Plans have been cancelled for Take That musical 'Never Forget' to move to the Lyric Theatre at the end of the year. Currently showing at the Savoy, the show will now close on 15 November meaning you've got about 6 weeks to go and see if Everything Changes is still an amazing song when Robbie isn't singing it. Salary disputes have plagued the production recently and are rumoured to be the reason for the......

Contemporary dance has come a hell of a long way in the 30 years that Dance Umbrella has been running and that's reflected in this year's programme with the once pioneering and avant garde, now established, respectable big hitters opening the season: Merce Cunningham dance company presents new work alongside classic at the Barbican and Richard Alston celebrates his 60th birthday at Sadlers Wells. As usual, "brief encounters" with emerging choreographers precede the big......

Billed as "a new musical by the legendary Ray Davies", Come Dancing is actually the product of over a decade of crafting by the Kinks front-man. Yet despite some outstanding music, it still doesn't feel entirely finished. The show is a love letter to the dance halls of yesteryear, and specifically the glittering Ilford Palais where Davies' sisters and parents used to "dance the night away" every Saturday. The tables overspill into the auditorium,......

The last production in this year’s £10 Travelex season saw Rebecca Lenkiewicz lift the “curse” of the Olivier Theatre at the National – that, since it’s opening in 1963, not a single original play by a living female playwright has ever been staged. While the Olivier defends this unfortunate fact as a question of probability (only a small fraction of the unsolicited plays they receive are by women writers) it nevertheless seems fitting that......

Akram Khan is a choreographer and dancer renowned for his audacious collaborations. Zero Degrees in 2005 explored cultural identities in a stark white box at Sadlers Wells. Sacred Monsters had ballerina Sylvie Guillem singing on stage and dwarfing Khan in the most elegant way possible. This foray with actress Juliet Binoche was risk filled from the start - their mission was to dare, to push their personal boundaries and create across their comfort zones.......

For those who stroll past the National Theatre on Sunday afternoons, wistfully gazing at the plays you're too busy to see, except on Sunday afternoons when the building is closed: good news! The National Theatre will be open for 3pm performances of War Horse and in-i in September then a few more specially selected shows for Sundays leading up to December. The Mezzanine restaurant is open for brunch (adding to your dining options along......

Lone Twin seem destined to carry things around the Barbican Centre. For Spiral, the duo lifted, dragged and hauled a growing number of objects in a spiral journey to the centre of the Barbican over seven days. For their latest performance Speeches, they took a movable podium in Barbican orange to different spots within the Barbican estate and presented a very gentle series of performances. Speeches is a set of speeches written and spoken......

Join the cast of Avenue Q tonight post their main performance for a late night evening of laughter. Joined by fake air steward Pam Ann, magician Pete Firman, Jim Jeffries, Patrick Monahan, and Earl Okin, the Noel Coward theatre will be open late for one night only. Supporting the Myeloma UK charity, the night runs from 11pm - 1am with tickets at £22 including a free interval drink. More here.......

If you love Les Mis, Ruthie Henshall, and long epic musicals then be warned, there's just 7 performances of Parisian war musical Marguerite left. After 147 performances, the Theatre Royal Haymarket musical will close early on Saturday after disappointing summer ticket sales. Produced and written by Claude-Michel Schönberg, the hype surrounding this world premiere was huge, but ultimately failed to please. Nevertheless if you want to see the show, tickets are avaliable from £20 -......

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......

Joan Rivers. Tonight. In an intimate London theatre. We SO had to be there. In a rare fit of splashing out, Londonist emptied its collective wallets onto the floor, booked 'Diamond' tickets ("Best seats; Goodie bag; Get to meet Joan!") and almost sprinted to Leicester Square Theatre. There we saw the mistress of the red carpet swap it for a live stage instead. Could she put on a show of interest and worth for......

Mega-multicultural Echange Theatre, a company that draws on eastern and western influences as well as incorporating live music into their productions, have done the unimaginable: The Flies is an existential Jean-Paul Sartre rock opera. Camden People's Theatre has had one Oresteia in its small space already with Elektra; while that had us enthralled with it's precision and focus, The Flies is Sartre's philosophical re-working of that Greek tragedy, and we were stunned by Echange......

We have seen many, many different performances as part of the Camden Fringe and were beginning to get slightly blase...then we went to Camden People's Theatre for Headlangue Theatre's marvellously vintage mime piece Les Enges de l'Enfer (Angels of the Underground). In two words: utterly charming. The Paris-based visual, physical theatre company have drawn on the etiquette and bizarre behaviour of the Underground - or in this case, le Metro. There is plenty of......

In the grand setting of Camden Roundhouse, decorated with curtains and a backdrop of glittering stars, you get a great sense of anticipation of what lies ahead at Miss Behave's Variety Nighty. With booze flowing, the show kicks off with Miss Behave in a creakingly tight rubber dress pushing a rose through her tongue and showing off her renowned sword swallowing antics (remember White Mischief?), but comments, with a touch of pathos, that her......

Clever programming paired two Greek tragedies for a double bill of bold new versions of Medea and Electra. Fold Up Theatre presented Cradle and Fall, a very modern Medea, involving confrontation TV talk shows, publicists and spin doctors bringing this wrenching tale of a woman scorned right up to the minute. Though coincidental that Sienna Miller and Balthazar Getty were sprawling across tabloids at the same time, it intensified this tale of the woman......

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......

Shambolic Theatre's An Imaginative Woman is charming, cheering and not a little cheeky. This is assured, polished and enjoyable theatre, still fresh, fitting well into the fringe but with a gloss that shows that practice, effort and persistence pays off in this business. Based on a short story by Thomas Hardy, aspiring poetess Ella with son but minus husband sweeps into Mrs Hooper's home, seeking lodging by the sea for literary inspiration. The poet......

Transformation is a solo show by Gemskii, a former drug addict lesbian dancer, based on her abused past, mental breakdown then recovery, performed as storytelling with dance and choreographed set pieces. It almost fulfils the stereotype of the fringest of fringe theatre except... it is not awful. It is instead a captivating piece of autobiographical theatre that is impossible not to be moved by. Neither inviting or brushing off pity, Gemskii tells her story......

Value for money in The Turner Plays at the Camden Fringe can't be beaten. Five short plays by five new writers, based on five paintings by Turner, developed by Red On Black Productions, last seen at Camden Fringe with Hostage / Bleach / Burn. The precedent for high quality new writing was set and met again in this quintet of short work. The short scripts meant the impact of each was concentrated, boiled down......

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......

Fashion v Sport kicks off this week's cultural contributions, opening today at the V&A. Don your favourite shellsuit and examine the unique relationship between fashion and sport (is the missing link money?). Theatrically speaking, there's masses of exciting new stuff to choose from this week. Risk a dramatic shower tomorrow as Timon of Athens opens at the Globe, and the lovely Topol starts crooning his way through Gigi in Regent's Park. If you'd rather......

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......

The Camden Fringe is by now in full swing and we couldn't be happier to have this festival of theatre and comedy on our doorstep. So far we have enjoyed two cracking performances in one evening and are looking forward to many more similarly exciting back-to-back live shows before the month is up. On the opening day of the festival we excitedly strolled through the [pub] to the Etcetera Theatre doorway at the back,......

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......

London's cultural scene steams into August with an eclectic range of arty goings on. Those of you with art collections to refresh are in luck this week. Contemporary Arts Project's "Start You Collection" are offering a whole load of "highly collectible" art for under £200 from Friday, asking, "Without our art collections, how would we understand our cultural roots and trace its development to the present?" Indeed. And let's face it, if you can't......

The Camden Fringe: It's as good as the Edinburgh Festival, though arguably even better than that lauded Scotch month of mayhem: you only share accommodation if you want to and no one will sneer if you didn't make it to the 2am performance of A Midsummer Night's Dream in an 'ironic' car impound lot. Last year, the small Etcetera Theatre and Liberties Bar hosted 175 performances of 47 different shows... in just 4 weeks.......

There's plenty to entertain those of us in search of cultural enlightenment this week. London's arts scene is offering a really varied pick'n'mix bag of sticky sweet treats... Enjoy! Happy Birthday West Side Story! This groundbreaking dance musical opens tonight at Sadlers' Wells, 50 finger-clicking years since it first appeared. Without Jerome Robbins' legendary choreography, Londonist can't help think everything from MJ's Thriller to Britney's school uniform would've been rather different. Tomorrow night, you......

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......

There are more theatre openings in London this week than decent sunny spells, many of them featuring some familiar (read: off telly) faces... Under the Blue Sky, a story of three intertwined love stories with Catherine Tate, a couple of girls you'll recognise from Cranford, and him from the IT Crowd starts previews at the Duke of York today. Over at the Vaudeville, more Cranfordians tread the boards in The Female of the Species......