (in his own show), Joan Armatrading, Nick Kershaw, Jim Davidson (who said Shrewsbury's one way system "must have been designed by Stevie Wonder"), Russell Watson, The Three Degrees, Jason Manford...
These are some of the entertainers. There have been plenty of non-entertainers too – and we know that sounds bad, but you know what we mean.
A mere sample of the roll call here includes the explorer Colonel John Blashford-Snell, the War Horse author Michael Morpurgo, golfer Tony Jacklin, adventurer Ray Mears who did survive his 2013 Shrewsbury visit (just joking), sports presenter Clare Balding, and politician-turned-TV-presenter Michael Portillo.
Not forgetting, of course, all those other myriad events held at the theatre, including awards evenings and so on.
Nor Kiley McDonnell, who was in the cast of Theatre Severn's first panto, and was seriously injured in Shrewsbury's devastating gas explosion of January 2010 which left him in a wheelchair.
A benefit variety show for Kiley, featuring Coronation Street actress Kym Marsh and former Emmerdale bad boy Matt Healy, was held in October of that year.
After 10 years, there has been so much to enjoy – with so much more to come.
