Royal Moves - The 2017 Olivier Awards will be held at the Royal Albert Hall, marking a departure from the Royal Opera House after five years. The ceremony has been held at the 2,256-seat ROH since 2012 but could more than double the size of its live audience when it moves to the Royal Albert Hall - which can hold up to 5,223 people - for next year's event. The announcement comes as the ROH begins a major £27 million refurbishment, which will feature a redevelopment of the opera house's foyer and public spaces as well as redesigning the Linbury Studio Theatre and the Clore Studio. The project began work late last year and is expected to be completed in time for the beginning of the 2017/18 season.
Fringe Matters - Student companies from Drama Studio London and Rose Bruford College of Theatre and Performance have won the Scottish Daily Mail's £10,000 Edinburgh Festival Fringe drama award. The two schools will share the prize, which will go towards helping the students stage their productions at this year's Edinburgh Fringe.
The overall winner was Empty Beds from Drama Studio. It uses the experience of not being able to secure a mental health hospital bed for a relative to focus on three young women travelling to visit their brother in hospital for his birthday. Runner-up Lines, by Rose Bruford College, uses poetry to explore stories about a cross-section of travellers on the London Underground.
Now in its fifth year, the prize is organised in collaboration with Drama UK, the representative body for drama schools, and is open to companies made up of student and graduate actors, directors, writers and technicians from its accredited schools. Noting the quality of this year's shortlist, Andy Harries, editor of the Scottish Daily Mail, praised the two winning companies for "delivering two topical and challenging plays with well-thought-out business plans".
Back Where They Belong - Guns N' Roses stars Axl Rose, Slash and Duff McKagan have performed together. For the occasion the band picked a small Los Angeles club where they were first noticed. The gig at the Troubador in West Hollywood was reportedly only confirmed the day before. Just 500 fans were allowed to see one of the biggest groups of the late 1980s and early 1990s reformed.
The band also announced details of their North American tour, which will all be in stadiums - so rather different from this intimate gig. The main leg of the Not in This Lifetime Tour will begin on 23 June at Ford Field in Detroit, home to the National Football League's Detroit Lions, and run until 22 August in San Diego. Guns N' Roses have only announced three shows outside the United States - 19 and 20 April in Mexico City and 16 July in Toronto.The band are also headlining Coachella, which will take place later his month in the California desert.
Beach Party - More than a thousand people packed into Warrington's Parr Hall for a tribute concert in memory of Viola Beach. Some of Britain's biggest indie bands, including The Kooks, The Coral and The Courteeners, performed alongside local bands in front of the families and friends of the young musicians who died in February.
Starman - Cyndi Lauper, Debbie Harry and former REM frontman Michael Stipe were among the stars who paid tribute to Davie Bowie at a concert in New York. Celebrities of the music world performed classic Bowie hits at Carnegie Hall for the first of two sell-out benefit concerts. The event was announced just hours before the British singer's death from cancer was confirmed in January. It was originally intended as a retrospective of Bowie's life and sold out in two hours, prompting organisers to arrange a second concert at Radio City Music Hall.
The Music of David Bowie concert at Radio City Music Hall on Friday will be live-streamed for fans to watch online. In exchange for a charity donation, recommended to be £15, viewers will be sent a link to watch the event live. British band Mumford & Sons and Miley Cyrus are among the acts billed to perform at the show, while Bowie's producer Tony Visconti is also expected to take the stage.
(Jim Evans)
