WHERE?: Southwark Playhouse RUNTIME: 90 minutes (no interval)
WHEN?: 6/10/20 (matinee), runs to 14/11/20 UPDATE: This production streams here from 26 – 29/11/20 NEW UPDATE: This production transfers into the West End 17 September 2021 through 13 October 2021 Tickets
This production opened in March shortly before lockdown and has returned to this venue which has added Perspex screens between groups in the audience.
Read on for reasons including to watch two clips of songs from the show
OUT: from 30/9/20 on Netflix (certificate 15, running time 122 minutes)
Author Mart Crowley died in March before this film was released but did see its cast return to perform the play on Broadway on its 50th anniversary and later win a Tony for Best Revival.
Read on for reasons including how Parsons will no longer be typecast as Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory
WHEN?: 1/10/20, season runs to 24/10/20. (Maxine Peake transfers with Imelda Staunton to Sheffield Theatres 9-11/11/20 and Leeds Playhouse 12-14/11/20)
Miss Fozzard is the funniest of the 2nd run of Talking Heads premiered on BBC1 in 1998 and here Peake makes the most of every line.
Read on for reasons including how Greig’s character is another of Bennett’s thwarted women
SETLIST: I Feel The Earth Move; Tight Connection To My Heart; Here, There and Everywhere; Will You Love Me Tomorrow?; When A Woman; It’s Too Late; So Far Away; That’s The Way It Is; I’ll Never Love Again; Rain and Fire; You’ve Got A Friend; Beautiful; Natural Woman
Janson is shortlisted as Best Actress in a supporting role in a musical in the rescheduled Olivier Awards this month for her role as Anne Hathaway in Max Martin’s & Juliet.
Read on for reasons including the reasons behind some of the song choices in tonight’s set including 1 by Lady Gaga
WHEN?: 1/10/20 (matinee), season runs to 31/10/20 (Imelda Staunton transfers with Maxine Peake to Sheffield Theatres 9-11/11 and Leeds Playhouse 12-14)
The indomitable Patricia Routledge played Irene Ruddock in the original A Lady Of Letters and Staunton’s is quieter but no less successful.
Read on for reasons including how this role underlines Staunton’s versatility
SETLIST: Who I Am; Blame It On Me; Good Enough; Escape; Fearless (with Nadia Rose); Overload; In And Out Of Love; Into You; Nowhere To Run; Here I Am; End Of Everything; High Heels (with Sink The Pink); I Turn To You
‘The 10-year-old in my head has absolutely collapsed. While 27-year-old me feels the same,’ says south London rapper Nadia Rose (pictured above left) as she joins Melanie C onstage during this internet gig to preview the latter’s new album out today.
Read on for reasons including details of Melanie C’s tour next year including a London gig
Stranger Things won our Best TV monsta in 2016 and its star Millie Bobby Brown convinces in the titular role as the 16-year-old younger sister of Sherlock Holmes not least because she is that age.
Read on for reasons including why this film’s complicated women including Fiona Shaw and Frances de la Tour are at its heart
National Theatre returns with Death of England: Delroy
Death of England, written by Clint Dyer and Roy Williams, boasted one of the most accomplished leading roles of the year as well as being one of 2020’s best new plays. Death of England: Delroy has the same authors as its near namesake and stars one of the characters mentioned in the previous work and played by Giles Terera (Rosmersholm, Duke Of Yorks). The National has closed its doors since March and this is the show it has chosen for curtain up, running 21/10 through 28/11/20. Tickets
STOP PRESS: National Theatre announces Terera will no longer perform after emergency surgery and understudy Michael Balogun will take on the role.
Read on for reasons including Divine Comedy, Mel C album and Bananarama book
2. Annie releases Dark Hearts album
We’ve heard 4 of the 13 tracks on the Norwegian’s 1st album for 11 years and The Streets Where I Belong (listen above) is our favourite: a soft vocal reminding of St Etienne and a gorgeously understated tune evoking nostalgia while weaving a story of hometown glory. The title track was a Song Of The Week for us in September and the album is out 16/10/20. Tickets
3. Divine Comedy play the Barbican
Divine Comedy won our Best Gig monsta last year and release 12 2CD collection Venus, Folly and Time to celebrate their 30-year back catalogue 9/10/20. They play a gig at the Barbican 5 days later which will be live-streamed ahead of a rescheduled run of 5 nights at the venue in September 2021 at which they play 2 different albums in full each night. Tickets
4. Sophie Ellis Bextor serves up Songs From The Kitchen Disco
A Humdrum Mum gave us 5 reasons why we love Sophie Ellis Bextor and on 23/10/20 the star releases her Songs From The Kitchen Disco album which combines her greatest hits with covers she performed on Friday nights during lockdown ahead of a tour next year including dates with Steps. Tickets include a solo London Palladium gig as well as a Steps show at The 02
5. Melanie C releases Colour and Light album
The artist formerly known as Sporty Spice unleashed her 8th solo album Colour and Light on 2/10 and we previewed it thanks to a fun livestream the night ahead of release. Tickets are now on sale for her 2021 tour including a gig at London’s 02 Shepherds Bush Empire
6. Bananarama release Really Saying Something book
The ‘Nanas won our Best Gig monsta in 2017 when their original line-up reunited and Siobhan left afterwards as Keren and Sara recorded a new album and toured with a Q&A thrown in. On 29/10/20 book Really Saying Something: Sara & Keren Our Story is released and we can’t wait. Details
7. French and Saunders star in Death On The Nile film
We’ve seen so much French and Saunders over the years that it’s impossible to see Dawn and Jennifer in this trailer without thinking of the over enthusiastic extras they used to portray in that series. Released in the UK 16/10/20, Wonder Woman Gadot looks stunning in this remake of the Agatha Christie classic directed by and starring Kenneth Branagh as Poirot. The impressive supporting cast includes monstagigz favourites Sophie Okonedoand Letitia Wright.
8. T’Shan Williams and Aimie Atkinson play Theatre Cafe Night Caps series
The Turbine Theatre‘s artistic director Paul Taylor-Mills hosts this series of performances titled Night Caps in association with the Theatre Cafe by West End stars including T’Shan Williams (Heathers, Other Palace) on the 8/10 and Aimie Atkinson (Pretty Woman, Piccadilly Theatre) on the 22/10. Tickets
9. Rupert Everett’s Tainted Glory book
Everett starred in, wrote and directed The Happy Prince which won our 2018 Best Film monsta and this highly anticipated third memoir, To The End Of The World: Travels With Oscar Wilde: Tainted Glory tells the story of the playwright’s last days, and how that ten-year quest to make The Happy Prince almost destroyed Everett. We’ve always enjoyed Everett’s writing and his first memoir, Red Carpets and Other Banana Skins, was a Sunday Times bestseller while its sequel, Vanished Years, won the Sheridan Morley Prize for Biography. Published 8/10/20
Picture courtesy of National Theatre via Facebook
Have you seen any of these shows or films or heard the albums or read the books? Let us know what you thought in the comments below
Based on the 1993 film written and directed by Nora Ephron, Sleepless: A Musical Romance tells the story of architect Sam mourning the loss of his wife Maggie who is persuaded by his young son Jonah to tell a Christmas Eve radio show how much he misses her.
Read on for reasons including how McGuiness and Walsh shine in their second big musical opposite each other
