Are You Calling for the Closing of Venes?

Broadway star Sutton Foster and director and choreographer Kathleen Marshall talk to Samira Ahmed about staging the musical Anything Goes, one of the hottest tickets of the year at The Barbican, ahead of a Boxing Day screening on BBC 2.

In light of the increasing uncertainty facing the performance sector because of the Omicron variant, we talk to Shadow Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, Lucy Powell. We also hear the experiences of Dominique Fraser, the director and founder of the Boiler Room - a live music venue in Guildford and the views of Mark Davyd, CEO of the Music Venues Trust and Philippa Childs, the head of the entertainment workers’ union, BECTU.

And Stephen Keyworth has adapted cult classic novel and film The Princess Bride for BBC Radio 4, beginning on Christmas Day. He joins Samira to discuss the challenges of creating satisfying swordfights for radio.

Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Tim Prosser

Photo: Sutton foster and the cast of Anything Goes, performing at The Barbican, London Photo credit: Tristram Kenton