WORTH A LOOK?: *****
OUT: now
Coronavirus may have caused the cancellation of the 65th Eurovision Song Contest from Rotterdam in May but 41 songs were selected for it and this was our favourite.
WORTH A LOOK?: ****1/2
WHERE? Garrick Theatre RUNTIME: 160 minutes (including a 20-minute interval)
WHEN? 14/3, press night 24/3 booking to 5/9/20
The Donmar revival of this musical homage to the film noir genre of motion pictures that rose to prominence in the 1940s was one of the reasons the authors of this blog started writing monstagigz.
WORTH A LOOK?: ***
WHERE? Royal Court (Jerwood Theatre Downstairs) RUNTIME: 65 minutes (no interval)
WHEN? 14/2 (matinee), runs to 21/3/20
Author E V Crowe is a graduate of the Royal Court Young Writers Programme ‘super group’ and here tells the story of working mother Viv who loses a shoe on her way to work as an estate agent as her life begins to unravel.
WORTH A LOOK?: ****
WHERE? Studio 5ive, the Troubadour, Wembley Park Theatre RUNTIME: 150 minutes (including three breaks for three courses)
WHEN? 8/3, booking to 29/3/20
Immersive theatre is all the rage and here award-winning Fat Rascal Theatre serve up three courses around a murder mystery dining experience.
BY: Carron Stacey
WHERE? Chalk, Brighton (touring in the US through March)
WHEN? 2/3/20
We were eagerly awaiting the trip along the south coast to watch this cosmic pop outfit from Halifax as we’d missed them at Victorious Festival two years ago.
WHEN?: 7/3/20
HOW TO WATCH: Outside Sweden SVTPlay from Stockholm Friends Arena
Will it be Dotter (pictured above) for Rotterdam in Eurovision 2020? Sweden hasn’t selected a female soloist to represent it at Eurovision since Sanna Nielsen and Undo in 2014 and we think this is the year it will.
We saw this Donmar production in its original home six years ago and the Cy Coleman/David Zippel musical evoking old Hollywood and film noir has a cast to die for. It includes the West End debut of former Girls Aloud member Nicola Roberts (and winner of ITV’s The Masked Singer) as well as Vanessa Williams, Rosalie Craig, Hadley Fraser and Theo James. Plays at the Garrick from 5/3 to 5/9. Tickets
By Carron Stacey
WHERE?: Portsmouth Guildhall 22/2/20
Never, to my shame, having seen David Baddiel live, this was a Christmas present for Mr Humdrum which, on the morning of the show, almost didn’t transpire when he claimed I’d only bought one ticket. He had, in fact, failed to turn over the print-out.
WORTH A LOOK?: ***
WHERE? Piccadilly Theatre RUNTIME: 135 minutes (including a 20-minute interval)
WHEN? 17/2, press night 1/3 booking to 2/1/21
Perhaps the biggest surprises here are that it’s taken quite so long for the 1990 film romcom to reach the stage and that its music and lyrics would be co-written by middle-of-the-road rocker Bryan Adams.
WHEN?: 7pm (UK time) 22/2/20
WHERE?: Malmö Arena, Malmö
Whisper it but we think a woman might win Melodifestivalen this year for the first time since Sanna Nielsen sang Undo in 2014.
