WORTH A LOOK?: ***
OUT: 8/7
TRACKLIST: Mastermind; Pretty Gardens; Thoughts Wasted; Lip Service; Ten Miles High; Whatever; Romantic Comedy; Nervous Sleep; Sitting and Counting.
Fans of Moloko’s breakthrough 1999 hit Sing It Back would do well to approach Murphy’s fifth solo album with caution.
WORTH A LOOK?: *****
WHERE: Menier Chocolate Factory
WHEN?: 2/7, press night 12/7 runs to 17/9
As this Fiasco Theater production of the Sondheim classic is about to begin, co-director/Wolf/Cinderella’s Prince Noah Brody tells us his wife Jessie Austrian (moving and funny as the Baker’s Wife) is pregnant.
WORTH A LOOK: *****
OUT: 8/7
TRACKLIST: (I); Nothing’s Real; What’s It Gonna Be; Touch; Kidz’n’Stuff; Indecision; What Happened To Us; (II); Tongue Tied; 2Shy; White Lies; The Space Tapes.
It’s noon on Saturday the day after the Brexit result triggered David Cameron’s resignation and Shura is telling the audience at Glastonbury’s Other Stage that her entire set is about break-ups.
WORTH A LOOK?: ****
OUT: 01/07
TRACKLIST: Back Together; Miami Logic; Old Skool; 16 Beat; Hang Me Out To Dry; Mick Slow; My House; Night Owl; Love’s Not An Obstacle; Summer Jam.
Metronomy frontman Joseph Mount is explaining in interviews that he’s not going to tour this record.
WORTH A LOOK: ****1/2
WHERE: Eventim Apollo, Hammersmith
WHEN: 30/6
SETLIST: Funnel of Love; She Bop; Heartache By The Number; I Drove All Night; End Of The World; Walking After Midnight; I Want To Be A Cowboy’s Sweetheart; You Don’t Know; When You Were Mine; Money Changes Everything; Misty Blue; Time After Time; The Goonies ‘r’ Good Enough; Girls Just Want To Have Fun (duet with Matt Henry); Fearless; True Colors.
‘It’s never too f***ing late to do what you want to do.’ 63-year-old Cyndi Lauper is three songs into a set which mixes her latest album of country covers interspersed with her career hits, focusing in particular on debut breakthrough LP She’s So Unusual.
She did it. We had our doubts about whether her Saturday Pyramid-headlining set would be uptempo enough but in the end it was the mix of revealing banter, heartfelt material and an exceptional voice which made the muddiest ever Glastonbury memorable for so much more than the weather.
Super is our album of the year so far and the Boys’ only 2016 UK dates are during their four-date Inner Sanctum residency at the Royal Opera House. We saw Rufus Wainwright there a while back and it’s a venue Neil and Chris were born to play. Tickets have sold out but we’d check here for returns.
WORTH A LOOK?: *****
WHERE: Old Red Lion Theatre
WHEN: 19/6 (matinee) runs to 25/6
Last year we saw former Labour leader Neil Kinnock in the audience watching an actor play him in the Arcola Theatre production of Gareth Thomas story Crouch Touch Pause Engage.
WORTH A LOOK?: ****
WHERE: Playhouse Theatre
WHEN: 17/6 runs to 29/10
Robert Icke won the 2016 best director Olivier for Oresteia and there’s much from that in this 2014 Almeida production which is back in the West End for another run.
WORTH A LOOK?: ***
OUT: 17/6
TRACKLIST: On My One; Gimme The Love; Love, Hope & Misery; The Love We’re Hoping For; Put Out The Fire; Never Wanna Dance; Bitter Salt; Ain’t No Rhyme; Livin’ Up Country; All That; Hold On You.
Releasing an album the week before Glastonbury is a trick that’s worked in recent years for Ed Sheeran and Florence and the Machine.
