Features

The National Lottery’s Big Night of Musicals

"The National Lottery’s Big Night of Musicals 2025" arrives on television

The broadcast date for the BBC’s transmission of The National Lottery’s Big Night of Musicals has been announced.
Figures in Extinction

EIF 2025 "seeks the truth"

The Edinburgh International Festival 2025 adopts the slogan "The Truth We Seek" and continues its partnership with Baillie Gifford.
John McGrath, MIF Chief Executive and Artistic Director, presenting the 2025 programme

Dream Differently with MIF

The programme for the 2025 Manchester International Festival is launched.
Shona McCarthy

The Edinburgh Fringe may not be the Olympics but deserves to thrive

in a departing speech, Shona McCarthy suggests that the Edinburgh Festival Fringe should be treated like the Olympics.
Oscar Wilde Caricature by Max Beerbohm (Wikimedia Commons)

Beyond Oscar Wilde: Queering the Theatrical Past

David Coates, an Assistant Professor in Theatre Studies at the University of Warwick, has been retrieving histories of LGBTQ+ men to coincide with Queer History Month.
Oliver Twist Trying to Make Ends Meet

Unpaid Interns Putting Industry at Risk

When does an unpaid intern become an employee entitled to the National Living Wage?
London Theatre Week

Bargain Basement

Discount ticket event, London Theatre Week has expanded in 2025.
Samantha Pauly in Evita at the Open Air Theatre

Surtitles for Musicals?

Sir Tim Rice has recently suggested that theatres presenting musicals should enhance them with surtitles.
Edinburgh Festival Fringe

Exciting Developments in Edinburgh

A bevy of recent news stories will bring smiles to the faces of those behind Edinburgh's festivals.
Brighton Hippodrome

Where’s the Growth?

As Rachel Reeves strives to promote growth, she is missing a trick by ignoring the arts.
Artist's impression of ‘HOME Arches’

Underneath the Arches

A reviewer visits ‘HOME Arches’—a £3.5m project to support artists across a variety of disciplines in Greater Manchester based at HOME, Manchester—and comes fourth in a quiz.
The Public Theatre's Julius Caesar

A new source of inspiration

Occasionally, global developments can influence a generation of theatre-makers. This could be that moment.
National Theatre

More Bang for your Buck

Especially at this time of year, theatregoing need not break the bank.
Rise

Rise: Bradford's 2025 City of Culture kicks off in style

A reviewer risks the cold snap to find out what Bradford has to offer as the 2025 City of Culture.
Nicola Benedetti

Edinburgh Festival Director Nicola Benedetti pulls few punches on arts funding

Extra funding is coming to the arts from the Scottish government, but Nicola Benedetti is still concerned about the state of the sector.
Julie Hesmondhalgh announcing the reopening of Oldham Coliseum outside the theatre

Manchester theatre in 2024

David Chadderton looks back on some of the goings-on in the Manchester theatre scene over the year.
Giant

Unexpected Riches

A small sample suggests that new writing was alive and well in 2024.
Gerard McCabe and Shaun Blaney in Octagon Theatre Bolton, Barn Theatre & Wiltshire Creative's Stones in his Pockets

Our reviewers' picks of 2024

Some of BTG's regular reviewers pick out their favourite theatre productions and moments of the year.
Jude Williams and Natasha Gilmore in Chunky Jewellery

Theatre in Scotland in 2024

Donald C Stewart reflects on the last year of theatre in Scotland.
Aladdin at Lyric Hammersmith

Panto season 2024: five observations

BTG's Panto Editor, Simon Sladen, identifies the main trends he has spotted running through the 2024 panto season.

*Some links, including Amazon, Stageplays.com, Bookshop.org, Waterstones, ATG Tickets, LOVEtheatre, BTG Tickets, Ticketmaster, LW Theatres and QuayTickets, Eventim, London Theatre Direct, are affiliate links for which BTG may earn a small fee at no extra cost to the purchaser.

Are you sure?