La Cage Aux Folles wowed audiences when it opened at Menier Chocolate Factory last year, and now it's back with a transfer to the West End. Taking over from The Harder They Come at the Playhouse Theatre, previews run from October 20th with booking until January 10th. Douglas Hodge reprises the role of Albin and the show will transform the theatre with cabaret seating at the front of the stalls being put in place to......

We raved about Piaf when it opened at the Donmar Warehouse but unless you were super quick on the uptake or enjoy standing in a queue for ages at 9am, chances are you haven't seen it. Well fear not, if you're keen on Elena Roger's super intense performance of the French diva, the show has just announced a transfer to the Vaudeville Theatre on The Strand for 14 weeks starting 16 October with the......

Her last major role was as Eva Peron in the 2006 West End revival of Evita, and now Argentinian Elena Roger has gone from one iconic woman to another undertaking the role of Edith Piaf in Piaf. Opening last night at the intimate Donmar Warehouse in Covent Garden, Pam Gems' biopic returned to the West End stage in a revamped format 30 years after it was first performed. Telling the story of Piaf's life......

The music of Cole Porter may not be something you would expect to be discussed on Londonist, but every since we sobbed our way through 'De-Lovely' in Whiteley's cinema we've been a big fan. So we were excited to see Chelsea's gorgeous Cadogan Hall promising 4 nights Cole Porter kind of biopic 'A Swell Party'. Originally staged at the Vaudeville Theatre in 1991, John Kane's show attempts to re-create Porter's life story using a......

Southwark's Menier Chocolate Factory has well established its reputation with productions being transferred to the West End since opening in 2004. So it is not so much a surprise as you may think that two stars of television and the stage took to the tiny 190 seat theatre last night. Starring Connie Fisher and Alistair McGowan, 'They're Playing Our Song' was packed with critics and guests (including showbiz theatre producer David Ian) all out......

It would seem that things are a tad awry in theatre land. The *feel-good*, sing-a-long, who-needs-a-plot musical is insidiously creeping across the West End, to the extent that there are but seven serious plays on at our main theatres (if you can call the Mouse Trap serious), compared with twenty four musicals. It’s the bums-on-seats factor. Money in the bank over a BAFTA on the mantelpiece. Now it has to be said that Londonist is......

It's the news you've been waiting for. Clear your diaries: the world premiere of the new Barry Manilow musical comes to London this August. Starring, wait for it, Chesney Hawkes. Students' favourite, cheesy Chesney takes the lead in the new show, which is called "Can't Smile Without You". And you'll be thrilled to hear the new musical features "many" of Barry Manilow's hits: "Mandy", "Could It Be Magic", and, of course, "Copacabana". And it sounds......

Londonist's been looking for a proper, new, bona fide West End Musical for you for ages. (Marguerite: too many Nazis; Never Forget: too many hens; Into the Hoods: too street; Brief Encounter, Dirty Dancing: too not-the-film; Gone With The Wind: too meh...) Decent, take-your-mum's-mate-along musicals are hard to come by. In Zorro, we're happy to let you know we think we've found one. What do you need from a good show? A cheeky hero......

Ché Walker wrote The Frontline while he was sitting backstage during last year's Othello at Shakespeare's Globe. As an actor in a minor role, Ché was lucky enough to have a two-and-a-half hour break each evening. So he sat in the Globe's attic in his doublet and hose with the Moor of Venice's Shakespearean rhythms floating through the floorboards while he penned a piece about Camden's lowlife. It's an incongruous image. But surely incongruity......

Aspirant West End stars, listen up - this weekend is your last opportunity to gatecrash the Big Time, X-Factor style, and audition for a part in the Showtime Challenge production of 1930s cockney musical Me and My Girl to be performed at the London Palladium on 26 October. If you've been keeping your Lloyd Webber compilation albums under your bed all these years and restricting your big solo to the bath then gird your......

Britain's first super prison will probably be in London. Fancy a musical? Well hurry up, Cabaret has now posted closing notices following Spamalot & Gone With The Wind 8 years down the line, the London Eye has rotated it's 30 millionth visitor. We did Latin at University. It's amazing, but Boris, really? Are you absolutely sure it's the solution? And Rose Tremain has won the Orange Broadband Prize For Fiction. Photo taken from Envoy's......

Now that you’ve spent a long, slothful weekend hiding from the snow on your mum’s couch, bloated with chocolate whilst watching endless episodes of the Simpsons and the Hollyoaks (No? Just us?) your brain could probably use a little stimulation. Luckily, London’s art scene is ready for you in this “out like a lamb…” week. If you want to stretch your brain a bit, but don’t want to stray too far from the sitting......

Uh, media exposure, that is. Prostitutes are, like, all over the place this week. First, a prostitution ring takes down the Sheriff of Wall Street. Then the BBC kicks off its newest musical talent competition, I’d Do Anything, in which contestants compete for the chance to play Nancy, hooker with a heart of gold, in a West End revival of the musical Oliver! Londonist cites the two examples and declares it a cultural phenomenon.......

For over a year now Disney’s hit High School Musical has been pretty much inescapable, spawning two chart-topping soundtracks and launching the career of tween idol Zac Efron. The HSM bandwagon shows no signs of slowing down either, with the legitimate theatre production of the film playing a short stint at London’s Apollo Hammersmith Theatre as of June 30th. This new incarnation is separate from the UK tour, which begins on February 19th in......