Ex-Beatle Paul McCartney attended the opening of his first venture into the ballet art form – Oceans Kingdom – at the Lincoln Centre in New York, this week (costumes designed by his daughter Stella). Prior to the show's opening, Macca (pictured here with fiancee Nancy Shevell) made a startling admission: 'I don't know much about ballet … I kind of know Swan Lake and the Nutcracker.' We'll find out soon whether the critics share his own opinion of his expertise in the genre, but the Daily Telegraph gave an early response – 'it certainly wasn't an embarrassment'. Not the Frog Song, then Photograph: Kena Betancur/Reuters
Belgrade's international theatre festival draws to a close this weekend after nearly a fortnight. The event, now in its 45th year, was originally launched when the city was the capital of Yugoslavia and president Tito was in charge. This year the festival saw contributions from some of the former Yugoslav nations (much of it dealing with the horrors of the countries’ recent wars), as well as work from Belgium, France, Germany and Romania. This Slovenian punk rock version of Tennessee Williams’s Cat on a Hot Tin Roof sounded particularly intriguing Photograph: PR
In Canada, meanwhile, the saga of Garth Drabinsky (pictured here with Kim Cattrall) and Myron Gottlieb appears to be drawing to a close, as they failed in their appeal against fraud convictions this week and will serve five and four years respectively in Canadian jail. The pair are former executives and co-founders of Livent, a major theatre company on the other side of the Atlantic that went bankrupt in 1998, leaving investors around $500m (£324m) out of pocket. The company had been a major global player in the theatre industry in the early 90s, involved with shows including The Phantom of the Opera, Showboat and Kiss of the Spider Woman Photograph: Tom Sandler/Getty Images
Misdoings on a more minor scale, with a confession from Darcey Bussell – former principal ballerina for the Royal Ballet and sweetheart of the dance world – that she used to use a trampoline during photoshoots to help her get extra lift when she was doing promotional shots for a show. 'I was always very careful,' she explained. 'I would never do a photoshoot the day before a performance. But the trampoline was phenomenal. You could get into the most amazing positions. It’s funny – I became an expert trampolinist.' Photograph: Tristram Kenton
Shakespeare’s villain Iago has been brought to life by Dominic West (fresh from playing Fred West on TV and Butley in the West End) in a new production of Othello at the Sheffield Crucible, where he’s starring alongside former Wire colleague Clarke Peters as the jealous Moor. Critics have been impressed by West’s performance, but a few have been left confused by his gruff Yorkshire accent (though it's authentic enough: West was in fact born in the area, albeit schooled in the posher surroundings of Eton) Photograph: Tristram Kenton
Still in Yorkshire, one of the UK’s last remaining music halls – the City Varieties in Leeds – reopened after a £9.2m restoration. The venue was founded in 1865 and has hosted performers including Charlie Chaplin, Harry Houdini and, more recently, Paul Merton and Omid Djalili. Its reopening night was marked by a gala featuring a performance by legendary (and legendarily long-winded) comedian Ken Dodd, with the curtain finally coming down just before 1am Photograph: Christopher Thomond/guardian./Guardian
Perhaps best known for playing Mel Gibson’s wife in Braveheart, Catherine McCormack is to make her Royal Shakespeare Company debut next year. McCormack, who has plenty of stage experience, including The 39 Steps in the West End, will star as Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, a nun who turned to playwriting – most famously, The House of Desires. Heresy of Love will open in Stratford-upon-Avon next February Photograph: Tristram Kenton
