1. Emeli Sandé at Glastonbury

This year will be our fourth Glastonbury in a row and, although there’s far too much to be excited about to list here, we’d probably pick our first Emeli Sandé gig as the thing we’re most enthused by at the sold-out event which runs from 22/6 to 25/6. Katy Perry’s new album Witness is out 9/6 and Lorde’s Melodrama 16/6 and they both also feature.

• Read on for reasons including Billie Holiday, Jade Anouka & Fisayo Akinade

2. Lady Day in the West End

Tony, Grammy and Emmy Award-winner Audra McDonald stars as Billie Holiday at the Wyndhams. Runs 17/6 through 9/9. Tickets

3. Jade Anouka in Cover My Tracks

Jade Anouka won our best actress monsta last year for her multiple roles in Harriet Walter’s all-woman Shakespeare trilogy and returns here at the Old Vic for an unusual late-night event running 5-17/6 by Noah and the Whale frontman Charlie Fink, who also co-wrote The Lorax at this venue. Tickets Plot ring a bell?

4. Simon Russell Beale’s Tempest

We last saw Russell Beale in Temple at the Donmar, which won our best play monsta in 2015, and here he plays Prospero at the Barbican in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of The Tempest which runs 30/6 to 18/8. Tickets

5. St Etienne album Home Counties

St Etienne’s ninth album is out 2/6 and includes 19 tracks of which we have heard two, Heather and the one above.

6. Bertie Carvel’s Ink at the Almeida

The cheating husband from TV’s Doctor Foster returns to the Almeida, where he starred alongside Ben Whishaw in Bakkhai before taking the lead in The Hairy Ape at the Old Vic, to play Rupert Murdoch in James Graham’s (This House) Ink directed by Rupert Goold. Runs 17/6 to 5/8. Tickets Picture by Nadav Kander courtesy Almeida.

7. Fisayo Akinade in Barber Shop Chronicles

Cucumber/Banana actor Akinade has appeared in two monsta-nominated projects recently (Pigs and Dogs at the Royal Court and Barbarians at the Young Vic) and stars in this play at the National’s Dorfman Theatre with Cyril Nri (see above) which runs 30/5 to 8/7. Tickets

8. Anne-Marie Duff and Cush Jumbo are Common

Jeremy Herrin (People, Places and Things and This House) directs one of our favourite actresses (Anne-Marie Duff) in a new play by DC Moore about England’s lost land with the excellent Cush Jumbo (City Of Tiny Lights) at the National 30/5 to 5/8. Tickets

9. Groundhog Day up for Tonys

Kevin Spacey hosts 11/6 and there’s seven nominations for our monsta-winning musical of last year Groundhog Day.

• Picture via Facebook courtesy Emeli Sande.
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