The Week in Light & Sound
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The UK's Sam Ryder came second this year, which prompted the EBU to open talks with the BBC last month. Several UK cities have already expressed interest in hosting. The UK has a number of places with suitable arenas, accommodation and international transport links, with London, Sheffield and Manchester already confirming that they will put in an official bid.
The bidding process to decide which city will host will begin this week. The BBC and the The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) will consider all official approaches and will publish the longlist later this summer.
"We are grateful to our BBC partners for showing solidarity with us," said Mykola Chernotytskyi, head of Ukraine's public broadcaster, UA:PBC.
Soho News - The West End's first new large-scale theatre in 50 years is set to open in the autumn. @sohoplace is located on the first newly-named street created in Soho for 72 years, also called Soho Place. The theatre is part of a £300m regeneration project in the area which will see offices, retail space and a new piazza built.
Owner Nica Burns called the 12-year project an "affirmation of faith" in the industry. The first production expected to be announced soon will be a play, she said. @sohoplace will feature a 602-seat auditorium, rehearsal room, actors' Green Room, bar, restaurant and a terrace. A large digital front-of-house screen will also appear on Charing Cross Road. The auditorium is curved and can be transformed into various other configurations. The theatre also claims to have perfect acoustics and sightlines from every seat.
Adele Dates - Adele's long-postponed Las Vegas residency will finally begin in November, 11 months after its original launch date. "Words can't explain how ecstatic I am to finally be able to announce these rescheduled shows," she said on social media as she revealed the new dates. "I truly was heartbroken to have to cancel them."
The decision to scrap the initial run came just 24 hours before the first show was due to take place in January. "I'm so sorry, but my show ain't ready," the star told fans in a tearful Instagram post at the time. "Half my team have Covid and it's been impossible to finish the show," she said, adding that "delivery delays" had also played havoc with her plans.
Immersive Space - An immersive theatre space is to open in a former mannequin factory in West London. The venue will be run by experiential theatre company the Lost Estate, which was launched in 2017 by Royal College of Music graduates William Kunhardt, Eddy Hackett and Rowan Bell. Planning permission has granted to the project on July 20 by Hammersmith and Fulham Council. Owned by the Earls Court Development Company, the building will provide a home for the company for at least the next three years on a temporary basis.
As well as space for performances with a capacity of approximately 250, the building will host affordable workspace and rehearsal rooms for local artists. The venue, which will be named the Lost Estate, is set to open in November with the company’s reimagining of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol – The Great Christmas Feast. The Lost Estate has also announced a production that willl premiere in the venue in March 2023 called The Greatest Night of the Jazz Age, which will be set in New York socialite Belle Livingstone’s club during the prohibition era. Every year, 500 free tickets will be provided to local residents as part of a social and community value programme.
First Folio - A copy of Shakespeare's First Folio has sold in New York for $2.4m. Published in 1623, seven years after the Stratford-upon-Avon writer's death, it features 36 manuscripts. They include 18 plays that would have otherwise been lost, such as Macbeth and The Tempest. About 750 copies of the First Folio were originally printed, but only 232 have survived, auctioneers Sothebys said, and only a handful of those are in private collections. Along with the King James Bible it has been described as the most important work in English literature.
(Jim Evans)
26 July 2022
