REVIEW

THEATRE REVIEW: The Story starring Letitia Wright & Lorraine Toussaint at National Theatre

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By Aline Mahrud

WORTH A LOOK?: ***

WHEN? Friday 28 August, opens 3 September and runs through 24 October 2026 RUNTIME: 150 minutes (including a 20-minute interval)

The best thing about this revival of a 2003 US play inspired by a 1981 scandal in which a journalist won a Pulitzer Prize for writing about an inner city child only to later admit the story was fraudulent is the promising performance of Letitia Wright (pictured centre above) at its heart.

  • Read on for reasons including why today’s UK headlines would be a more relevant place for this venue to seek to represent the population it should be serving
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ALBUM OF THE MONTH: Jenius by Paul Heaton (September 2026)

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By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: ****

Tracklist: Can’t Get Next To You; Favourite Kind Of Idiot; I Want The Job; Sad Songs And Lawsuits; She Ain’t Pretty; One Eye Open; Send In The Clowns; Do Not Ask Me; Don’t Lean On Me; Jet Black Sky; The Whisky Did; Before Before; Good For The Bees; Go Upstream; A Son Of A Father

We 1st saw Heaton live at Aldershot’s West End Centre with his 2nd band The Beautiful South as chart-topper Song For Whoever was released in 1989.

  • Read on for reasons including where to see Heaton on tour where tickets are less than £40 each
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THEATRE REVIEW: A Month In The Country starring Sophie Okonedo at Donmar Warehouse

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By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: ****

WHEN? Monday 24 August, opens 2 September and runs through 3 October 2026 RUNTIME: 140 minutes (including a 20-minute interval)

Sophie Okonedo (Medea, @SohoPlace) is the beating heart of this revival of Brian Friel’s (Dancing At Lughnasa, National) take on this very Chekhovian tale of an 1840s Russian landowner’s wife’s infatuation with her son’s young tutor.

  • Read on for reasons including how Okonedo relishes the opportunity to be the emotional focus
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ALBUM OF THE WEEK: The Thread by Family Stereo (week beginning 21 August 2026)

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WORTH A LOOK?: ****

Tracklist: Remedy; Waiting On Nina; Sea Change; Fault Lines; The Thread; Removed; Collapsing; DLR; Silhouette On The Hill; Three Moon Trail; Tunnels

Rather than a brat summer, this season has been more Confessions II or Pride summer for us but this understated debut album has grown in stature thanks to repeated play.

  • Read on for reasons including where to see Family Stereo on tour later this year
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SONG OF THE MONTH: Love Sensation by Madonna and Kylie Minogue (August 2026)

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

WORTH A LOOK?: ****

Madonna’s latest album Confessions II stakes a claim to be the best LP of the year so far and this is a remix of 1 of its many singles with a guest duet vocal with another of the world’s biggest gay icons.

  • Read on for reasons including how to watch the lyric video of this new single
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THEATRE REVIEW: Death Note The Musical at Barbican Centre

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By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: ***

WHEN? Saturday 1 August, opens 11 August and runs through 12 September 2026.

It feels like musical theatre has never been more popular and yet we can’t help but also think that not everything’s ripe to see its characters burst into song.

  • Read on for reasons including how this should have stuck to its Post-Its rather than its musical notes
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THEATRE REVIEW: I’m Every Woman: The Chaka Khan Musical starring Alexandra Burke at Troubadour Wembley Park Theatre

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By Neil Durham

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

WHEN? Sunday 2 August (matinee), opens 4 August and runs through 27 September 2026 RUNTIME: 160 minutes (including a 20-minute interval)

X Factor winner Burke (Chicago, Phoenix Theatre) is Chaka Khan and encores with a mash-up of her biggest hits – I Feel For You, Ain’t Nobody and I’m Every Woman – and it’s a joyous end to the story of a complicated woman born ahead of her time in the surprise hit show of the summer.

  • Read on for reasons including how we were expecting to see Burke’s understudy
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THEATRE REVIEW: Cats starring Melanie La Barrie & Gary Wilmot at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre

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By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: ****

WHEN? Saturday 1 August (matinee), opens 6 August and runs through 12 September 2026 RUNTIME: 135 minutes (including a 20-minute interval)

It’s the extraordinarily moving song Memory – sample lyric: ‘I remember the time I knew what happiness was, let the Memory live again’ – which elevates this Andrew Lloyd Webber musical based on T.S. Eliot’s poems in Old Possum’s Book Of Practical Cats.

  • Read on for reasons including how to see this show on tour around the UK after this run
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ALBUM OF THE MONTH: Same Sun/Same Sky by The Darling Buds (August 2026)

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

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

Tracklist: Hey Saint Jude; Intruder; Oh No You Don’t; Lost Time; Jump In; Giddy In A Good Way; Cut Me Dead; Cast A Stone; Pretenders; Paper Planes; Leaving The Scene; Pollyanna Says

Same Sun/Same Sky is the 1st new album for 34 years by The Darling Buds and it draws on the best of the many styles of the band’s 1st trio of LPs to underline why they were so underrated.

  • Read on for reasons including if you’ve ever loved the band, Same Sun/Same Sky should definitely shine for you
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