Gongs galore this week with the inaugural Theatre Awards UK, which recognise the best of British theatre outside London. As well as wins for Derek Jacobi, National Theatre Wales and the RSC, Peter Hall (pictured here) picked up a special award to honour his contribution to UK theatre. A few days later, it was the turn of the awards which bear the name of one of Hall’s old comrades in arms at the RSC, Peter Brook, recognising the more off-the-beaten track success stories in British fringe theatre. Meanwhile, there was also news that the defunct Manchester Evening News Theatre awards are to be revived under a new name Photograph: Sarah Lee for The Guardian
Plácido Domingo has won a few awards in his time. The opera megastar has just been celebrating the 40th anniversary of his debut turn at the Royal Opera House. Covent Garden hosted a gala evening in honour of the Spanish tenor this week, with Domingo performing excerpts from his favourite works – a kind of operatic greatest hits. The critics weren’t all impressed, though, with the Daily Telegraph complaining it felt 'more like a wake' than a celebration Photograph: Tristram Kenton
Just up the road from Covent Garden, Josie Rourke unveiled her debut season as artistic director of the Donmar Warehouse, which launches in February next year. She has some big shoes to fill, succeeding Michael Grandage, but the signs are promising with a programme ranging from late Restoration comedy, The Recruiting Officer, to a new adaptation of Swiss playwright Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s completely bonkers cold war satire The Physicists, which boasts a character list including Newton, Einstein and Möbius. And, while there’s no musical in Rourke’s opening salvo, she has announced the appointment of Michael Bruce as composer in residence Photograph: Graeme Robertson for the Guardian
Elsewhere, cult 1973 horror film the The Wicker Man is being turned into a stage musical, which, frankly, is a sentence I never thought I’d have to write. The show is part of the National Theatre of Scotland’s forthcoming season and is one of the more unlikely stage horror adaptations to see the light of day since the RSC gave Carrie the musical treatment in 1988. The show will will tour to Aberdeen, Glasgow, Inverness and Dunfermline in February and March next year. Expect lots of pagan chanting and some impressive pyrotechnics Photograph: Sportsphoto Ltd/Allstar
Big news in the ballet world with the announcement that Christopher Hampson will be the new artistic director of Scottish Ballet. Hampson, a former soloist with the English National Ballet and an accomplished choreographer, will replace current incumbent Ashley Page next year in what have been somewhat controversial circumstances. Page has been widely credited with turning round the fortunes of the company and had been keen to stay, but decided to leave after only being offered a one-year contract extension by Scottish Ballet’s board Photograph: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images
Britain’s self-styled ‘favourite psychic’ Sally Morgan has (and I’m sure this wasn’t a huge surprise to anyone) this week turned down the opportunity to prove her supernatural powers. Morgan is one of the UK’s most successful stage psychics, but has been hit by a series of claims that she fakes her powers. A group of Liverpool-based sceptics challenged her to demonstrate her psychic abilities in a specially controlled environment for an event timed to coincide with Halloween. Morgan, however, saw them coming and refused Photograph: ITV
From insinuations of a Morgan cover-up to accusations of an organ cover-up. The Bolshoi theatre in Moscow which, as we covered last week, has just reopened following a lavish 21bn rouble (£435m) renovation, has now come under fire for squirelling away the penis on one of the giant statues that adorns its roof. Eagle-eyed audience members have spotted that, following the refurbishment work, the Greek god Apollo has had his modesty covered with a fig leaf. And crotch-watchers aren't happy Photograph: Alexander Nemenov/AFP/Getty Images
