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Claudia meets the actor Tom Conti

Claudia talks to acclaimed actor Tom Conti. Reece Shearsmith and Adrian Scarborough discuss the new musical Betty Blue Eyes. And Michael Billington previews the Olivier Awards.

Claudia meets the actor Tom Conti who is starring in SMASH! - Jack Rosenthal's look at the journey to get a musical from page to stage, complete with a cantankerous composer, a fantasist lyricist, a neophyte female novelist turned playwright, a cocksure director and a bombastic producer.

Actors Reece Shearsmith and Adrian Scarborough discuss the new musical Betty Blue Eyes which is based on the film A Private Function.

Troy Powell, associate director of touring dance company Ailey 2 from New York, tells us about Ailey 2's company of 12 dancers who perform modern dance works, including new work by some of the most prominent choreographers of today. Ailey 2 continues to embody Alvin Ailey's mission to establish an extended cultural community using the beauty and humanity of the African-American heritage and other cultures to unite people of all races, ages and backgrounds.

We preview this Sunday's Olivier Awards with our theatre critic Michael Billington, and Nica Burns, president of the Society of London Theatre.

Artist Angela Lizon discusses her new show which is part of the Modern Fabulists exhibition in Bristol. Angela used to be a minimalist abstract artist. After years of practicing minimalism, as she puts it she "painted herself into a corner". She put down her paintbrush one day, only to pick it up the next and start painting the most enormous, most kitsch images she could find - in particular cats.

Charles Gant reviews a selection of this week's feature film releases for us.

Plus, we hear from Neil Tennant and award-winning choreographer Javier de Frutos about the Pet Shop Boys' new full-length dance work, The Most Incredible Thing, based on a Hans Christian Andersen fairytale.

2 hours

Music Played

  • Diana Ross, The Supremes & The Temptations

    I'm Gonna Make You Love Me

  • Patti Austin

    The Girl Who Used To Be Me

  • Nina Simone

    Take Me To The Water

  • In-Flight Safety

    Model Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔs

  • BIG IMPACT MUSIC

    • New Philharmonia Orchestra

      Triumphal March from Aida

  • Julian Velard

    Love Again For The First Time

  • Adrian Lester & Company

    Being Alive

  • Mike + the Mechanics

    Reach Out (Touch The Sun)

  • Jack Edwards And Reece Shearsmith

    Betty Blue Eyes

  • Pet Shop Boys

    I Wouldn't Normally Do This Kind Of Thing

  • The Cure

    The Love Cats

  • The Beach Boys

    Wouldn't It Be Nice

  • George Michael

    True Faith

Broadcast

  • Fri 11 Mar 2011 22:00