‘Theatrical beauty’ If you don’t love Fiddler are you even a musical theatre fan? Perhaps you’re not, I do pride myself on the mixed-bag readers of this site. Yet I would argue regardless of your relationship to a step-ball-change, you should. Here’s a quick history lesson, get comfy children. Sholem Aleichem’s Yiddish language stories were carefully musicalised by writer Joseph ...

‘Stuffed after six slices’ When is a pizza joint not a pizza joint? No, this isn’t a Schrödinger’s domed oven deal. It’s more of a question on the nature of the food scene, answered audaciously by Bing Bong Pizza. You Call The Shots (YTCS) is an egalitarian bar that has been rebranded and open since January. It is crouching across ...

‘A garden, a mother, a daughter, and a looming line of work. Bernard Shaw’s searing social commentary springs eternal with Imelda Staunton and Bessie Carter as head gardeners’ Now I will level with you, dear reader, this is my first shuffle with Shaw. I know scandal and shock, a Nobel prize-winner to boot. I mean, I’ve heard of him whispered ...

‘Treading the glamorous but dangerous path of memory lane’ I am a super fan of Hersh Dagmarr’s blend of cabaret and campy vampire (like a singing queer Dracula) which is going to make this review a tricky one to get down. The setting is flawless, the doldrums of Sunday flung aside in the hustle to get tarted up and head ...

‘hope to recontextualise the past, improve the present, and hopefully change the future’ Now I am a history girlie, chuck me a bustle, a hoop skirt, a cod piece (cheeky) or a corset and I’m blissful. However uncomfortably, I am a feminist, and so often the voices of women are absent or drowned out from the past. Enter Ava Pickett! ...

‘Korean art has long enthralled the West: from Changgeuk and Pansori (Opera/folk performance) to swooping, spidery calligraphy. Now, a festival of dance expands our horizons once again.’ Having missed Jinjo Crew at Breakin’ Convention at the beginning of the month, I fairly squeaked when I spied that a Korean dance festival was on at The Place and in its eighth year. It is supported ...

‘For the more witchy among you, May Day bank holiday or Beltane is all about renewal, regrowth, and May poles. I have my own tradition, which is an artistic celebration of the new, budding, and blossoming: Breakin’ Convention.’ Due to word limits and a very stuffed festival, I shall be sparing with background. Twenty-two years ago, HipHop legend Jonzi D and his ...

‘Luminous prose, weaving emotion and poetry’ When London feels like it’s having a hot grey bowl of diffused sunlight pressed down upon it, many flee to the AC-wafted basement of the Barbican. But what is clicking along down there pulls more of a crowd than just those on the hunt for a cool troglodyte refuge. Samuel Beckett returns to one ...

‘swelling and quietly mournful’ We the assembled shuffle in our finery, clothes dancing with embroidered jasmine and cherry blossom. We wait, breath baited for the glowing diamond of classical music: Lang Lang, unassuming in black with a shock of dark hair, pacing on stage to weave the piano magic we have heard so much about. Starting playing at 3 this ...

‘Go on down, get drunk and have a dance, spend some of your hard-earned doubloons, experience some queer magic, cabaret, and fight with your feet!’ Another queer venue to be struck down: Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club is tottering, reopening, and running but with the shadow of eviction looming. However, some heavy hitters (Equality) have rallied behind the banner, an ...