Strutting onstage in what looks a lot like David Bowie’s fantastic, red, white and black silk Kansai Yamamoto cape Jack Docherty arrives onstage in David Bowie and Me: Parallel Lives. It turns out it’s a fabulous facsimile, creatively made by his mum from an old bedsheet. A booming soundtrack of his hero’s greatest hits pierces the air. Thus starts 75 minutes of memoir from the BAFTA award-winning performer. Scottish memoir (real and imagined) is having a theatrical moment, with David Keenan’s This is Memorial Device just finishing a UK tour and Damian Barr’s Maggie and Me about to embark on ..read more

The Theatre Royal, Glasgow has revealed further casting for Burlesque the Musical, the first ever stage adaptation of Steven Antin’s crowd-pleasing movie Burlesque, which starred Christina Aguilera (now one of the producers of the stage show). Joining the already announced cast of Jess Folley as Ali Rose, Todrick Hall as Sean, George Maguire as Vince, Michael Mather as Jackson, alongside Lucy Campbell (On Stage Swing), Lewis Easter (Ensemble), Yasmin Harrison (Brenda/Ensemble/Dance Captain ..read more

Author Damian Barr has returned home to a library that provided him sanctuary in his troubled youth, to explore the creation of Maggie and Me the stage version, with the National Theatre of Scotland, of his deeply personal 2013 memoir. Growing up gay in a Lanarkshire mining town during Thatcher’s Britain was no easy ride. Barr lays bare the pain that has been resurrected and, in some ways, resolved in the adaptation of his work from page to stage. Repeatedly used as a punchbag and constantly called a poof, hard work, ambition and a nose constantly in a book led him to the road out, a road that ..read more

The Pavilion Theatre  in Glasgow have announced a jam-packed series of shows over May and June. MAY Fri 10 – Chaka: The Music of Chaka Khan An exhilarating music show celebrating one of the world’s most gifted music icons and multi-grammy award winner, Chaka Khan. Sat 11 – A Pint & Two Shots Live! Join Two Doors Down star Grado, River City’s Stephen Purdon & Chris Toal of Scot Squad and Queen of the New Year as they bring their smash hit podcast live to The Pavilion. Sun 12 – Julian Clary: A Fistful of Clary You’ve heard of The Man With No Name? Well, here’s The Man With No Shame ..read more

It might come as a surprise to some, that in Disney’s iteration of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid, Ursula the Cecaelian sea-witch was inspired by drag icon Divine (you see it now don’t you?) not that Disney would ever acknowledge this openly. Here, in Robyn Grant, Daniel Foxx and Tim Gilvin’s musical parody, Unfortunate. Ursula gets her great big, drag inspired, two and a half hours, moment in the spotlight. The much maligned but equally much-loved Ursula, the Little Mermaid’s arch nemesis has, over the years, become an icon herself, one of Disney’s favourite baddies but nev ..read more

Tom Byrne will play Richard Hannay in the UK Tour of the Tony and Olivier Award-winning comedy, THE 39 STEPS. He played Prince Andrew in The Crown series 4 and appeared in Bridgerton, A Discovery of Witches and Black Mirror.  He can currently be seen in BBC 3’s Dreaming Whilst Black and the new film The Persian Version released this month.  Theatre includes A Christmas Carol and Twelfth Night for the RSC. He will star alongside by Safeena Ladha as Annabella Schmidt / Pamela / Margaret. Safeena’s recent theatre work includes She ..read more

It would be easy to descend into cheap stereotypes in the story of a working class family on a council estate in the north of England, but playwrights Ingram Noble and Heather Spiden eschew this for a much more meaningful slice of life in their debut play This Is Where We Get Off. The Moffatts don’t exactly have their troubles to seek. Head of the household Yvonne (Laura Begley) is seven months pregnant and as well as trying to make ends meet, has to hold her rag bag family together. Her husband, Phillip (Jordan Howat) is as useful as a chocolate teapot – no discernible job other than knockin ..read more

This isn’t a hen night… It’s a horror story…with laughs! Hen Night Horror a hilarious, new, broad-strokes comedy musical written by Fraser Boyle & Ali Cleland presented by 5 Brick May productions, they today confirm a fabulous cast full of Scottish “well-kent faces” including Louise McCarthy (The Dolls / The Scotts), Frances Thorburn ( River City), Kim Shepherd (Glasgow Girls),  Matthew McKenna (Rocky Horror Show) and Alan Orr ( The Dolls Abroad). Hen Night Horror opens at Glasgow Pavilion on 20 June 2024 before visiting Livingston, Arbroath, Greenock, Ayr, Inverness and Dundee. Aman ..read more

Writer: Rona Munro Director: Orla O’Loughlin Designer: Becky Minto Costume Design: Shannon Blackwood Music: Danny Krass Lighting: Derek Anderson Rona Munro’s epic series of history plays on Scotland’s Stuart Kings, a series that started in 2014 with the James Plays trilogy, continues in this fifth instalment with James V: Katherine. It’s 1528 and the Catholic Church are feeling the rumblings of the Scottish Reformation. Lutheran preacher Patrick Hamilton (Benjamin Osugo) a second cousin of the King (Sean Connor), is burned at the stake in St. Andrews for his beliefs. His 19 year-old sister Ka ..read more

Scottish tour for When Mountains Meet 5 April – 28 May 2024 The captivating cross-cultural tale tells the true story of Scottish musician Anne Wood as she travels from the Highlands to the Himalayas to meet her father for the first time Featuring an international cast of storytellers and musicians, the show features a vibrant live score combining alap, raag, reel and strathspey, as well as English, Gaelic and Hindustani vocals The When Mountains Meet album will be released on 25 April.  Renowned Scottish violinist Anne Wood (The Raincoats, Katheryn Tickell, Savou ..read more