Front Row

Dear Evan Hansen is the Tony award winning musical about a socially anxious teenager who, via a web of lies, gets caught up in social media adulation following a classmate’s suicide. As the musical opens in London’s West End amidst much anticipation, co-creator Steven Levenson talks about turning such a sensitive story into a life affirming show. We speak to former child soldier, Sudanese hip-hop star Emmanuel Jal, about his fifth album, Naath, a collaboration with his sister who lives in Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya. Emmanuel performs a track from the album which combines afrobeats with folklore offering an alternative perception of life in South Sudan.As the busiest month of the publishing calendar begins, two seasoned insiders will be giving us their perspective on the state of the book world every day this week, from the arrival of Amazon in 1995 to the continuing popularity of the printed page in the digital age. Today, agent and former publisher Clare Alexander, and John Mitchinson, co-founder of the crowdfunding publisher Unbound, consider how feasible it is to make a living as a writer today. And we pay tribute to Terry O'Neill, the photographer whose iconic images documented the fashions, styles, and celebrities of the 1960s, hearing from O'Neill himself in an interview with John Wilson from Front Row in 2010.If you've been affected by any issue raised in this programme, information and support can be found on this website:https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/4WLs5NlwrySXJR2n8Snszdg/emotional-distress-information-and-supportPresenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Simon Richardson

As Northern Ballet reaches its half century, the company's Artistic Director David Nixon discusses his love of telling stories through Dance.Ever fancied sleeping in an artwork? Soon you’ll be able to do exactly that at the Art B&B – a new hotel in Blackpool which has commissioned 30 artists to turns its rooms into works of art. Michael Trainor, Creative Director of the Art B&B explains the vision for the hotel, and Arts journalist Laura Robertson shares her thoughts on the new establishment after getting an early preview.When the African-American cellist Seth Parker Woods came across a photograph taken in the 1970s of the avant-garde cellist Charlotte Moorman - nude and playing a cello made from ice, the image stayed with him. Charlotte’s performance was in part a feminist statement but Seth and his partner in this project, Spencer Topel, have reimagined the work as a statement on race. As they prepare Iced Bodies for its UK premiere at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival they discuss fusing art with activism.Presenter: Keisha Thompson Producer: Ekene Akalawu

With Italy set to declare a state of national emergency in Venice after the Unesco world heritage site was engulfed by a 6ft 'acqua alta', flooding its historic basilica and many other sites of great historic interest, art critic Jonathan Jones discusses the cultural significance of the imminent threat from flood and fire and what is being done to protect the city’s invaluable architectural and artistic heritage. And John Wilson talks to artist Katie Paterson about the metaphorical representation of environmental disasters in art and the responsibility amongst artists in raising awareness of current climatical concerns.On Saturday the world’s largest galleries devoted to the history of medicine open at the Science Museum in London. Surprisingly, perhaps, there is a lot of art involved in medicine, with imaginatively-designed sculptural devices and equipment. Major new artworks have been commissioned for the new galleries too. John Wilson talks to the artists Marc Quinn, Studio Roso and Eleanor Crook, as well as Sir Ian Blatchford, the Science Museum’s director.Tom Rosenthal is the musician whose songs are used on the new Radio 4 podcast Tunnel 29, the extraordinary true story of the escape tunnel dug under the Berlin Wall in 1962. Tom performs How This Came To Be live and discusses building a successful pop career outside of the mainstream music industry. Presenter John Wilson Producer Jerome Weatherald

This edition of Front Row has a regal air. As the third series of The Crown airs next week, with Olivia Coleman taking over the role of Queen Elizabeth from Claire Foy, Stig Abell talks to Tobias Menzies about the challenges of playing Prince Phillip, previously Matt Smith's part. Covering the years 1964 – 1977, in this series the Royals have all four of their children and are more settled in their domestic lives. But events in the wider world are making their impact, from the election of Harold Wilson as Prime Minister to the Apollo moon landing.Six is a musical about the wives of Henry VIII which started out as a Cambridge student production in 2017 and is now a transatlantic phenomenon, about to tour the UK and open on Broadway. Professor of Musical Theatre Millie Taylor reviews. Shiro’s Story was a series of three videos telling the story, partly in rap, of a young man caught in a world of violence and retribution. Each amassed over 7 million views and Jay-Z was a fan. Their creator, Rapman, has now made a full length feature film, Blue Story, about the gang wars he witnessed while growing up in South London. Will his YouTube audience follow him to the cinema? He joins Front Row to talk about who gets to tell stories in film.And news of the winner of the £10,000 Goldsmiths Prize for fiction that "opens up new possibilities for the novel form", announced this evening.Presenter: Stig Abell Producer: Julian May

Portrait painter Lorna May Wadsworth has forged a remarkable career with subjects including David Tennant, Michael Sheen, David Blunkett and Baroness Thatcher. As a major retrospective of her work - Gaze - opens at the Graves Gallery in her home town of Sheffield, Lorna May Wadsworth talks about the importance to her of the “female gaze."Marriage Story is the new film from director Noah Baumbach, well known for relationship dramas like The Squid and the Whale and Greenberg. Starring Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson, it’s a comedy telling the story of the disintegration of a marriage. Simran Hans reviews. Charlotte Keatley’s 1987 play My Mother Said I Never Should tells the stories of four generations of women, spanning the 20th century. The play is performed all over the world and has been translated into 32 languages. The most recent is British Sign Language, for a production in Sheffield with a cast of three deaf actresses and one hearing. Samira is joined by director Jeni Draper and actress Lisa Kelly.A production of West Side Story is due to open on Broadway without one of the most popular numbers in the show. I Feel Pretty has been dropped by the controversial director Ivo van Hove. How will audiences react to the loss and is it part of a wider movement of reinterpreting classic musicals? Samira talks to critic Matt Wolf.Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Hilary Dunn

HG Wells’ classic novel The War of the Worlds has been adapted many times including the infamous occasion on which Orson Welles’ radio version convinced some American citizens that Martians really were invading the Earth . Now a new BBC TV version is coming, with a female narrator and subtexts about empire and climate change. Writer Peter Harness talks to Front Row about the choices he’s made for this version.Today the National Gallery in London announced an appeal to raise the final £2m needed to buy a painting which has been on loan to the gallery for nearly 20 years - The Finding of Moses by Orazio Gentileschi, father of his better-known painter daughter, Artemisia. The National Gallery’s director, Dr Gabriele Finaldi, discusses the appeal, and considers the broader contentious issue of corporate sponsorship of the arts with Sharon Heal, director of the Museums Association. Television has been an important catalyst for social change in modern times, a hot line into the national psyche and an engine of changing attitudes. In a new book,Playing Gay in the Golden Age of British TV, social historian Stephen Bourne has explored the role of the small screen in the fight for gay liberation from television's modest beginnings until the 1980sPresenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Oliver Jones

Emilio Estevez discusses his forthcoming film The Public which he has written, directed and stars in, along with Alec Baldwin and Christian Slater, set in Cincinnati Public Library in the middle of winter.100 Novels That Shaped Our World have just been chosen by a panel including Front Row presenter Stig Abell. The list is part of a BBC Arts season celebrating 300 years since the publication of Robinson Crusoe, often regarded as the first novel in English. The list has thrown up some controversial choices. Panellist and author Kit de Waal and literary critic Suzi Feay join Stig to discuss the premise, categories, inclusions and omissions.Brighton-based DJ Tom Burland is the recently-announced winner of the David Attenborough Songlines Remix Competition. The annual competition invited UK music creators to remix Gender Wayang, a field recording made 50 years ago by Sir David Attenborough while making programmes in Bali. Presenter Stig Abell Producer Jerome Weatherald

Emilia Clarke talks about her new film Last Christmas, inspired by the music of George Michael and destined to be one of the major movies of the season. It's written by and also stars Emma Thompson. Emilia plays a young woman who accepts a job as a department store elf during the holidays. She also discusses starring in Game of Thrones and overcoming a stroke whilst filming.Theatre critic and author Michael Coveney talks about the issues facing West End theatres following the incident at the Piccadilly Theatre during a performance of Death of A Salesman starring Wendell Pierce. A piece of plasterboard fell from the ceiling in the auditorium, injuring 5 people and stopping the performance.In a chance encounter at a Berlin soirée in 1928, three women pose for a photograph: Marlene Dietrich, who would wend her way into Hollywood as one of its lasting icons; Anna May Wong, the world's first Chinese American star and Leni Riefenstahl, whose work as a director of propaganda art films would first make her famous then infamous. Amanda Lee Koe discusses her debut novel, Delayed Rays of a Star, which threads the life of these three stars together.Starring Jack Lowther as a teenager who believes he’s a psychopath, the first Series of The End of the F***ing was a sleeper hit on both sides of the Atlantic. As Series two lands on Channel 4 and Netflix with new lead Naomi Ackie, Anne Lord reviews this pitch black comedy.Presented by John Wilson Produced by Simon Richardson

Alison Balsom, Britain's leading trumpet soloist, talks about her new album Royal Fireworks, a collection of Baroque pieces by Bach, Telemann, Handel and Purcell, played on the "natural" trumpet, a baroque instrument without any valves, which means that each note is made by the shape of the lips. The inaugural Drake YolanDa British Producer and Songwriter Prize has been won by the jazz musician Fez, who had to compete against other producers to write and record a new song in front of the judges in 45 minutes! Writer Robert Macfarlane and artist Stanley Donwood talk about their new work Ness, which is part novella, part prose poem and part mystery play, about the land reclaiming a place which once threatened its very existence, an atomic weapons test centre. Presenter: Kirsty Lang Producer: Timothy Prosser

With a reported budget of $160m, Martin Scorsese returns to the familiar territory of The Mob and organised crime in America in his new Netflix film The Irishman. The three-and-a-half-hour-long drama spans 50 years and reunites Scorsese with Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci for the first time in 24 years, alongside Harvey Keitel and Al Pacino. Briony Hanson has been to see if for Front Row and can tell us whether or not it's vintage Scorsese.Abomination: A DUP Opera, which opens Belfast’s Outburst Queer Arts Festival at the Lyric Theatre this week, is an incendiary composition. For the libretto, composer Conor Mitchell uses verbatim statements about homosexuality made by DUP MPs. Front Row talks to Conor and Ben Lowry, Deputy Editor of the Belfast News Letter. The Scena Mundi Theatre Company is marking the 850th anniversary of the murder of Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral with a new production of TS Eliot’s verse drama, Murder In The Cathedral, that tells the story. They will perform it in cathedrals, starting in Southwark and Guildford, with plans to take it all around the country next year. We visited a rehearsal and spoke with director Cecilia Dorland, Jasper Britton, who plays Becket, and the chorus of the women of Canterbury all reflecting on the significance of the story - the clash of strong men, political violence and martyrdom - today. Fireworks: good or bad? We help you to decide. Are they noisy, dangerous, frightening, and a waste of time and money? Or are they egalitarian free beautiful art – gorgeous to look at, taking place in the open, anyone can see them and they’re a communal experience. Presenter: Stig Abell Producer: Oliver Jones