The WikiLeaks scandal has been big news for months. This week, though, we found out that the two principal protagonists’ stories are both to be turned into plays – The Radicalisation of Bradley Manning and Stainless Steel Rat, which will tell Julian Assange’s story. One small problem if you fancy watching them as a double bill: the latter is taking place at the Seymour Centre in Sydney, while the former will feature in the second season from National Theatre Wales. Time to start saving those air miles? Photograph: Linda Nylind for the Guardian
While the WikiLeaks story is being transmogrified into play form, Shakespeare’s works are to be digitised in an online database created by Bloomsbury and Faber and Faber. The publishers have revealed they are joining forces to create Drama Online, a digital archive that from October 2012 will give access to more than two millennia of plays and critical discourse, including works from authors such as Polly Stenham, Chekhov, Alan Ayckbourn and, of course, Shakespeare
Photograph: Oli Scarff/Getty Images
In the physical world, one of the Bard’s most popular comedies got back-to-back outings, with two London productions of Much Ado About Nothing opening in the space of a week. First, it was the Globe’s turn with a relatively traditional staging starring Eve Best and Charles Edwards as Beatrice and Benedick. Next up, it was the distinctly more glitzy West End revival with former Doctor Who companions David Tennant and Catherine Tate reunited as the quarrelling lovers. The verdict? They’re both good, but the Globe’s edges it on points Photograph: Johan Persson/PA
Meanwhile, back in Shakespeare’s home town of Stratford, news that RSC associate Roxana Silbert has landed one of the plum jobs in regional theatre, as the new artistic director of the Birmingham Rep. Silbert, a new writing specialist who previously headed up Paines Plough, is the latest in what promises to be a veritable merry-go-round of theatre appointments in the coming months. West Yorkshire Playhouse, The Bush, The Gate and Salisbury Playhouse are still up for grabs Photograph: Sarah Lee for the Guardian
If that’s all a bit too much Shakespeare for your liking, maybe you’d rather some singing magical creatures. The cast of Shrek the Musical – soon to open to the press at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane – took to the stage during Monday night’s live edition of Britain’s Got Talent. BGT judge Amanda Holden, who plays Princess Fiona in the musical, was joined for a rendition of I’m a Believer by Shrek, Donkey, a chorus of pigs and a singing dragon Photograph: Ken McKay/Rex Features
Shrek started life on Broadway during what turned out to be one of New York theatre’s toughest ever years, but The Great White Way is now back to business as usual, reporting a box office bonanza for the 2010/11 season. With the help of UK-originated hits such as Jerusalem (above), War Horse and Sister Act, as well as bad-taste musical hit of the year The Book of Mormon, the tills have been ringing to the tune of $1.1bn – the highest receipts ever, with attendances also up 5% from last year Photograph: Tristram Kenton
Last week, Andrew Lloyd Webber was busy giving away his moolah, but now he’s back to the business of making it, with the Australian premiere of Love Never Dies. After an unimpressive debut in London, where it became cruelly christened Paint Never Dries, the Phantom of the Opera sequel needed to perform well in Australia. After some fairly wholesale changes, it seems to have gone down well with the Melbourne critics. Even Lloyd Webber himself insists the outing in Oz is a vast improvement on the London premiere Photograph: Jonathan Hordle/Rex Features
