Just eight of the 28 acts who take part in 2018’s Eurovision Song Contest selection show for Sweden – Melodifestivalen – have competed before, many less than in previous years.
Star Bette Midler bids farewell to the Tony Award-winning revival on 14/1/18 leaving it in the capable hands of Bernadette Peters. Charlie Stemp (Half A Sixpence and Dick Whittington) joins the cast on 20/1/18. Does his arrival signal an imminent West End transfer? Booking through July. Tickets
Kathy Burke (whose The Retreat at the Park Theatre earlier this year was lots of fun) directs Jennifer Saunders in this Oscar Wilde play for Dominic Dromgoole’s Classic Spring theatre company as a follow-up to his delightful A Woman Of No Importance. Runs 12/1 to 7/4 at the Vaudeville Theatre. Tickets
WHERE: BFI
WHEN: 12/12, show airs 18, 19 and 20/12
We’re sat behind Jack Whitehall for this chance to see two of three new League Of Gentlemen episodes and an opportunity to ask questions of the cast.
The delays refurbishing the Victoria Palace Theatre have rather taken some of the shine off the opening of this Tony Award-winning musical which is now in previews from 6/12 with a 21/12 press night. We’ll be reviewing the Boxing Day show (if it’s opened by then). Still the hottest tickets in town
Dan Gillespie Sells is frontman of The Feeling and we gave his debut musical the full 5* when we saw it in Sheffield in February. It’s a real celebration of mothers and sons and transfers to the West End 6/11 booking to 21/4/18. Tickets. The soundtrack is an absolute treat but our favourite is cross-dressing musical-within-a-song The Legend Of Loco Chanel. Don’t. Miss.
Lady Gaga would’ve been our number one but her Joanne world tour now arrives – fingers crossed – at The 02 for two dates early in 2018, rescheduled from this month. No matter. Heathers star Slater appears in this David Mamet play about cutthroat Chicago salesmen at the Playhouse Theatre in London’s West End from 26/10 through 3/2/18. Tickets
Happiness. Exile. Surrender … and now Desire – all four of Hurts’ album titles have spoken to what it is to be an outsider. As their lyrics and music do. Their LGBTQ audience has never been more embraced than for the video for the first single of this campaign (still above, clip below) Beautiful Ones. Fans of recent BBC1 drama Rellik will be familiar with the story line playing out in reverse.
The Garrick Theatre had some success earlier this year with Griff Rhys Jones/Lee Mack comedy The Miser and this musical re-working of the Mel Brooks classic looks like it will be puttin’ on the Ritz with a cast including Ross Noble (see above) and Lesley Joseph. Runs 28/9 to February 2018. Tickets
We awarded 12 monstas for the best pop, theatre, TV and film of 2016 in December – and here we look at the cream of 2017 so far and what’s to come. Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Jonas Nay, Stranger Things and The Bridge are previous winners in this category.
