Revolving doors for rock ‘n’ roll shows in the West End this week, as theatreland waves farewell to Elvis and gives a warm(ish) welcome to the Beatles. The musical Million Dollar Quartet (which features the songs of Presley, along with Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins) has posted closing notices at the Noel Coward theatre, while Backbeat (which tells the story of the fifth Beatle, Stuart Sutcliffe) opened to a mixed critical reception at the Duke of York’s
Photograph: Tristram Kenton for the Guardian
While both Million Dollar Quartet and Backbeat feature actors playing pop stars singing covers of other people’s songs, news comes that the new Susan Boyle musical, I Dreamed a Dream, will actually feature SuBo herself, playing herself, singing covers of other people’s songs … at least for a small part of the show. The musical stars Elaine C Smith as Boyle, but Boyle herself will join Smith on stage for the finale every night on the show’s UK and Ireland tour, which starts in March next year. Life imitating art, imitating life. Confused?
Photograph: Carlos Barria/Reuters
Boyle’s fellow pop diva, Beyoncé, has been getting into trouble for imitating someone else, without their permission. The former Destiny’s Child star has been accused of ‘plundering’ the work of Belgian choreographer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker for her new music video Countdown. Will legal battles follow? After all, film-maker Thierry De Mey (who made the video of De Keersmaeker’s dance) wryly observes: ‘If tomorrow I were to look for the music, the videos by Beyoncé or any other pop or rock stars and use them in my movies without asking for their authorisation, I think Exocet missiles would fall over the Charleroi dance festival and myself.’ Quite
Photograph: Tristram Kenton for the Guardian
And that isn’t the only argument gripping the dance world this week. Royal Ballet stars Lauren Cuthbertson (pictured) and Edward Watson have been at the House of Commons making the case for the value of A Level Dance after a series of jibes by Tory government ministers, including university secretary David Willetts, who had claimed that Dance at A Level should be given less weight by UCAS than core ‘academic’ subjects. In response, Labour MP Frank Doran had tabled an adjournment debate on the issue
Photograph: Tristram Kenton for the Guardian
Down in Margate, meanwhile, an altogether more sinister dispute has been going on. The writer of a new play soon to open at a local theatre claims to have received death threats warning him not to proceed with the production of Gangsters in Thanet, which charts the history of organised crime in the town. ‘I’ve had warning phone calls, and threatening messages have appeared on local blogs,’ writer Norman Thomas tells us. ‘One of them said I’d end up in a “concrete kimono”. But we will go ahead. The whole point of the play is to break the silence on this subject in the area – we can’t back down now’ Photograph: AP
Less distressing tidings from another seaside resort, Blackpool, where Ken Dodd has been on hand to help roll out the town’s new ‘comedy carpet’. The £4m project features catchphrases and jokes from more than 850 of Britain’s most famous comedians, including Doddy himself, along with Bruce Forsyth, Tommy Cooper and Frankie Howerd. The carpet is located beneath Blackpool Tower, took five years to build and is etched out of granite and concrete. Just like that, as they say
Photograph: Dave Thompson/PA
Comedy performers of the here and now, though, might be interested to learn that Jongleurs is trying to raise £500,000 so it can float on the stock market. The chain, which has featured turns from comedians such as Peter Kay and Michael McIntyre at the beginning of their careers, plans to use the cash injection to expand from its current 19 comedy clubs to 30 within three years. That means more work for comics, and presumably more drunken laughs for stag and hen dos up and down the country Photograph: Martin Argles for The Guardian
