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
Hadley Fraser and Rosalie Craig are a real-life husband and wife and their easy chemistry is the best thing about this story of a relationship told both before and after a life-changing event.
Read on for reasons including how to watch productions from this venue even while it is closed for performances
We awarded 14 monstas for the best pop, theatre, TV and film of 2019 in December – and here we look at the cream of 2020 so far and what’s to come. The Bush Theatre and the Old Vic are previous winners in this category.
Read on for our top 5 best venues of 2020 so far and our hopes for the next three months
SETLIST: Live In The Light; I’ve Got To Sing My Song; I Know Where I’ve Been; Heaven Help Us All; Don’t Quit: I Will Survive; The Rose; Goldfinger: Diamonds Are Forever; Natural Woman; River Deep, Mountain High
There’s a reason one doesn’t often hear covers of songs best known by artists including Shirley Bassey and Tina Turner.
Read on for reasons including how to see musical theatre stars including Carrie Hope Fletcher and Cassidy Janson in this special series of shows
I know she attributes an awful lot of her subsequent musical opportunities to this track, with Spiller, and this 2000 summer track must surely sit somewhere in your life soundtrack. Indie kids will have known her from Theaudience and dance lovers will adore what the NME called this “slip of irresistible ice-filtered summer funk”.
Read on for reasons including Kitchen Disco, Spinning Plates podcast and Crying At The Discotheque
