Shirley Valentine probably needs no introduction. She’s 37 years old in the making, having begun her life as a play at the Everyman Theatre in Liverpool in 1986. She then hit stardom in that film with the enchanting Pauline Collins in 1989. Shirley Valentine’s latest incarnation, though, is with Sheridan Smith who is gloriously funny,

When I saw Tyrone Huntley in Leave to Remain at the Lyric Hammersmith earlier this year, I knew a star was in the ascendant, although the Evening Standard already knew that when they awarded him the ES Theatre Award. He’s now sprinted from stage into the director’s seat in a razzle-dazzle production of Ain’t Misbehavin’

David Pountney is a genius. The British-Polish director has transformed one of the repertoire’s most difficult and eccentric operas into a madcap, merry work of art, bursting with colour, humour and silliness. I was both intrigued by and slightly dreading The Excursions of Mr Brouček at Grange Park Opera. I ended up with quite a