On Broadway - The musical Memphis has picked up four honours at the Drama Desk Awards in New York, voted for by journalists and theatre critics. The new musical, set in dance clubs in 1950s Memphis, won best musical, orchestration and music. Its leading lady Montego Glover tied with Catherine Zeta Jones for the outstanding actress in a musical prize. Zeta Jones made her Broadway debut in Stephen Sondheim's A Little Night Music last year.
Cages aux Folles won three prizes - best revival for a musical, best costume design and best actor in a musical for Douglas Hodge. Red, a drama about abstract expressionist painter Mark Rothko, was named best play. It also won top honours for director Michael Grandage and lighting design.
Out of Exile - The Rolling Stones have scored their first UK number one album for 16 years with a re-release of their classic LP Exile On Main Street. The album, which was first released in 1972, has been reissued with previously unheard tracks. Their last number one album was 1994's Voodoo Lounge.
David Joseph, chairman of the Stones' label Universal Music UK, said, "It's quite a result for an album from 1972 to be back at number one. It proves the Stones's music is as powerful today as when it was created."
On-line Profits - Touts are selling tickets for major sports and music events on online auction sites with a typical profit of 59%, research has claimed. Prices are being inflated after touts snap up tickets for events which they have no plans to attend. The more traditional operation also continues when touts target fans outside gigs and matches and charge huge mark-ups, security group G4S said. It suggested a "committed tout" could earn more than £28,000 a year. This is more than the average UK salary and can be achieved by selling about 10 tickets a week.
Tickets for music festivals - including headline events such as the Reading Festival - are being offered online with an average mark-up of 32%. However, individual gigs were not securing as big a premium as previous years, the research found.
"Fans continue to pour thousands of pounds into the wallets of the touts," said Mark Hamilton, managing director G4S Events. "But, fans should be aware that in buying tickets from unauthorised outlets, they could find themselves barred from entering events if their tickets are found to be fraudulent, or their identification does not match up with the ticket purchaser."
(Jim Evans)
