ALBUM OF THE MONTH: Danceteria by Soft Cell (October 2026)

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: ****1/2

Tracklist: Elusive; Danceteria; The Space Inside; Times Square; Two Of A Kind; The Rainbow Room; In Heaven (When I Dance With You); Decadence Is Hard Work; Crackland; What Is Your Morality?; Losing Yourself; After Hours; Wave To America; Out Come The Freaks

Keyboardist Dave Ball died last October shortly after finishing work on Soft Cell’s final album which sees them perfecting some of the best work of their career while lyrically returning to early 80s New York, a pivotal time for the duo.

  • Read on for reasons including Danceteria is a wildly entertaining, reflective and fitting epitaph to both Soft Cell and Dave Ball
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THEATRE REVIEW: RENT The Musical starring Gaten Matarazzo at Tom Stoppard’s Theatre

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By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: ****

WHEN?: Wednesday 30 September, opens 8 October and runs through 27 March 2027 RUNTIME: 175 minutes (including a 20-minute interval)

Matarazzo from Netflix’s Stranger Things is cast perfectly as Mark the filmmaker chronicling the lives of bohemian friends in the late 80s/early 90s in New York’s East Village in this classic musical revival.

  • Read on for reasons including how brilliant the onstage seating experience is for this production
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THEATRE REVIEW: Affluenza starring Noah Schnapp at Riverside Studios, Hammersmith

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By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: ****

WHEN?: Monday 28 September, opens 5 October and runs through 21 November 2026 RUNTIME: 135 minutes (including a 20-minute interval)

The most interesting thing about the new play Schnapp from Netflix’s Stranger Things has chosen for his stage debut is the dramatic rug pull it executes at the beginning of its 2nd act transforming the audience’s perspective.

  • Read on for reasons including how Schnapp has the potential for a promising stage career ahead of him if he so chooses
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THEATRE REVIEW Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? starring Gillian Anderson @SohoPlace

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: *****

WHEN?: Saturday 26 September, opens 30 September and runs through 19 December 2026 RUNTIME: 210 minutes (including a 20-minute interval)

Gillian Anderson gave us the definitive Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire at the Young Vic on a revolving stage a decade ago and here performs a similar trick as Martha.

  • Read on for reasons including how Anderson’s performance is 1 for the history books as she gives an unforgettable take on a classic role
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THEATRE REVIEW The Standard Of Living starring Rory Kinnear at Theatre Royal Haymarket

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: ***

WHEN?: Wednesday 23 September, opens 29 September and runs through 12 December 2026 RUNTIME: 150 minutes (including a 20-minute interval)

This is the story of John Maynard Keynes, considered one of the most influential economists of the 20th century, who turned his back on a life of homosexuality as part of the Bloomsbury Group and married a Russian ballerina.

  • Read on for reasons including how this story is probably more for James Graham die-hard fans only rather than a mainstream audience
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THEATRE REVIEW Oh Mary! starring Jinx Monsoon at Trafalgar Theatre

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By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: *****

WHEN?: Monday 21 September, runs through 2 January 2027 Lolly Adefope plays Mary from 28 September 2026 RUNTIME: 80 minutes without interval

Monsoon (End Of The Rainbow, Soho Theatre Walthamstow) reprises her Broadway turn in this comic delight and reminds how twistedly funny she can be so rush to see her in this West End hit because her run comes to an end in it all too soon.

  • Read on for reasons including how you won’t ever have laughed so often in its 80 short fun-filled minutes
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THEATRE REVIEW Golden Boy starring Josh O’Connor at Almeida Theatre

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By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: ****1/2

WHEN?: Saturday 19 September (matinee), runs through 31 October 2026 RUNTIME: 145 minutes (including a 20-minute interval)

Boxing or playing the violin?

  • Read on for reasons including how to see this on NT Live if not at the sold-out Almeida
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THEATRE REVIEW: TRU starring Jesse Tyler Ferguson at the Menier Chocolate Factory

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By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: ****

WHEN?: Saturday 19 September, opens 27 September and runs through 14 November 2026 RUNTIME: 85 minutes (no interval)

You join us in the New York apartment belonging to writer Truman Capote at Christmas in 1975 as Manhattan socialites who were once his confidants turn their backs on him when they recognise thinly-veiled versions of themselves in an excerpt of his new novel published in Esquire magazine.

  • Read on for reasons including how TRU boasts a commanding central performance of 1 of history’s more colourful if perhaps occasionally loathed characters
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GIG REVIEW Saint Etienne at Camden Roundhouse

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By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: *****

WHEN?: Friday 18 September, tour runs through 1 December 2026

Setlist: Tonight; Like A Motorway; Spring; Glad; You’re In A Bad Way; Shower Scene; Who Do You Think You Are?; Heart Failed (In The Back Of A Taxi); Pale Movie; Brand New Me; Mario’s Cafe; Take Me To The Pilot; Only Love Can Break Your Heart; DJ; Stormtrooper In Drag; He’s On The Phone/7 Ways To Love; Nothing Can Stop Us; The Last Time

Never has a band understood its fans better and reflected it back.

  • Read on for reasons including why this should be au revoir to Saint Etienne not adieu
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