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.
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.
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.
By Neil Durham
WORTH A LOOK?: ****1/2
WHEN? Thursday 9 July, runs through Saturday 11 July 2026
Festival organisers are giving away free sombreros as temperatures surpass 40 degrees – the highest recorded for 112 years – and Suede compliment this vast crowd on their enthusiastic singing along.
By Neil Durham
WORTH A LOOK?: ****
WHEN? Wednesday 8 July, festival runs through 11 July and Sigrid tours through 5 September 2026
SETLIST: I’ll Always Be Your Girl; Burning Bridges; Plot Twist; Sucker Punch; Jellyfish; High Five; Head On Fire; Mirror; Don’t Feel Like Crying; Do It Again; Have You Heard This Song Before?; Home To You; Dynamite; It Gets Dark; Fort Knox; Don’t Kill My Vibe; Strangers
It’s over 30 degrees in Barcelona’s Parc del Fòrum by the sea as Sigrid takes to the stage as 1 of the opening acts of this 4-day festival which means ‘crossroads’ in Catalan.
Blanchett (The Seagull, Barbican) stars opposite Nina Hoss (The Cherry Orchard, Donmar) in Benedict Andrews’ (Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, Apollo Theatre) production fusing ancient myth and modern psychology at the Lyttelton at the National 19 August through 10 October 2026. Tickets
WORTH A LOOK?: *****
Tracklist: I Feel So Free; Good For The Soul; One Step Away; Bring Your Love; Danceteria; Read My Lips; Everything; Love Sensation; Love Without Words; Bizarre; School; Fragile; My Sins Are My Saviour; Betrayal; The Test; L.E.S Girl
Confessions II is the mostly misleading title for this album which isn’t Madonna’s best album for the 21 years since Confessions On A Dancefloor but her best … ever.
WORTH A LOOK?: ****
Danceteria is the name of the New York nightclub where Soft Cell‘s young Marc Almond and Dave Ball would party until the small hours after recording sessions for their 1981 debut LP Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret.
By Neil Durham
WORTH A LOOK?: ***
WHEN? Friday 19 June, runs through 21 June 2026 RUNTIME: 85 minutes (no interval)
The big draw of this workshop production of a new musical is the central role for the Olivier Award-nominated Jo Foster (Into The Woods, Bridge Theatre and Why Am I So Single?, Garrick Theatre).
By Neil Durham
WORTH A LOOK?: *****
WHEN? Saturday 13 June, opens 25 June and runs through 12 September 2026 RUNTIME: 160 minutes (with a 20-minute interval)
The audience rises as 1 at the curtain to give this musical re-imagining of the beloved 2014 film about lesbian and gay support for the miners during their 80s industrial action the adulation it deserves.
