Front Row

Broadway star Stephanie J Block performs So In Love from the new production of Kiss Me Kate, at London’s Barbican. Tom talks to her and the Tony Award-winning director Bartlett Sher about creating the musical show within a show, which is based on Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew.The BBC’s Culture Editor Katie Razzall on what the political parties have included in – and left out of - their manifestos on the Arts and Culture. We also hear from The Lowry’s CEO Julia Fawcett and The Times’ Chief Culture Editor Richard Morrison about their thoughts on arts education, tax breaks for filmmakers, Arts Council England and economic regeneration. And in Independent Bookshop Week – we hear from Persephone Books in Bath about 25 years of reprinting the work of neglected women writers, mostly from the mid-twentieth century, with recollections of the early days from publishing pioneer Nicola Beauman.Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe Producer: Paula McGrath

Sasquatch Sunset has been dubbed the year's strangest film, about a family of mythological bigfoot monsters. Ama Gloria is a French film about the bond between a 6 year old French girl and her Portuguese nanny.Avalon is the latest show from Gifford's Circus, currently touring the UK.Peter Bradshaw and Nancy Durrant join Samira to review. We’ll also find out who’s won the Women’s Prize for Fiction and Non Fiction, and the winner of the Walter Scott prize for historical fiction. And and as Dame Vivienne Westwood’s personal clothes collection heads to auction, Bella Freud and Professor Claire Wilcox give Samira a sneak peek. Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Corinna Jones

Shakespeare scholar James Shapiro has turned his attention to the incredible story behind the Federal Theatre in 1930s America in his new study “The Playbook: A Story of Theatre, Democracy and the Making of A Culture War”. He discusses the groundbreaking performances staged by its 12,000 employees, including Orson Welles’ all-Black production of Macbeth, and the extraordinary woman who ran it, Hallie Flanagan.BEKA is a singer-songwriter who’s gone from singing backing vocals with Honne to featuring with them as a performer, and supporting Laura Mvula and Griff. She has cowritten a soundtrack album for the Apple TV series Trying and joins us to play a track and talk about writing for herself and for TV.The YES Festival which runs from 13th to 16th June in Derry/Londonderry and Donegal focuses on Molly Bloom, the fictional character who appears in James Joyce's novel Ulysses. This culmination of the two-year-long Ulysses European Odyssey uses Molly as a springboard for a celebration of female power and creativity - the first all-women multi-arts festival on the island of Ireland. Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe Producer: Torquil MacLeod

As Liverpool enters the Swiftularity with the arrival of the arrival of the record-breaking phenomenon that is Taylor Swift and her Eras world tour, Nick visits the Taylor Town Trail - the new art trail dedicated to the singer's albums/eras - in the city centre and talks to one of the trail's co-producer Rhiannon Newman from Culture Liverpool, Kirsten Little - artistic director of the trail, and three of the artists involved in the project - Simon Armstrong, Rachel Smith-Evans, and Catherine Rogers.Les Dennis makes his Shakespeare debut as Malvolio in a new production of Twelfth Night directed by Jimmy Fairhurst. Almost as soon as the final preview performance ends, Nick joins them backstage at Shakespeare North Playhouse to discuss finding the heart in one of Shakespeare's least-loved characters, and why songs by the Arctic Monkeys Blondie, and Charlie Chaplin have an important role in this retelling of the play set in the music industry.As the music festival season begins, news that 28 festivals have been cancelled or postponed with that number expected to rise to 100 by the end of the year prompted Front Row to reflect on the current state of music festivals in the UK with Nick Morgan, CEO of We Group - a live events production company, who has launched the Your Festival Needs You campaign, and BBC Radio 6 Music journalist and festival aficionado Georgie Rogers.Presenter: Nick Ahad Producer: Ekene Akalawu

Jon Bon Jovi talks about his band’s new album Forever and their new documentary Thank You, Goodnight on Disney+ which celebrates the band’s 40th anniversary in rock and roll this year.Clare Pollard’s new book The Modern Fairies is set in 17th century France, where stories of trapped princesses and enchanted beasts are performed at the home of Madame Marie D'Aulnoy, who invented the term “conte de fée” or fairytale. Samira talks to Clare and and cultural historian Marina Warner about the importance of pioneers such as D'Aulnoy and Charles Perrault, who brought many of these stories to subversive salons long before the Brothers Grimm.Viggo Mortensen and Vikki Krieps star in the new western The Dead Don’t Hurt, in which they play an immigrant couple trying to build a new life in Nevada as the American Civil War begins. This is his second film as writer and director.

Kevin Barry’s new novel is The Heart in Winter, a love story set in the American wild west in the 1890s. The film Rosalie is a period piece inspired by the true story of a French bearded lady who, together with her husband, ran a café in rural France in the late 19th century. And Disney’s Paris set drama series Becoming Karl Lagerfeld explores the late Chanel fashion designer’s life. Max Liu and Larushka Ivan-Zadeh join Tom Sutcliffe to review.Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe Producer: Torquil MacLeod

Christos Tsiolkas, the Australian writer best known for The Slap, talks about The In-Between, his visceral yet tender new novel about two men finding love in their fifties. Victoria Canal performs her Ivor Novello award winning song Black Swan and talks about her life in music.And with several literary festivals severing their ties with Baillie Gifford, Martha Gill and Grace Blakeley discuss the growing story behind the sponsorship row along with Adrian Turpin, Director of the Wigtown Book Festival in Dumfries and GallowayPresenter: Tom Sutcliffe Producer: Ciaran Bermingham

Presenter Samira Ahmed talks to Candice Carty-Williams who has adapted her award-winning novel Queenie for an eight-part series on Channel 4, starring Dionne Brown. It traces a year in the life of a young woman navigating a difficult course through her relationships with friends, family and casual partners, with the shadow of unresolved trauma always looming in the background. As two dramas, Strategic Love Play and Love In Gravitational Waves, explore the nature of that modern romantic encounter - the date, their respective playwrights, Miriam Battye and Testament, join Samira to discuss turning the tryst into theatre.Authors Briony Cameron and Francesca De Tores talk about the rise of female pirates in fiction.Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Claire Bartleet

American director Richard Linklater, who made his name with Boyhood and the Before Sunset films, talks about his new comedy thriller Hit Man, which stars Glen Powell as quiet teacher who leads a secret double life helping this police catch people trying to hire a hit man. The movie opens on Netflix on Friday.Asian Network is celebrating 90s Bollywood, revealing the Ultimate 90s Bollywood Song as voted for by listeners from a shortlist of 50. It was counted down on air on Friday and is available to listen to on BBC Sounds now. We are speaking to presenter Haroon Rashid live from Birmingham on Zoom.Harpist Esther Swift plays live and talks about her first solo studio album Expectations of a Lifetime.Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Corinna Jones

Samira Ahmed is joined by author Anita Sethi and critic Tim Robey to review time-skipping sci-fi epic The Beast, where human emotions are perceived as a threat; the second series of Nida Manzoor’s We Are Lady Parts, where the all-female Muslin punk band are recording their first album; they also give their verdict on the Beyond Fashion photography exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery, which tracks how fashion photography has become an art form in its own right.Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Paula McGrath