Jodie Prenger predicts the small screen-to-stage musical adaptation of Kay Mellors FAT FRIENDS will be 'a big fat hit' - and one that she gets to star in when it premieres in Leeds later this year...

Another little gem for Sondheim fans: a rare London outing for the maestro's early Broadway 'flop' ANYONE CAN WHISTLE, revived at the Union Theatre as part of direct Phil Willmott's new residency. Casting is still to be announced...

Announced on World Braille Day (4 January 2017), the world premiere of THE BRAILLE LEGACY tells the true-life story of the inventor of the language for blind people - and is supported by the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB). Jerome Pradon stars, continuing director Thom Southerland's run of musicals at Charing Cross Theatre...

Carley Stenson and her real-life fiance and Strictly Come Dancing star Danny Mac star as Annie and Sam, the roles immortalised on screen by Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks, in the screen-to-stage musical adaptation of 1993 romcom Sleepless in Seattle. SLEEPLESS premieres at Theatre Royal Plymouth in April ahead of a short tour and planned West End run.

Tina Turner came to town to drop in on workshops for a new musical based on her life, which is now in development, under the direction of Phyllida Lloyd, who made a Mamma Mia! monster hit out of Abba's back catalogue. Who do you think should play Tina when the show comes to fruition? Any ideas for Ike?

Producer Paul Taylor Mills and director Luke J Sheppard reunite for the first time since their Olivier Award-winning success with In the Heights for the British premiere of MURDER FOR TWO, which is the inaugural production in the soon-to-be-renamed The Other Palace Studio (currently the St James Studio)...

Was THE SORROWS OF SATAN the 50 Shades of Grey of its day? Marie Corelli's original novel is regarded as one of the world's first modern bestsellers and caused controversy when it was first published in 1895 (it was one of Oscar Wilde's fave reads, dontcha know). Now it gets musical treatment care of British writers Bateman & Conley...

Play versions of A CHRISTMAS CAROL are a festive staple. This year, London theatregoers also have two opportunities to see Alan Menken and Lynn Ahrens' Broadway musical version of Charles Dickens' classic story. London Musical Theatre Orchestra mounts a stellar concert presentation led by Robert Lindsay in the West End, while Wandsworth's LOST Theatre presents a full Off-West End production over the Christmas fortnight itself...

Talk about Rolls Royce casting. After Sweeney Todd with Bryn Terfel and Emma Thompson and this year's Sunset Boulevard with Glenn Close, English National Opera and producers Grade Linnit continue their annual mega musical classic revival at the London Coliseum next spring with Katherine Jenkins and Alfie Boe in Rodgers and Hammerstein's CAROUSEL...

BREAKING UP IS HARD TO DO ... you know it! And so did Neil Sedaka. The musical of the same name, featuring other top easy-listening tunes by Sedaka, will get its London premiere in the new year....

Another reason to visit Regent's Park next summer. Not only will artistic director Timothy Sheader's Evening Standard Award-winning revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Jesus Christ Superstar return; the Open Air is also mounting its bigger-ever dance musical, Broadway classic ON THE TOWN, directed and choreographed by hotter-than-hot Drew McOnie...

Cheeky! ADAM & EVE... AND STEVE The American musical farce' which gives the Garden of Eden story a modern (three-way) twist, receives its London premiere at the King's Head Theatre in March, after success at this year's Edinburgh Festival...

What would the Village People make of Stephen Schwartz's WORKING? The genre-breaking 1978 Broadway musical - based on interviews with a cross-section of the American workforce and featuring songs from Grammy winner James Taylor and, more recently added, Lin-Manuel Miranda - gets its European premiere at Southwark Playhouse next June...

In its new POWER season of politically charged productions for spring 2017, the Donmar Warehouse will premiere a new musical based on the 2015 collapse of controversial charity KIDS COMPANY and its 'relationship with Whitehall'. Who's accountable when something goes wrong? Consider the evidence...

Can you write a 'light-hearted musical' about male suicide? Two recent Mountview graduates have done just that, and the show, supported by various mental health charities, will now have a limited season in the heart of the West End. Catch CATCH ME at Above the Arts Theatre next week...

We've only had to wait 20 years for the Broadway transfer of Cy Coleman's Tony Award-winning masterpiece THE LIFE, but boy are we getting it good: with its legendary original director Michael Blakemore at the helm and two legendary #StageFaves, Sharon D Clarke and Cornell S John, leading the cast. Another Off-West End coup for Southwark Playhouse, where it premieres in March...

It's official! After increasing rumours - and hints from Mel Brooks - following the death of Gene Wilder in August, it's announced today that YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN will get its West End resurrection in 2017. The 'all-singing, all-dancing' new production of the musical, based on Brooks' cult 1974 film starring Wilder, will have a brief run in Newcastle before transferring to the West End next autumn...