EXHIBITION REVIEW: ABBA: Super Troupers at Southbank Centre

WORTH A LOOK?: ****

WHERE?: Southbank Centre

WHEN?: 10/5/18, booking to 29/7/18

STOP PRESS: Super Troupers arrives at The 02 6/12/19 to 31/8/20 Tickets

Did you ever see ABBA live? Probably not because, as we learn here, they remained in Sweden for all but three months of the 10 years they were at their most popular.

  • Read on for reasons including how you can sing Dancing Queen in a replica of ABBA’s studio

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Q&A: A Very English Scandal with Ben Whishaw, Hugh Grant, Russell T Davies & Stephen Frears

WHERE: BAFTA

WHEN: 18/4/18, 3 episodes start on BBC1 in May

‘Join the Liberals and widen your circle,’ jokes Hugh Grant to many laughs during this star-studded Q&A after a world premiere screening of the first of three episodes of A Very English Scandal which is to air on BBC1 next month.

  • Read on for reasons including how Sir Ian McKellen turned down a part in this

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THEATRE REVIEW: Red starring Alfred Molina and Alfred Enoch

WORTH A LOOK?: ****

WHERE: Wyndhams Theatre

WHEN: 5/5, press night 15/5, runs to 28/7/18

There’s a sense of unfinished business about this production which opened at the Donmar in 2009, transferred to Broadway where it won six Tonys but never made it to the West End.

  • Read on for reasons including where you might have seen Alfred Enoch before

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THEATRE REVIEW: Mood Music starring Ben Chaplin and Seána Kerslake at the Old Vic

WORTH A LOOK?: **

WHERE: Old Vic

WHEN: 30/4, press night 1/5 runs to 16/6/18

We groaned when Rhys Ifans was cast in the lead here because he had been so unexpectedly right as Scrooge in this venue’s production of A Christmas Carol that we weren’t sure we wanted to see him quite so soon in something else.

  • Read on for reasons including why Mood Music must be a nightmare to learn and perform

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GIG REVIEW: The Bluetones at Wedgwood Rooms, Portsmouth

BY: Carron Stacey

WHERE: Wedgewood Rooms, Portsmouth

WHEN: 2/5/18, tour runs to 15/9/18

In 2016, Mr Humdrum and I saw The Bluetones at Shiiine On, Butlins. Maybe it was the nostalgia of my uni days, singing with my bestie to Slight Return, maybe it was the hangover from the night before dancing to Echo and the Bunnymen and The Wonder Stuff, I don’t know, but The Bluetones, supporting Shed Seven that year, were brilliant.

  • Read on for reasons including the link with This Life and The Walking Dead

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THEATRE REVIEW: The Writer starring Romola Garai

WORTH A LOOK?: **

WHERE: Almeida

WHEN: 28/4 (matinee) runs to 26/5/18

A theatregoer is asked what she thinks of the play she has just seen and her response is one of the angriest and brilliant outbursts of new writing we’ve seen for a long time.

  • Read on for reasons including why Ella Hickson’s new play doesn’t sustain its blistering pace

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