Queen Elizabeth Hall

Non-millennials may very well be unaware of Tom Fletcher of the pop-rock band McFly, and non-parent millennials may be blissfully unaware of his success as a children’s author. But nonetheless: he’s a big deal in the pre-school world, his career beginning with eye-wateringly scatological picture books like The Dinosaur that Pooped Christmas and The Dinosaur that Pooped a Planet, and progressing to relatively more mature fair. The Creakers, from 2017, concerns Lucy, a young girl from the town of Whiffington who wakes up one day to discover that all the local parents have disappeared, leaving her and her fellow kids to run wild.  A version with songs was released in 2019, and for 2024 it’s been adapted into a small-scale musical that will run at the Queen Elizabeth Hall over the Christmas holidays. It’s directed by Tom Jackson Greaves, with a book by Miranda Larson. For ages six-plus.

This review is from the 2024 Edinburgh International Festival. The lady sat next to me at the latest outing from animated theatre legends 1927 had never seen one of their shows before and I more or less had to scrape her jaw off the floor at the interval. I think it is important to acknowledge that what the Suzanne Andrade and Paul Barritt-led company does is basically incredible. Their mix of stylised live actors and Barritt’s gorgeous pre-recorded animations is like nothing else out there and I think it would be extremely foolish to take it for granted. That’s not a roundabout way of saying ‘well actually their new one isn’t that good’. But I just think that to a large extent it is important to stress  that the main reason why any 1927 show is good is that they have a totally singular aesthetic and they pretty much always nail it. Seeing a newcomer to the company having their mind blown was a real reminder of what it was all about. What ‘Please Right Back’ is in fact about is Kim (Chardae Phillips) who lives with her animated brother Davey (voiced by Davey Patrick Copley) in a rundown looking estate with their mum (Jenny Wills). As for their Dad, aka Mr E (Stefan Davis): as the show begins, Kim is reading one of his letters, detailing his James Bond-like exploits as he attempts to track down a briefcase that has been stolen from him by the nightmare bowler-hatted animation The Big Man; adventures that will later go on to include a tangle with a Mancunian lion, a trip to...

There’s a new festival in town and it’s highlighting one of the more unsung parts of our favourite movies – the soundtracks. London Soundtrack Festival puts the scores front and centre in March 2025, with a series of screenings, talks and performances celebrating the musicians who make Hollywood sound so exciting, tense and emotional. Highlights include Hildur Guðnadóttir introducing the first and second Joker movies and, later in the programme, holding her own concert, David Cronenberg and Howard Shore in conversation, screenings of Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times, The Silence of the Lambs and Eighth Grade with live scores, a day-long celebration of video game music at The Roundhouse ‘Great Movie Songs with Anne Dudley & Friends’ featuring guest appearances from the likes of the Pet Shop Boys’ Neil Tennant and Jake Shears of the Scissor Sisters. Tickets are on sale now!