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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
WORTH A LOOK?: ****
WHERE: KOKO
WHEN: 26/4, tour runs to 29/4/18
SETLIST: Stereo Shot; Water On Glass; Never Trust A Stranger; Kandy Krush; Cambodia; Birthday; Yours ‘Til The End; Another Step; Words Fell Down; Bladerunner; If I Can’t Have You; Rosetta; View From A Bridge; Chequered Love; You Came; You Keep Me Hangin’ On; 1969; Pop Don’t Stop; Kids In America
It’s rare for an act of Kim Wilde’s vintage (first hit 1981) to release a new album (Here Come The Aliens in March) that sits so well in a greatest hits set.
WORTH A LOOK?: ****
WHERE: Under The Bridge
WHEN: 25/4, tour runs to 10/11/18
SETLIST: Queens; Hån; Dance; Diva; Euphoria; Rise Like A Phoenix; Every Way That I Can; Rock’n’ Roll Kids; No Fear; Don’t Deny Our Love; My Touch; Domino; Calm After The Storm; Dance Like Nobody’s Watching; Con Te Partiro; Half A Heart; Wild Wild Wonderland; Monsters
The Eurovision Song Contest might mean a once-a-year event to you but for this year’s Finnish contestant Saara Aalto it is the culmination of a 14-year quest.
WORTH A LOOK?: *****
WHERE: Royal Albert Hall
WHEN: 24/4, tour runs to 29/4/18
SETLIST: Don’t Rain On My Parade; Crazy; I Smell A Rat; Addicted To Love; Dinner At Eight; Mad about The Boy; Superstar; City Of Stars; Hey Big Spender; Anyone Who Had A Heart; Take Another Piece of My Heart; Talking In Your Sleep; My Man; 9 to 5; This Is Me; And I Am Telling You; I Will Survive/Happy
Sheridan Smith takes a sip of what she assures us is water (not vodka), belches and observes: ‘I should have left that one back in Wolverhampton.’
WORTH A LOOK?: ****
WHERE: Other Palace
WHEN: 21/4 runs to 6/5/18
‘I was nude on Broadway at 48,’ remembers this screen legend during a two-hour-plus show of songs and stories which reveal what an interesting character Kathleen Turner is
