You wouldn’t have thought she’d have room on her mantelpiece, what with that Oscar, several Laurence Olivier awards and even a damehood. But as of this week, Judi Dench is now also the proud owner of a Praemium Imperiale. The stage and screen actress was presented with the Japanese equivalent of a Nobel prize, which is sponsored by Japan’s imperial family and comes with a cheque for £155,000. She said she was "overwhelmed” by the honour Photograph: Felix Kunze/Getty Images
But where will our next generation of Denches come from? Concerns have been raised by leading industry figures as drama schools announce that they will be charging £9,000 tuition fees to students from 2012. Nearly all of England’s major drama training institutions – including Rada, Lamda and Central School of Speech and Drama (where Dench trained, pictured above) will charge the maximum possible fees, leading to fears that many could be put off Photograph: Peter Cook/View Pictures/Rex
And it’s not just the young who are at risk. Some of theatre's oldest buildings are also facing an uncertain future, with the Theatres Trust announcing its annual Theatre Buildings at Risk register. Wilton’s Music Hall has returned to the top of the watchlist, after its recent application for Heritage Lottery Funding was turned down. It is joined by – among others – the Brighton Hippodrome, the Derby Hippodrome, the Doncaster Grand and London's Cochrane theatre Photograph: PR
While it may not have involved the closure of a historic building, the opera world was faced with the loss of one of its most cherished institutions this week, with the passing of Lord Harewood. A cousin to the Queen and sixth in line to the throne at the time of his birth, Harewood played a major role in most of the UK’s leading opera companies – including founding Opera North – and served as editor of Opera magazine. He was also a lifelong Leeds United fan and a former president of the Football Association
Photograph: Tim Graham/Getty Images
At the London Coliseum, meanwhile, where Harewood once served as managing director of the English National Opera, this week saw another historic moment. Frederick Ashton’s rarely performed 1955 ballet of Romeo and Juliet was given its first major London outing in more than two decades. In the title roles are two of the Bolshoi ballet’s star names – Ivan Vasiliev and Natalia Osipova, who also happen to be engaged – but despite enthusiasm for the pair’s performances, reviews of the production itself have been mixed Photograph: Tristram Kenton
Best known for her turn in the music video to her ex-husband Billy Joel’s Uptown Girl, Christie Brinkley came to the West End this week, making her London stage debut in the musical Chicago. The former supermodel, now 57, takes on the role of Roxie Hart in the long-running show for the next four weeks, having already played the part on Broadway. At one point, though, it looked like she might not make it on to the stage of the Cambridge theatre, after being forced to postpone her London appearance when her mother was taken ill Photograph: Ian West/PA
From an Uptown Girl to Caryl Churchill’s Top Girls, which has announced that it is to transfer to the West End’s Trafalgar Studios next month. The play – a stinging rebuke of Thatcherism – debuted at the Royal Court theatre in 1982 and this new staging is helmed by its original director Max Stafford-Clark. It features Suranne Jones and Catherine McCormack among the cast Photograph: Tristram Kenton
