Off Stage - Long-running musical Blood Brothers is to end its current run after spending 24 years in London's West End. The show has its final performance at the Phoenix Theatre on 27 October but will continue to play on tour. A spokesman for producer Bill Kenwright said it was "the end of a chapter, but by no means the end of Blood Brothers". Originally staged as a school play in Liverpool, Blood Brothers was first seen in the West End in 1983, with Barbara Dickson in the lead role of Mrs Johnstone.
Olympic Hits - Olympic Games fever has spread to the UK record charts, with artists involved in the London 2012 opening ceremony seeing a corresponding boost in sales. Mike Oldfield, Emeli Sande and Arctic Monkeys are among those to shift extra units following their appearances at the Olympic Stadium on 27 July.
On The Fringe - Edinburgh Fringe venues reported nearly ticket sales up between 3% and 5%, like for like, as the event officially opened for business. With an increase in the number of productions and the potential distraction of the London Olympics, there had been concerns that ticket sales would be adversely affected. Anthony Alderson, director of the Pleasance, told The Stage, "We are delighted to say that we opened slightly up, just 3%, on last year's figure. We reckon we do about 30% at the point at which we open and I think we are at about 28% of where hope we might get to so we have an awfully long way to go.
"It is day sales which really count now. Having gone on sale earlier made that much, much stronger and we have built up a really nice advance across the board with a smattering of audience across a lot of things."
Cats Back - A new production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cats is to tour the UK next year. The show, based on T.S Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats, will open at the Edinburgh Playhouse on 9 February. It will then visit places including Aberdeen, Wolverhampton, Manchester, Bradford and Hull. More dates will be announced soon. The 2013 tour of the Cameron Mackintosh and The Really Useful Theatre production is being presented by David Ian.
In The Courts - The US government has settled its legal case against the Gibson Guitar company over use of illegal timber from Madagascar in its instruments. Nashville-based Gibson will pay a $300,000 (£190,000) fine and a $50,000 community payment. Gibson admitted violating the Lacey Act, which requires firms to know that timber they use is legally obtained. Deforestation is a huge issue affecting Madagascan wildlife such as lemurs. Gibson's premises were raided by the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) in 2010 and 2011, with agents impounding ebony and rosewood imported from Madagascar and India.
(Jim Evans)
