THEATRE REVIEW: Punch at the Young Vic starring David Shields & Julie Hesmondhalgh

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: *****

WHEN? Saturday 1 March 2025, runs through 26 April 2025 RUNTIME: 145 minutes (including a 20-minute interval) Update: Transfers to the Apollo Theatre 22 September through 29 November 2025 Tickets

In 2011 Jacob Dunne fatally punched a man in an unprovoked attack and received a two-and-a-half-year custodial sentence for manslaughter of which he served 14 months. 

  • Read on for reasons including how this is the best new play of the year so far
Read More

PREDICTIONS: Melodifestivalen Finalen 2025 starring Greczula, Klara Hammarström & Måns Zelmerlöw 

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

By Aline Mahrud

WHEN?: Saturday 8 March 2025 Strawberry Arena, Stockholm 7pm UK time

WHERE DO I WATCH?: SVTPlay

We predict that this year’s Melfest does contain a potential Eurovision winner in Basle in May but that it isn’t 2015 victor Måns Zelmerlöw or Spotify comedy chartoppers KAJ.

  • Read on for reasons including our predictions for how these finalists would fare in Eurovision 2025
Read More

THEATRE REVIEW: The Seagull starring Cate Blanchett, Emma Corrin & Tanya Reynolds at the Barbican Centre

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: ****1/2

WHEN? Friday 28 February 2025, runs through 5 April 2025 RUNTIME: 180 minutes (including a 20-minute interval)

Zachary Hart (The Constituent, Old Vic) plays the besotted Simon Medvedenko, arrives onstage on a quad bike with a guitar and performs Billy Bragg‘s The Milkman Of Human Kindness and we’re already in floods of tears because, like Chekhov’s gun, we know what’s to come.

  • Read on for reasons including how Blanchett’s Arkadina is extraordinarily monstrous without unbalancing this production
Read More

SONG OF THE MONTH: Abracadabra by Lady Gaga (March 2025)

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

WORTH A LOOK? *****

Mother Monster’s best single since Born This Way in 2011 finds her experimenting with industrial house and sampling/giving songwriting credits to Siouxsie and The Banshees as she tees up new album Mayhem.

  • Read on for reasons including how we haven’t been this excited in years for a new Gaga album
Read More

PREDICTIONS: Melodifestivalen 2025 Heat 5 starring Scarlet, Saga Ludvigsson & Arvingarna

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

By Aline Mahrud

WHEN?: Saturday 1 March 2025 7pm UK time

WHERE?: Husqvarna Garden, Jönköping

Male soloists have perhaps surprisingly won each of the 1st 4 MF heats and we’ve our fingers crossed for female duo Scarlet (pictured above) to step up on Saturday and break that run with their hard gothic rock.

  • Read on for reasons including Saga Ludvigsson, Arvingarna and Victoria Silvstedt
Read More

9 reasons why we can’t wait for March 2025 starring James Graham’s Punch

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

  1. James Graham’s Punch at the Young Vic

Author Graham (Boys From The Blackstuff, National Theatre) is enjoying a prolific run of theatre and TV writing including Brian And Maggie most recently on Channel 4. This transfers from Nottingham Playhouse and is based on a book by Jacob Dunne about an impulsive punch that leads to fatal consequences at the Young Vic. Runs 1 March through 26 April 2025. Tickets Cast includes Coronation Street‘s Julie Hesmondhalgh. Our review

  • Read on for reasons including Lady Gaga and Welly albums and double Eurovision winner Loreen live
Read More

THEATRE REVIEW: Alterations starring Arinze Kene at the National Theatre

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: ****

WHEN? Friday 20 February, opens 27 February and runs through 5 April 2025 RUNTIME: 120 minutes (no interval)

Kene (2018’s Best Theatre Actor monsta winner for Misty, Bush Theatre) plays tailor Walker in 70s London with designs on a Carnaby Street business who is part of the Windrush generation negotiating aspiration with loss of community.

  • Read on for reasons including how Alterations is laugh-out-loud funny but also illuminating about difference, ambition and sacrifice
Read More

PREDICTIONS: Melodifestivalen 2025 Heat 4 starring Måns Zelmerlöw

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

By Aline Mahrud

WHEN?: Saturday 22 February 2025 7pm UK time

WHERE?: Malmö Arena, Malmö

The big news this week is the return of 2015 Eurovision winner Mans Zelmerlow and, on the evidence of the 60-second clip, he might not be the runaway 2025 MF victor he appeared to be at the start of the series.

  • Read on for reasons including Tennessee Tears and Andreas Lundstedt
Read More

GIG REVIEW: Welly at Heartbreakers, Southampton

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

By Carron Stacey, A Humdrum Mum

WHEN?: Thursday 13 February, tour runs through 3 August 2025 with dates being added Tickets

I’ve reviewed these guys so many times, I don’t know how else to say “Go and see them!”

  • Read on for reasons including how Welly will sound Girls Aloud next album
Read More

GIG REVIEW: Patti LuPone: A Life In Notes at London Coliseum

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: ***** Tour continues through 24 May 2025 Tickets

Setlist: A Song For You; Come-On-A My House; Summertime Summertime; Ebb Tide; We Kiss In A Shadow; Teen Angel; Town Without Pity; I Wish It So; Some People; Lilac Wine; Alfie; Saratoga Summer Song; The Man That Got Away; Those Were The Days; On Broadway; Don’t Cry For Me Argentina; I Dreamed A Dream; The Ladies Who Lunch; Stars; Anything Goes; Ev’ry Time We Say Goodbye; I Didn’t Know What Time It Was; Time After Time; Make You Feel My Love; Ready To Begin Again (Manya’s Song); Forever Young

This ornate London theatre has a 2,558 capacity and it’s testament to LuPone’s star quality during this biographical show in which she appears onstage with only 2 musicians that it feels much more intimate.

  • Read on for reasons including how LuPone’s star quality make this gigantic venue fizz with the intimacy of an off-Broadway dive bar
Read More