The Week in Light & Sound
- Details
Last year's Brit Awards took place as part of the government's pilot scheme for the return of live events. COVID restrictions necessitated a mixture of live and virtual performances, with artists like Coldplay, The Weekend and Elton John appearing on tape.
This year, organisers have vowed to "keep everything in the room" - even when that meant scrapping a planned performance from US star Doja Cat, after members of her team tested positive for COVID. As a result, tonight's performances are exclusively coming from British artists - including all five artist of the year nominees: Adele, Dave, Ed Sheeran, Little Simz and Sam Fender.
TikTok Tickets - The Royal Shakespeare Company has announced a partnership with social media platform TikTok in a bid to attract more young people to theatre. In a scheme dubbed ‘TikTok tickets’, people aged 14 to 25 will be offered subsidised travel and entry to shows. The Stratford-upon-Avon group will also create more content with the platform, including TikTok takeovers and behind-the-scenes films.
Launching in June, young people will be offered £10 tickets for performances. The RSC said the move aimed to "inspire the next generation of theatre audiences" and would particularly target "those communities most in need".
Razzie Nominations - Netflix's filmed version of Diana the Musical - based on Princess Diana's life story - has earned it nine Razzie nominations, with the awards calling it "Broadway's biggest bomb of the year". It's up for worst film while Jeanna de Waal (Diana) and Roe Hartrampf (Charles) land worst acting nods. Bruce Willis has the dubious honour of being given his own category.
The Razzies organisers describe their awards as the "ugly cousin to the Oscars" and highlight what they see as the worst films of the year, revealing their winners on 26 March - the day before Oscars.
Theatres’ Future - West End theatres are at risk of being lost forever without greater collaboration between venue operators, councils and other policymakers, according to a new report that calls for urgent action to protect the future of London’s venues.
Securing the Future of London’s Theatres – A Call to Action was commissioned by the Society of London Theatre “to raise awareness about the specific operational and access requirements of London’s theatres”. It was carried out by urban design specialists Publica. It urges greater collaboration between theatre operators and those responsible for planning, designing, activating and operating London’s public realm and highways, as well as those responsible for planning and regulating land uses.
COVID and Brexit have “exacerbated the challenges already faced by London’s theatres”, the report’s foreword states, adding: “This report highlights that, without active engagement and collaboration with theatre operators, we are at risk of losing these internationally renowned and valuable assets. Six West End theatres closed since the 1950s and it is now more important than ever that theatres, local authorities and private bodies work together to protect those remaining.”
(Jim Evans)
8 February 2022
