At Theatre Royal Brighton...

Alastair McGowan heads up a major touring revival of George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion, 100 years after its first opening on the London stage (March 17 to 22, from £11.90).

The Irish playwright’s tale of professor of phonetics Henry Higgins’ attempt to help Cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle pass for a duchess has been adapted many times – most famously, as My Fair Lady.

Key themes including a critique of the British class system and the place of women in society mean Pygmalion has much contemporary relevance.

Professional impressionist McGowan will be joined by leading stage and TV actress Rula Lenska, (Calendar Girls, Coronation Street) as Mrs Higgins, while Jamie Foreman (Oliver Twist and EastEnders) plays Alfred Doolittle.

  • For tickets, call 0844 871 7677

At Ropetackle Arts Centre, Shoreham...

Rudyard Kipling’s fantastical Just So Stories for children will be brought to life by the young quartet from Red Table Theatre.

The four actors use umbrellas, pots, pans, socks, cushions, tennis balls and lampshades to tell the Sussex writer’s much-loved creations (March 1, £7.) Acerbic Observer food critic and BBC One Show reporter Jay Rayner stops by a few weeks later aiming to change the way you shop, cook and eat (March 27, £15).

  • For tickets, call 01273 464440

At The Old Market, Hove...

Anyone who has seen John Osborne’s solo show John Peel’s Shed or heard its radio version will want to get in early for a new piece by the Norwich-based writer and broadcaster.

On The Beach documents a lunchtime walk along the shore charting the lives, loves, hopes and nostalgia of its patrons, based on Osborne’s journeys to British seaside towns over the past 12 months.

It will be shown as part of a double-bill with The Islanders, an indie musical with a couple reminiscing about their late 1990s love, written by Amy Mason with Art Brut head honcho Eddie Argos and folk singer Jim Moray (April 29, £12).

Another highlight at The Old Market is England Away, by Brighton company The Future Is Unwritten. This upfront, comic play is about passion, patriotism and Englishness and has been written by Paul Hodgson, who penned Meeting Joe Strummer and Fever Pitch (April 30 to May 1, £12).

  • For tickets, call 01273 201801

At the Connaught Theatre, Worthing...

Rosemary Hawthorne’s one-woman show The Knicker Lady is a theatrical history lesson which attempts to dramatise 250 years of women’s lives.

Fashion buff Hawthorne is a regular on television and radio and has that rare ability to make her subject accessible, informative and entertaining (February 2, £14.50.)

A world premiere adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula opens later in the year, with Blackeyed Theatre tackling John Ginman’s take on the noir thriller. With a new score played live and innovative design, Ginman’s production aims to bring new life to Stoker’s tale of Professor Van Helsing’s journey from London to Whitby and Transylvania as mankind faces the challenge of technological change (March 7 and March 8, £14.50).

  • For tickets, call 01903 206206

At Devonshire Park Theatre, Eastbourne...

Tim Whitnall’s Olivier Award-winning play Morecambe is given a spring clean for a new production starring Olivier-nominated Bob Golding as comedy icon Eric Morecambe.

From humble beginnings playing music halls in the Lancashire town from which he took his name, Morecambe eventually found himself playing to 28 million viewers on Christmas Day. His is a heart-warming, tear-jerking, laughter-inducing story (April 1 to April 5, from £14.50).

In May, Andrew Lloyd-Webber’s unstoppable musical Cats, adapted from TS Eliot’s Old Possums Book Of Practical Cats, returns to Eastbourne for a two-week stay.

The long-running show, set on the night the Jellicle Cats meet for a ball of music, dance and verse, blends fantasy, drama and romance (May 20 to May 31, £18.50).

  • For tickets, call 01323 412000

At Brighton Dome...

After the brilliant folk ballad of a story The Strange Undoing Of Prudencia Hart, with academics discussing Border Ballads and the paradoxes of modern Scotland, Scottish playwright David Grieg turns his attention to a darker story.

A choir performs live in The Events, which aims to make sense of the world after a massacre by a gun-toting youth.

Actors Touring Company perform the piece, which was penned in the aftermath of the Anders Breivik murders in Norway. The Daily Telegraph has called it “the finest, most important thing Greig has written” (March 19 and March 20, £14).

  • For tickets, call 01273 709709