The inaugural play in the National’s temporary, very big and very red new venue is high on concept, but on contrivance also. The big idea underlying Tanya Ronder’s offering is that of the kitchen table not only serving as the surface on which we eat, work and occasionally have sex, but as witness to a family’s trials and tribulations.

It is the second day of rehearsals and one of the West End’s favourite leading ladies, Maria Friedman, is at the Harold Pinter Theatre singing every note and saying every word in Stephen Sondheim’s brilliant musical, Merrily We Roll Along.

This is the tender little acoustic romance that kicked the hell out of bigger, brasher shows at New York’s Tony awards. And it is easy to see why. Once is based on the Oscar-winning Dublin-set film and uses the same, sometimes devastatingly beautiful soundtrack composed by Glen Hansard, of the indie band, Frames, and Marketa Irglová.

Let It Be is not the first musical tribute show to hit the West End. It’s not even the first to star Birmingham born Reuven Gershon, who before joining the Fab Four at the Prince of Wales Theatre played Buddy Holly in the imaginatively named Buddy. But the actor says there is no danger of audiences getting bored.

There is a vague and unscientific theory that attempts to explain why some new melodies are instant hits while others miss by a mile. It is unscientific and vague because the theory is mine.

Saturday September 8 1962
“Today is my 10th birthday and Daddy and I drove to Coney Island together. It was just him and me and we went on all the scary rides. We rode the horses on the Steeplechase, did the parachute jump, went up on the Wonder Wheel and the rollercoaster, and we had Nathan’s hot dogs. We just had the greatest time ever.”

Performers from West End musicals including Legally Blonde, Wicked and Les Miserables entertained a crowd of 400 in London to raise money for educational needs charity Langdon.

The Mash Up cabaret at the Leicester Square Theatre marked the end of Langdon's annual fundraising week.

An Arkley teenager has set her sights on singing at London's O2 Arena next year after progressing in a national competition.

Francesca Harris, 13, only found her singing voice two years ago when, listen-ing to music on the ra-dio, she started joining in.

Now the JFS pupil is a member of a gospel choir in Walthamstow and accustomed to performing to audiences of 600.

The Glyndebourne festival has defended its production of a children's opera based on the writings of pro-Palestinian American activist Rachel Corrie, killed in Gaza in 2003.

When I Am Old was performed three times last month by members of the Glyndebourne Youth Opera after they spent five days learning about the Middle East conflict.

Organisers said they wanted to show "the courage and ideal