According to US news website The Wrap, Trump's inaugural committee is scrambling to find stars who are willing to play at his swearing in ceremony on 20 January 2017.
"They're calling managers, agents, everyone in town to see who they can get and it's been problematic," an unnamed source told the site. Grammy-winner John Legend, who has been a guest of the Obamas several times, says he is "not surprised at all". "Creative people tend to reject bigotry and hate," he told the BBC. "We tend to be more liberal-minded. When we see somebody that's preaching division and hate and bigotry, it's unlikely he'll get a lot of creative people that want to be associated with him."
That's Life - Contemporary theatre festival Mayfest has been forced to cancel next year's event due to funding issues, and will move to becoming a biennial offering from 2018. Organisers of the annual festival, which takes place in Bristol, said they had not been able to raise the required funding to put on the festival in 2017.
Mayfest is a city-wide festival, with performances in theatres and non-theatre spaces such as the Tobacco Factory Theatres and modern art gallery Arnolfini. The programme runs for 11 days and features international companies and productions from throughout the UK. Artistic directors Matthew Austin and Kate Yedigaroff said the event had struggled to raise the necessary funds, as "the festival has increased quite dramatically in terms of reach, scale and ambition".
Park Life - Justin Bieber has been announced as the fourth headline act for next year's British Summer Time festival in London's Hyde Park. This will be Bieber's only London date next year. The fifth British Summer Time festival in Hyde Park had already announced three major headlines: Phil Collins on Friday 30 June, Green Day on Saturday 1 July, and Kings Of Leon will be making their only UK festival appearance on Thursday 6 July.
Dog's Life - The National Theatre's production of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is to close in the West End next year. It will give its final performance in London on 3 June, 2017, having played in the West End for four years. it originally opened at the NT in September 2012, before moving to the Apollo Theatre in March 2013. It moved again, to the Gielgud Theatre, in July 2014. By the time of its closure, it will have run for more than 1,600 performances. It has also had a run on Broadway, where it picked up five Tony awards.
(Jim Evans)
