music

RITA Ora has landed a film role following a slew of previous acting parts – in her latest move away from music.

The singer and television personality, 35, has been landing bigger roles in recent years.

According to Variety, Rita is set to star in an upcoming sci-fi adventure film titled The Signalers.

The premise follows a remote air traffic controller and his niece finding an unexplained signal deep in the Canadian wilderness.

This troubling signal also causes dangerous phenomena to take place, prompting them to investigate.

Rita, along with Galaxy Quest actress Missi Pyle, will play research scientists encountered by the pair.

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The cast also includes Umbrella Academy’s Tom Hopper starring in the leading role.

Over the past decade, Rita has appeared in the Fifty Shades of Grey franchise, Pokemon Detective Pikachu and Twist – the latter inspired by Oliver Twist.

It comes as the star radiated confidence on the BFI red carpet last month, rocking a stunning Gothic look.

She attended the 70th BFI London Film Festival alongside her director husband Taika Watiti to see the premiere of his new movie, Klara and the Sun.

In the snaps Rita wore a beautiful black bodycon gown featuring all-over lace details.

The bottom of the skirt was structured out into a circle using a hoop to create a unique silhouette for the evening.

Rita and Taika got married in 2022 after only a year of dating, and four years after first meeting as friends in LA.

New Zealand-born Taika, 51, has directed two of Rita’s music videos and they are planning on making a romcom together.

She reportedly filmed a scene for his new sci-fi flick but it was cut at the last minute.

Speaking exclusively to The Sun at the South Bank, Taika said: “I’m really amazed and surprised by what she does, but also super confused at the same time.

“She has a similar thing with me about the process of making films, and that’s how we make it work.”

When composing the score of a horror movie, are you empathetic toward its victims, or acting as their tormentor?

Ethel Cain and Robin Carolan pondered that as they composed the mournful and guttural score for Robert Eggers’ forthcoming film “Werwulf.” The movie, set in 14th century England, is Eggers’ latest dive into meticulously researched, period-piece horror. After 2024’s smash “Nosferatu,” “Werwulf” (in theaters Dec. 25) looks to be Eggers’ most historically exacting film since his colonial-America nightmare “The Witch,” and his most brutal and upsetting movie yet.

For this particular sound of pastoral despair, the singer and composer tried to understand how the freezing, terrified peasants of medieval England (here played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Willem Dafoe, and Lily-Rose Depp) would have felt being stalked by an entity beyond their comprehension.

“I started to wonder — is the music coming from a sympathetic place toward the characters, or is it coming from the antagonism of the evil that’s pursuing them?’ Cain asked in an interview about their single “Wynter Waxeth,” which also serves as a theme in the film. “Or is it more of this neutrality of nature watching it all unfold?”

For the score, Cain — the cult-favorite Southern gothic project from singer-songwriter Hayden Anhedönia — joined up with Carolan, the founder of the tastemaking indie label Tri Angle and a composer who worked on the music Eggers’ “Nosferatu” and “The Northman.” Cain’s voice is a spectral presence throughout the movie, in terribly beautiful harmonies that serve as a portent of its characters’ desperate faith and impending doom.

Carolan’s instrumentation is grounded in period-accurate instruments like the hurdy gurdy (they had a custom “mega-stretch” model made that requires two people to play it), distended through spectral reverbs and percussion made from crunching bones and chopped wood.

“What I really wanted to capture was that kind of rugged, in-the-earth feeling, really plunging you into the medieval world because it would have been a very hard world to have lived in,” Carolan said. “My favorite parts of the process are doing the research, finding the instruments, thinking about the music of the time and then thinking, ‘How can I subvert this?’

“I also wanted the score to sound mysterious and otherworldly as well,” he added, “because the characters were incredibly superstitious and obsessed with God, demons, devils. It was a time of very heightened emotions because there was so much superstition, and so much of a lack of understanding of the world around them.”

Those themes, from a very different angle, are core concerns of Cain’s catalog too. The closest reference point for the sound of “Werwulf” might be “Perverts,” the divisive but profoundly emotional noise record she made to detonate possible pop stardom after 2022’s hit “Preacher’s Daughter.” The score harkens back to a formative interest of Cain’s — Gregorian chant — that predates and runs alongside her singer-songwriter material. Both of these projects are obsessed with God, sin, filth and salvation.

“It feels a little full circle to be coming back around and creating this very fantastical, superstitious, religious fervor,” Cain said. “But you can also go off the rails in the sense that it’s still a horror movie, so you can bend it to create something that toes the line between a horror movie soundtrack and something echoing off the walls of a monastery. It’s really nice to go into this meticulously crafted universe, and then dig in the dirt with it.”

For “Wynter Waxeth,” Cain sings in Middle English lyrics written with Eggers (“Werwulf’s” dialog is written and spoken in the same dialect). She’s always been a particularly commanding vocalist, attuned to devastating melodic turns and gorgeously pained phrasing.

The resolutely autonomous Cain wasn’t used to being coached on much of anything in music. But working with Eggers to wrap her voice around the phonemes of Middle English, the sessions brought something ancient and profound out of her.

“You’re getting to take words that, to the English speaker’s ear, sound vaguely English because it is, but you get to incorporate different kinds of trills and glottal stops,” Cain said. “Different languages have different cultural connotations, and they carry so much weight with them. It really does take you into a different headspace. I loved to wear all my black drapes to the studio and sit with the harpist invoking this feeling that I haven’t felt in a very long time. It was nice to say hello to a new ghostly image that I would like to get to know a little bit better.”

“Wynter Waxeth” builds from the hymnal melodies of a frostbitten gothic abbey, into groans of percussion and stacks of frantic, escalating chants. You feel both the majesty of faith and the gnash of claws in the treeline.

While “Nosferatu” took aesthetic liberties with a timeless vampire tale, and “The Northman” dropped viewers into a mythopoetic Viking era, the score work for “Werwulf” comes closest to inhabiting its characters’ real fears and moments of solace as death slinks outside.

“The film is brutal, I think it’s Rob’s most devastating film,” Carolan said. “But there are certain scenes where there was space for tenderness. You want to embrace the characters, especially when you know the hardships they’re going through and where the story is headed.”

“I feel less like I’m sympathizing with the characters being terrified and helpless, and it almost sounds like we are on the creature’s side,” Cain laughed. “It feels like we are creating the atmosphere that is so terrifying.”

“Your voice is in a lot pretty evil scenes,” Carolan agreed. “What Hayden’s doing with her voice, it’s antagonistic. They’re some of the the most intense music cues in the film. Hayden’s a little bit of heaven and a little bit well, not heaven.”

Nsqk can hear the connection between Radiohead and Willie Colón. To the Mexican singer-producer, both know when to let the instruments speak as much as the verses.

It’s a fitting observation from an artist whose music moves between electronic production, R&B melodies, rap and distorted guitars. Born Rodrigo Torres de la Garza in Monterrey and raised partly in Texas, the 28-year-old Nsqk — pronounced “Nesquik” — grew up navigating two countries and the expectations that come with belonging to both.

“I grew up in Houston,” he says. “I understand what it’s like to be a second-generation Mexican growing up in the States.” That experience, he explains, helps him connect with collaborators who also know what it means to feel as if they exist between worlds.

His audience has grown well beyond the underground following he garnered in his early experiments with electronic production. After releasing his albums “Roy” (2022) and “ATP” (2024), he sold out two consecutive shows at Mexico City’s Palacio de los Deportes in 2025.

A date this January at the city’s Estadio GNP Seguros marks another leap in his scale.

In his Oct. 15 album release, “Mosca,” Nsqk is joined by the Chicano experimentalist Jean Dawson on the guitar-driven “Dientes de Fierro,” while indie icon Julieta Venegas lends her silky vocals and synth melodies to “Estar Así Siempre.” Additional cameos include folk balladeers like Pedro Tovar of Eslabón Armado and Kevin Kaarl, with longtime Gorillaz collaborator Stephen Sedgwick handling the mixes.

De Los spoke to Nsqk ahead of his upcoming U.S. tour — which includes a performance at Tyler, the Creator’s Camp Flog Gnaw fest on Sunday in L.A.’s Dodger Stadium. He spoke candidly about letting his music breathe, finding common ground in the studio and why Mexican identity shouldn’t depend on where someone lives.

When we first spoke, you mentioned EDM producer Porter Robinson as an influence. Where does that influence show up on “Mosca”?
Absolutely. Just the other day, I was listening to “Worlds” again. Everyone has these albums that you discovered at 14 years old, and you listen to them every once in a while because it’s part of you.

I was making these connections: “Oh, I didn’t even realize I was referencing this.” It keeps happening with a lot of my influences. There are certain moments, especially on “Peces Muertos” and some of the more electronic tracks, where you can hear very directly the influence from Porter Robinson and Madeon.

What did you try on “Mosca” that you wouldn’t have trusted yourself to do on “ATP”?
I tried letting the music ride a lot more. During the process, I listened to a lot of Radiohead and U.K. rock. It’s very cinematic. They let the music breathe and let the instruments speak for a while without having to sing.

I was also listening to a lot of salsa: Willie Colón, Héctor Lavoe, Celia Cruz. I never expected that where Radiohead and Willie Colón meet is that they let the music ride. They’ll sing a verse, then let the instruments speak for a minute, two minutes.

That’s something I hadn’t done in my music intentionally. It’s about what I’m saying, but it’s also about what the instruments are saying.

Mexican rapper and singer-songwriter Nsqk (Rodrigo Torres de la Garza).

(Mono Studio (Mexico))

What surprised you about working with Stephen Sedgwick on the album’s mixes?
One of the craziest things about working with him is that everything is analog, everything’s physical. He’ll run his Pro Tools out into this gigantic wall of effects and compressors, amplifiers and limiters. I didn’t even know what everything was.

I do everything on my laptop. To take it somewhere where it’s all physical, at first it was actually kind of weird. We were speaking two different languages. I was trying to explain that I wanted things in a very digital way, but we had to figure out how to do that with his equipment.

What stood out about working with Pedro Tovar of Eslabón Armado on “Mil Problemas”?
He’s an amazing songwriter. He is so quick. It’s a similar experience with Julieta: They’re so good at it that they just sit and start, and they can write a song in five minutes. And it’s an amazing song.

He knows exactly what he wants, and he knows exactly who he is as an artist. The track is not a corrido or sierreño, but it sounds like them. It sounds like his melodies and his chords.

He did the guitar solo and I rerecorded it with my guitarist, who’s a rock guy. Even this guy, a classically trained guitarist, was like: “This is crazy to play.” It’s a completely different approach to playing guitar.

It’s really hard to put into words, but once you see him do it, it makes total sense.

What connects the collaborators you brought together on this record?
You’re not American [enough] for the Americans, not quite Mexican [enough] for the Mexicans. The Chicano experience: I grew up like that.

All of the artists on the record sort of share this cultural duality, where you often feel like you’re in between worlds, and you don’t know exactly which one you belong to.

It’s not that we sat down and talked about it to create the music. But I feel like the reason I connected so well with everyone is that we share that characteristic.

Has returning to the U.S. as an artist changed how you understand that experience?
There’s often this cultural disconnect between Mexicans living in the U.S. and Mexicans living in Mexico. I often see people say, “You’re not Mexican if you don’t live in Mexico.” That’s always felt kind of weird to me because I know what it’s like.

I feel like our culture and our heritage is so beautiful. The fact that it’s so ingrained in the States is amazing to me.

I see a lot on Twitter and TikTok, people fighting about it: “Just because you were born in Chicago, but your parents were Mexican, and you speak Spanish, and you eat Mexican food. But because you don’t live in Mexico, you’re not Mexican.” I see people saying that a lot.

I feel really honored to be able to tour the United States, meet these people and wear the flag on my chest. I don’t feel like we’re any different.

As a Tyler, the Creator fan, what does playing Camp Flog Gnaw mean to you?
It’s an honor. He created this space for much more vulnerable music with all these different influences. He’s a torch carrier for a niche of artists that try to make different music, in a way that’s not necessarily the status quo or the most commercial way to do it.

To be part of the lineup is an honor, but it’s also very motivating. It’s cool that we’ve gotten this far, and that only gives me more energy to keep working.

You’re going from a stadium show in Mexico City to smaller U.S. rooms. What can you do with an audience that close?
Talk to them. It’s a lot easier to see their faces and reactions and literally talk to them.

When I’m onstage, I really enjoy talking to people and making them feel like I’m not just playing my set list for the hundredth time. I’m actually there, I’m enjoying it, I’m seeing them and they’re seeing me.

ALANIS Morissette risked sparking a war of words with Ben Affleck while discussing their former working relationship on Wednesday evening.

The Canadian star was entertaining fans during the third of four scheduled appearances at Inglewood’s YouTube Theatre when she recalled starring with Affleck in 1999 film Dogma.

Morissette, 52, had a cameo role as God in director Kevin Smith’s light-hearted comedy about two fallen angels who hatch an audacious plan to find their way back to heaven.

And she claimed Affleck, 54, who took a starring role as hapless angel Barnaby, wasn’t entirely convinced by her portrayal of the Almighty.

“I’ve even had a guy ask me why I didn’t lead with my sexuality,” she told fans during Wednesday’s show. “Thank you, Ben Affleck.”

The monologue ended with an appropriately chosen scene from the film, during which Barnaby’s head explodes following a confrontation with Morissette’s God.

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Dogma – a box office hit following its 1999 release – also features Affleck’s close friend Matt Damon, Salma Hayek, Alan Rickman, Jason Mewes and Chris Rock.

Morissette was onstage after bringing her hugely successful Butterfly with a Machete residency to California for a four night run following an earlier two week stay in Las Vegas.

Addressing fans, the singer also claimed she’d been ‘harshly judged’ by critics throughout her lengthy career and had endured numerous personal attacks.

“… about my songs,” she added. “About my body, about how I look, about how I think, about how I feel, about my value system, about my weight.

“About how feral I am, about how feral I live, about my approach to parenting, about my approach to education, my approach to freaking anything.”

The singer went on to claim she had been rebuffed by a Hollywood star after turning to him for help.

“I did call Johnny Depp at one point, and his response was, ‘Why are you calling me?’” she said.

The show comes after Morissette discussed her pansexuality – an attraction to people regardless of their gender identity – during an appearance on the Handsome podcast.

The singer sat down with hosts lesbian comedians Tig Notaro and Fortune Feimster, and non-binary screenwriter Mae Martin.

While pushing for when her next big hit will be released, Fortune admitted: “I’m sorry for the men that hurt you, but I’m not sorry for the songs that came from it.

“Did it make you want to be a lesbian at any point?”

Leaving the hosts taken aback, she replied: “I’m pansexual, so yeah.”

Which Beyoncé song are you?

At USC’s Marshall School of Business, MBA students will have to pick one and explain why before they study her whiskey brand, hair-care line and entertainment company, not to mention her music. The assignment has a fitting name: the “BeyEssay.”

“The Business of Beyoncé,” a new course that puts a twist on the usual business school curriculum, “sold out” faster than a Renaissance World Tour presale after the class opened for registration this month ahead of its January kickoff. It follows Beyoncé’s career from childhood performances and Destiny’s Child to her solo stardom and business ventures, with the goal of preparing students for careers in entertainment, music management and branding.

Professor Shaun Harper, a Beyoncé superfan who designed the course, anticipates criticism that students should be learning practical skills rather than studying a pop star. But he sees it differently:

USC professor Shaun Harper will teach the “Business of Beyonce” MBA course.

(Grayson Adler / USC Marshall Communications
)

“My class is not going to be just a set of conversations about Beyoncé.”

Students will unpack how she transforms star power into a multimillion-dollar empire and how social media shapes her brand.

Besides, his class is a classic case-study deep dive. It’s also an answer to a long-running complaint that business schools’ case studies too often highlight white men and their ventures.

Celebrity-themed classes are hardly new. UC Berkeley offered one on Tupac Shakur’s poetry in 1997. The University of South Carolina announced a sociology course on Lady Gaga’s fame in 2010. Harvard has a class on Taylor Swift. Beyoncé’s sister, Solange Knowles, is slated to teach a course on music curation at USC’s Thornton School of Music next fall. At Marshall, former USC football coach Pete Carroll has taught “The Game Is Life” leadership course — its guests have included actors Rainn Wilson and Jason Sudeikis.

Now it’s Beyoncé’s turn and students are expected to work hard, or, as Beyoncé put it in “Schoolin’ Life”: “Just remember to stay relentless. … Don’t stop running until it’s finished.”

Inside the classroom

The 16-week spring semester class will meet Monday afternoons for nearly three hours.

Beyoncé and Destiny’s Child won’t have the syllabus to themselves.

Weekly topics will include child stars, girl groups and boy bands, Black artists, women in music, celebrity couples, privacy and scandal. Students will study the Pussycat Dolls, the Backstreet Boys, NSYNC, the Supremes and BTS. Readings also look at how the Motown record label shaped pioneering Black artists.

One assignment traces a child performer’s path to adult stardom, with Janet Jackson among the suggested subjects. A week on crossing genres includes readings on “Cowboy Carter” — which won Beyoncé her first album of the year Grammy in 2025 — and her acting in the 2006 film “Dreamgirls.”

Another puts students in the advisor’s seat, telling them to create a 700-to-1,000-word business guidance document for Beyoncé. The syllabus asks them to imagine it is “being delivered directly” to the star.

Fans and career plans

Kendall Ferguson, 30, a second-year MBA student and president of USC’s Graduate Marketing Assn., is among those who signed up. Raised in Ladera Heights, she worked in human resources in London before coming to USC. After graduating next year, she hopes to do brand management for a retail or beauty company.

She has gravitated toward courses in entertainment and marketing. “I’m definitely not the traditional stereotype of MBA,” Ferguson said.

She has been a Beyoncé fan since childhood. A friend’s mother performed with Destiny’s Child and taught Ferguson and her friends choreography to the group’s songs, Ferguson said.

Ferguson, who is Black, wanted to study a Black businesswoman with a Black professor who could identify with her experiences.

She has also been a customer beyond music, using a Cécred braid spray. She said she did not initially know it was Beyoncé’s brand.

Cécred offers an example of Beyoncé’s approach to financing. Her mother, Tina Knowles, told Fortune that Beyoncé funded the company herself after prospective investors pushed for less spending on research and development and more on marketing.

Beyoncé’s business ventures stretch back more than two decades. In 2005, she and her mother launched House of Deréon, a now-defunct clothing line. Beyoncé founded Parkwood Entertainment, her management and production company, in 2010 and co-founded the Ivy Park athleisure line, which debuted in 2016. In 2024, she introduced the Cécred hair-care brand and SirDavis whiskey with Moet Hennessy. She later bought out Moet Hennessy’s stake.

She follows generations of artists-turned-entrepreneurs, including Sam Cooke, Dolly Parton and Madonna. Her husband, Jay-Z, expanded into entertainment beyond his own releases through Roc Nation, which executive-produces the Super Bowl halftime show. He will headline it at SoFi Stadium in February.

Maddie Gissler, a second-year MBA student from Naperville, Ill., also signed up. She aspires to work in entertainment marketing, branding or strategy when she graduates next year. She wants to learn how Beyoncé keeps audiences engaged as she moves into new businesses and reinvents her work.

Before business school, Gissler worked at EY, an accounting and consulting firm.

She has seen two Beyoncé concerts: the Mrs. Carter Show World Tour in high school and Cowboy Carter in 2025. When Gissler took dance classes from age 4 to 18, her teachers often played Beyoncé. She remembers getting hooked on the album “B’Day.”

But she also likes other sides of the star. “One of the best things she did was when she kind of moved into acting,” Gissler said.

A professor and a fan

Harper was a fan long before Beyoncé became his teaching material.

As student body president at Albany State University, a historically Black college in Georgia, Harper helped book Destiny’s Child to perform at homecoming in 1997. He said he first saw Beyoncé perform solo at the 2003 Essence Awards.

Her best business decision? “Becoming a solo artist,” he said.

Harper expects students, many in their late 20s, to challenge his views. One likely debate: whether Beyoncé’s guarded public persona is smart brand management. He thinks it is.

“Beyoncé shows up when she needs to show up,” he said.

Her marketing decisions have received business-school scrutiny before. Her surprise 2013 album release, issued on iTunes without advance promotion, became a Harvard Business School case study the next year.

Harper’s admiration extends to her celebration of Black culture and traditions. In 2018, Beyoncé became the first Black woman to headline Coachella. Her set evoked a football halftime show and homecoming celebration at historically Black colleges and universities, with a marching band, drum line, steppers and majorette-style dancers performing in front of bleachers.

On TikTok, Harper has been watching performances and old interviews and learning new facts. He said one clip taught him that Beyoncé reviews concert footage frame by frame afterward, like a football coach.

“That woman’s work ethic is unmatched,” he said.

Through third parties, Harper is trying to get the message to Beyoncé that she’s invited be a guest lecturer in the class. A spokesperson for Beyoncé did not respond to a request from The Times for comment on the course.

In July 2014, Harper’s husband surprised him with pit tickets to the On the Run tour in Philadelphia. Beyoncé danced over and briefly grabbed his hand.

“I have never met Beyoncé. We’ve held hands, but we’ve never met,” Harper said.

He hopes one day for a proper introduction.

In late October, two non-Equity touring musicals opened on the same night at two of L.A.’s largest theaters: “Tommy” at the Hollywood Pantages and “The Music Man” at Center Theatre Group’s Ahmanson. The shows — which operate outside of the Actors’ Equity Assn., the union that represents more than 51,000 professional stage actors and managers nationwide — reignited a contentious debate about whether a major regional nonprofit like CTG should host nonunion shows.

Critics questioned whether these productions threaten CTG’s artistic mission and if Angelenos should pay top dollar for nonunion shows. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, what should matter more, a theater’s bottom line or its core values? The underlying implication in much of the criticism was that non-Equity shows are subpar and that hosting them implies a tacit acceptance of the mistreatment of actors.

Savannah Stevenson, who plays Mrs. Paroo in the national tour of “The Music Man,” would like to banish those concerns.

“We should completely dispel the notion that because we’re a non-Equity tour, we’re somehow put through the wringer,” Stevenson said during a phone interview from the Airbnb she was sharing with three cast members. It was a few hours before curtain during the final days of the show’s nearly two-week run in downtown L.A., before it departed for the Capitol Theatre in Yakima, Wash.

Touring small towns like Yakima is a big part of why non-Equity shows exist. The tours began popping up in the 1990s after the rise of the Broadway megamusical, to bring shows to places that would otherwise go without. Before its arrival in L.A., “The Music Man” was in Senatobia, Miss., with a population of about 8,500. A major union show like “The Lion King” will never stop in Senatobia, but the people there can enjoy a bit of River City thanks to Stevenson and the rest of “The Music Man” cast.

“The biggest difference in my mind is, frankly, the schedule. As a non-Equity tour, we do significantly more one-nighters or short engagements,” Stevenson said. “But we also all knew that when we signed up for it. And that is what allows us to share this particular piece of musical theater and musical theater history with such a wide swath of the country.”

Many professional actors choose to remain non-Equity for a variety of reasons, Stevenson said. Jobs are more plentiful for non-Equity actors, she noted, especially if you make a living working at regional houses outside of major cities, which often book only a handful of Equity actors per show. Stevenson recently shared a dressing room and top billing with an Equity actor in a Connecticut show — and other than the fact that the Equity actor was paid more, their treatment was the same, she said.

“We worked side by side every single day, had equally large parts, and I don’t think that anyone coming to that show would have said, ‘Oh, well, gosh, the Equity girl was the real standout in that show,’” Stevenson said gamely.

Elizabeth D’Aiuto, left, Addie Jaymes and Savannah Stevenson in the touring production of Meredith Willson’s “The Music Man.”

(Marshall Meadows)

Stevenson spoke in the wake of a review by Times theater critic Charles McNulty, which called “The Music Man” a “community-theater-level production,” and slammed CTG for “damaging its stature as a nonprofit theater leader by offering such an important showcase to this second-tier touring production.”

The public reception for “The Music Man” was quite warmer. The show ranked above “Amélie, A New Musical,” “Latin History for Morons” and “Paranormal Activity” in audience surveys, according to CTG, and late last week it was on track to outsell “Parade,” “Life of Pi” and “Paranormal Activity.” CTG’s Artistic Director Snehal Desai said each year fans ask for a classic musical and this season only two such shows were on tour: “The Sound of Music” and “The Music Man.” The former (an Equity tour) went to the Pantages, which is run by the for-profit Nederlander organization. That left the latter available to CTG.

The uproar resulting from the non-Equity “The Music Man’s” arrival at the Ahmanson ties directly into the ongoing — and at times overheated — conversation about the future of the American nonprofit theater movement that erupted in late July when the Public Theater’s Artistic Director Oskar Eustis announced his intention to step down after 23 years, declaring the movement “over” and “not coming back.” Since then, theater leaders, including Desai, have been casting around for a brand new way of building a sustainable future. In Desai’s case, that meant attempting to stay in the black — a course of action that is not always looked upon kindly.

Equity vs. non-Equity

The decision to book non-Equity shows was less about saving money than it was about the Tetris-like planning required to keep the Ahmanson gainfully booked, Desai said. The cost of hosting an Equity versus a non-Equity show is about the same for CTG. Non-Equity shows get paid a flat-rate guarantee that is less than what Equity shows seek, but that’s just one piece of the pie, Desai said. CTG also must factor in overhead and local labor costs, production and marketing expenses, and more. This year there are 25 touring Equity shows and 24 non-Equity shows (a number that has stayed fairly steady for the last eight years, with the exception of the height of the COVID-19 pandemic when Equity tours shut down completely). More than 20 available Equity shows went to the Pantages — along with at least five non-Equity shows. This left only a few Equity shows for CTG to choose from, and Desai had to make sure those fit into the schedule.

Aliya Grace in the North American tour of “Boop!,” which is coming next year to the Ahmanson Theatre.

(Matthew Murphy)

This season will see three non-Equity shows: “Clue,” “The Music Man” and Boop!,” which is the rare show to go straight from Broadway to a non-Equity tour.

“The three [non-Equity shows] that we programmed were what was available to us,” Desai said, adding that the shows came from producers CTG had worked with before so he was confident that “they’re maintaining a certain quality. That they’re taking care of the companies. That they’re adhering to standards.”

Daniel Sher, the president of Big League Productions, which is producing “The Music Man” tour, said the organization does its best to follow union rules that are “reasonable.” Big League has produced mostly non-Equity touring shows for about 35 years, and Sher noted that the show’s crew is union, so the production adheres to many union rules by proxy. The Ahmanson is a union house, with its own union crew — so those rules also apply. Sher wishes he could provide health insurance for his actors, but that is cost-prohibitive, so he gives a small health stipend instead.

“I think there’s just a lot of non-Equity work now,” Sher said. “So it’s kind of like it’s a natural market force. As long as there remains this kind of vast amount of work, there are actors who will choose to remain non-Equity.”

Broadway hits will almost always start as Equity tours, he said, but once they stop being money-making juggernauts, they often go nonunion by necessity. That’s the case with “The Music Man,” he said, noting that a show of its size and scope would be financially impossible to stage as an Equity tour in the current marketplace. He would love for the union to consider allowing a mix of union and nonunion actors on national tours — like it does for regional theaters: “There’s a world where the producers and Equity could try to find a way, but the economics just have to work.”

Stevenson’s goal is to keep performing. She was an Equity member at the beginning of her career, then took 18 years off to practice law before returning to acting — this time without an Equity card.

“Whether you are a presenter or a producer or an actor or a member of the crew, or an audience member, we are all aligned around the notion of ensuring that the theater industry does not continue to contract in the way that it has, particularly since the pandemic,” she said. “So if we can ensure that we’re keeping a variety of shows alive and reaching more corners of the country, then we have to make room for both Equity and non-Equity tours.”

The 2025 North American tour of “Clue,” which played at the Ahmanson Theatre during a non-Equity tour.

(Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade)

Even Actors’ Equity has changed its approach to non-Equity shows. In 2001 the union picketed a previous non-Equity tour of “The Music Man” and in 2014 it ran an ad campaign urging theatergoers to “Ask if it’s Equity,” before buying tickets. That campaign, along with more demanding rules around how an actor could join the union, were scrapped in 2023 out of concern for “small ‘e’ equity and justice, and who should have the decision to join the union,” said Actors’ Equity Assn. sopkesperson David Levy.

Prior rules relied on the employer to decide whether an actor was worthy of joining the union, “and we wanted to put that power back in the hands of the actual members themselves,” Levy said. Actors’ Equity currently has an “open access” policy that allows anyone who has worked in any kind of professional theater in the U.S. to join.

“The quality of the talent in these tours is not any less than the quality of talent on any union stage,” Levy said. “What’s at issue is how that talent is treated, how they’re paid, what the workplace safety rules are, what accommodations they’re given as they travel, whether they get appropriate rest time.”

While the union would prefer that every theater show operate under an Equity contract, it’s aware that this may not be financially feasible in all situations, Levy said, noting that nonunion shows might be the only viable option for smaller towns across the country without rich and diverse theater ecosystems.

“We would never want to deprive those audiences of having that transformational opportunity of seeing singers and dancers and actors and musicians do their thing,” Levy said, adding that L.A., unlike less populous cities, doesn’t have a dearth of theater offerings. “Now, in a perfect world, that job would come with both standardized wages and work rules and benefits, as well as the safety guarantees of a union contract.” He paused, “We do not live in a perfect world.”

The future of nonprofit theater

CTG came perilously close to financially bottoming out in 2023 when it closed the Mark Taper Forum for almost a year and a half. This happened just before Desai took over from Michael Ritchie as the third artistic director in CTG’s history, arriving just in time to pick up the pieces following the COVID-19 pandemic. When CTG finally reopened its theater doors after an astonishing 56 weeks, its staff was decimated, tickets sales had plunged and the cost of putting on productions had skyrocketed. CTG’s staffing still remains more than 20% down from its pre-pandemic high, although its subscriptions are on the rise — up 226% over last year.

“We used to talk to donors about how CTG valued union-only productions, even though they are more expensive, because CTG valued more than just the bottom-line,” former CTG board chair Kiki Ramos Gindler wrote on Facebook in response to McNulty’s review. “Unlike the Nederlander Organization, a for-profit theatre business keenly focused on profits. … The mission is to support our community, not to find ways to keep from going out of business. If this is a path to staying in business, it’s a wrong path and maybe time to take a final bow rather than completely throw away core values.” (Nederlander declined a request for comment on the issue.)

In late September the DeVos Institute of Arts and Nonprofit Management, which was founded at the Kennedy Center in 2001 and supports arts groups nationwide, hosted a nearly two-hour Zoom forum called “Is the American Nonprofit Theater Movement Over?” About 17 major theater leaders spoke on the call that had 800 participants, including Eustis and Desai, all seeking to examine what elements of “a historical model for producing and presenting nonprofit theater in America” have ended, and which remain relevant.

Center Theatre Group’s Mark Taper Forum in 2019, four years before it was temporarily closed due to a financial crisis.

(Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

“When I first became an artistic director, there were two words that I had never heard before that became my mantra for years: cash flow. These days, a lot of my conversations seem to be focused on three words: minding the gap,” Desai said. “There are so many gaps confronting our field right now. There is the gap between what a production costs and the revenue it can generate. The gap between the impact of the work we make and the value we assign it. The gap between the origin stories of our institutions and the communities we serve. And perhaps, most importantly, there is the gap between the models we inherited and the world we actually live in.”

For CTG, that means keeping the 2,000-seat Ahmanson Theatre booked with revenue-generating shows in order to afford to continue producing work the company does at the Taper and at Culver City’s Kirk Douglas Theatre. “Phantom of the Opera” ran for 4½ years straight at the Ahmanson from 1989 to 1993, a commercial success that enabled a golden age at CTG under founding Artistic Director Gordon Davidson that included the 1992 premiere of Tony Kushner’s groundbreaking two-part play “Angels in America.”

The Ahmanson needs to be that commercial vehicle again, if CTG is to continue pushing artistic boundaries, Desai said. CTG-produced shows are always Equity, while major touring shows arriving at the Ahmanson sometimes aren’t.

“When a show doesn’t meet its goal, it is a huge swing. It is millions of dollars. And so we have to be super careful about what we’re programming,” Desai said. “And I’m also trying to take care of the audience that I’m building in line with the artistic vision.”

Anjali Sud, most recently the chief executive officer of the ad-supported streaming service Tubi, is taking the top job at the subscription audio entertainment company SiriusXM.

SiriusXM announced Monday that Sud will succeed current chief executive Jennifer Witz, who is stepping down Dec. 31 and will remain in an advisory role through next year.

Sud, 43, has been an independent director of SiriusXM since 2025. In a statement, the company cited her extensive experience in digital media and streaming businesses. She has led Tubi since 2023. The platform has grown to 110 million monthly users and is now a profit center for Fox Corp., which acquired the company in 2020.

Tubi was recently absorbed into Fox Digital Platforms, a new unit created following Fox Corp.‘s $22 billion acquisition of the streaming platform Roku. The deal was closed on Friday.

Sud previously served as chief executive of the video platform Vimeo.

“I am honored to lead SiriusXM in its next chapter,” said Sud. “Premium audio experiences will be more important than ever to the future of entertainment, and I believe SiriusXM can evolve to lead that future.”

Witz, 57, has been with SiriusXM for 25 years, including nearly six years as chief executive.

SiriusXM offers live and on-demand programming across music, talk, news, sports, and podcasts, and the company reaches around 255 million monthly listeners across its platforms.

Best known as the satellite radio platform for morning personality Howard Stern, SiriusXM has moved aggressively into podcasting and specialty channels built around personalities with passionate followings including Conan O’Brien’s “Team Coco,” and Alex Cooper’s “Call Her Daddy.” The service also offers shows or channels from such personalities as Trevor Noah, Kevin Hart, Stephen A. Smith, and former Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly. Last month, SiriusXM reported having 33 million total subscribers.

In the third quarter of 2026, the company reported revenue of $1.6 billion for its flagship SiriusXM segment, flat with its year-ago performance. Gross profit increased slightly to $963 million.

It is the largest authentic German Christmas market outside of Germany

While there are still six weeks to go, Christmas festivities are already starting. Towns and cities across the UK are starting to be decked out in lights, decorations and entertainment.

Christmas markets have become increasingly popular in recent years, and they are sure to get everyone into the festive spirit. Manchester Christmas Markets opened this weekend, as well as Birmingham’s Frankfurt Christmas Market.

Timber huts are now lining Birmingham’s streets alongside traditional food, drink, handmade gifts, decorations and jewellery. Visitors can tuck into schnitzels and bratwursts while sipping German beer and hot chocolate.

Where is Birmingham’s Frankfurt Christmas Market?

The market takes over the city centre, making it hard not to join in. Stalls and entertainment sit in Victoria Square and New Street, between Corporation Street and the Bullring.

This year, there is a slight change due to roadworks. There will be no stalls between Nando’s and the Apple Store on New Street.

When is the market open?

Birmingham’s Christmas Market opened its doors on Thursday, November 5 and will run until Thursday, December 24. It is open every day during that time period.

Monday to Thursday, the market will open from 11am to 9pm, while on Fridays it will stay open until 9:30pm. Saturday hours are 10am until 9:30pm, and Sunday hours are 10am until 9pm.

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What is on?

Musicians from Germany will entertain crowds at lunchtime and in the evenings from Monday to Friday, and all day at weekends. The German House Band will play a mix of Christmas songs and family favourites.

On Monday evenings, a talent slot is open to new and up-and-coming musicians. The two best acts from the Monday sessions will be given the chance to perform in a prime-time December slot.

The big wheel and ice rink also make a return to Centenary Square. These attractions will run until January 3.

How to get to Birmingham Christmas Market

Birmingham’s three stations, Snow Hill, New Street and Moor Street, are within walking distance of the market. It can also be accessed by Metro tram stops and bus services.

There are plenty of car parks near the market, but drivers are advised that the market is located within Birmingham’s Clean Air Zone, which may incur a fee.

Bronx-born musician and producer Judy Torres remembers the first time she heard Nayobe’s 1985 song “Please Don’t Go”: the upbeat dance track with an infectious bass line and love-struck lyrics that pleaded with a lover to stay close.

“ I was floored at how beautiful of a vocalist she was,” said Torres of the Afro-Cuban artist, who hailed from Brooklyn but found a musical home in the genre known as freestyle. Though sometimes dubbed as “Latin freestyle” or “Latin hip-hop,” thanks to the many Latino vocalists who came to shape its sound, some fanatics trace the origins of the electro-funk genre to “Let the Music Play,” the 1983 smash hit by D.C. singer Shannon.

As Torres puts it, this distinctly 1980s sound — crafted with synthetic instrumentation and syncopated percussions sourced from Roland TR-808 drum machines, as popularized by Afrika Bambaataa’s 1982 single “Planet Rock” — didn’t have a label then. “It was just music,” she says.

But by 1993, as prominent radio stations transitioned from dance-pop to hip-hop and R&B, the freestyle movement fizzled out.

“Like a record scratch, there were no shows,” added Torres.

The genre’s vibrant, knotty history of set the scene for the musical-dance production of “Freestyle: A Love Story,” of which Torres is a co-producer. Created and directed by George Valencia — alongside his wife, “Scrubs” actor Judy Reyes as executive producer, plus “Ugly Betty” actor Ana Ortiz as co-producer — “Freestyle: A Love Story” will make its Los Angeles debut on Nov. 6 at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre.

The musical tells the fictional story of two middle-aged Caribbean Latinos, who reunite during a nostalgic night at a Freestyle Extravaganza at New York’s Radio City Music Hall. As 808 kicks echo through the atmosphere, the pair is transported back to 1987: the night they fell in love at a bass-thumping freestyle show.

Proceeds from the night will benefit the Sound of GOL Foundation, an organization founded by George Valencia and Judy Reyes that supports Latina soccer players.

(From George Valencia)

“The idea of telling a love story and having that love story run parallel with the actual musical movement of freestyle, which lasted nine years, is basically the whole framework of the play,” said Valencia to De Los.

Proceeds from the night will benefit the Sound of GOL Foundation: an organization founded by Valencia and Reyes, which supports Latina soccer players.

“Right now, in a time that is looking very dark for Latinos in the United States, I want people to take away that our history has proven time and time again that no matter what they do to us, they can’t take away our revolutionary joy,” added Valencia, making mention of the Trump administration’s mass immigration sweeps.

The production will star “One Day at a Time” actors Justina Machado and James Martinez as the former lovers — as well as Torres and K7, a.k.a. Louis Sharpe, frontman of the Latin freestyle group TKA, who will further bring the artists’ perspectives into the narrative.

“It’s the music that was a part of our everyday life,” Machado told De Los. “Wherever there was a huge Latino population, I think it was kind of a rite of passage.”

Machado was particularly obsessed with Lisa Velez, the lead vocalist of Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam, who took freestyle to new heights. The group’s breakout 1985 single “I Wonder if I Take You Home” echoed in the dance clubs before crossing over into mainstream radio and landing the No. 34 spot on the Billboard Hot 100.

Their flamboyant track “Head to Toe,” hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1987, making it the first time a Latina vocalist (as part of a group) topped the chart.

“When I was on ‘One Day at a Time,’ they knew I loved Lisa Lisa so much they hired her to perform at the wrap party for Season 1,” recalled Machado. “I have a video from 10 years ago, where I am just freaking out — ‘Is that Lisa Lisa?’ I swear I saw nobody else. It was just me and Lisa Lisa … She was my hero.”

Torres said she lost her mind when someone told her Lisa Lisa was Puerto Rican, just like herself. She recalled thinking: “If she can do it, maybe I can do it,”

By 1996, Torres would release her first single, “No Reason to Cry,” a punchy, melodramatic dance track ghostly vocals that reassure someone of her love.

That song reached No. 30 on the Billboard Hot Dance chart the following year. The track was the lead single from her 1989 debut album, “Love Story,” an electrifying project that sonically transports listeners into dramatic telenovela scenarios.

“Freestyle was the original Latin explosion, because it was created in New York, by the people of New York,” said Torres. “It was street kids, Hispanic kids. All of a sudden, the fans were realizing, ‘Wait a minute — this music represents us, the artists look like us.’ It took off so quickly that many of us were signed by major record labels. We were performing all over the country. We had several shows a weekend.”

Still, prominent Latino artists with Spanish surnames, including Torres, were often told they had to change their last name in order to appeal to pop radio stations. She included these experiences into monologues during “Freestyle: A Love Story.”

“Freestyle music was never given flowers,” said Judy Torres.

(From George Valencia)

The artist known as Soavé, who sang the hypnotic 1989 hit “Crying Over You,” revealed to music magazine Wax Poetics in 2010 that his birth name, which is Jeffrey Martinez, “wouldn’t have sold a record.”

Meanwhile, Puerto Rican singer George Lamond, whose 1990 single “Bad of the Heart” peaked at No. 25 on the Billboard Hot 100, professed that he dropped his surname, Garcia, at the behest of his label, Colombia Records. In an interview with Youtuber Honey German, the artist said the label argued that he needed to be more marketable to audiences — but in reality, they didn’t know how to market an artist who was neither Black nor white.

“Now, did I get airplay on the pop stations? No. Is it because I decided to keep [the name] Torres? I’ll never know that,” said Torres. “In a way, we opened the doors [for future Latin stars], because now it’s common for us to hear the last names. Jennifer Lopez, Selena Gomez, Christina Aguilera.”

Torres acknowledged that “freestyle music was never given [its] flowers.” But with “Freestyle: A Love Story,” fans and artists alike can take “a  trip back into time” and revel in its glory for an evening.

“I can’t change it,” said Torres of freestyle’s eventual sunset. “So I have to choose how I’m gonna move forward.”

GRAMMY-winning music producer Phil McDonald has died at the age of 80.

The celebrated music veteran manned the desk for some of The Beatles’ greatest final records, shaping both the White Album and Abbey Road.

He also engineered iconic solo projects including John Lennon’s Imagine and George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass.

Phil’s stellar work on Abbey Road behind the scenes earned him a Grammy.

Born Philip John McDonald in Leeds on February 3 1946, he relocated to Earl’s Court in London with his family during the early 1960s.

Gifted with perfect pitch, he landed a job at EMI Studios in 1964, long before the legendary facility was renamed Abbey Road Studios in 1976.

Starting out in the tape library, he quickly progressed into the cutting rooms before ultimately securing his role as a tape operator and balance engineer.

His inaugural session with The Beatles took place on June 17 1965 to work on Yesterday.

Paul McCartney debuted the track to an exclusive audience of just two people: McDonald and producer George Martin.

The eventual collapse of The Beatles only caused his workload to surge.

Paul McCartney would sneak tapes from his secret debut solo album into Abbey Road’s Studio Three for McDonald to mix and edit.

At the exact same time, the tireless producer was stationed in Studio Two, assisting Ringo Starr with his album of standards, Sentimental Journey.

Phil Spector arrived on the scene a few months later with a mission to salvage the chaotic Let It Be sessions.

Working closely alongside McDonald, the pair successfully transformed the messy tapes into a releasable record.

Spector and McDonald went on to form a formidable studio partnership between the summers of 1970 and 1973.

Together, they delivered George Harrison’s sophomore solo effort, Living in the Material World, alongside the acclaimed All Things Must Pass.

During this highly productive window, McDonald also helped shape John Lennon’s initial post-Beatles output. He engineered both the John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band record and the legendary Imagine.

Away from the Fab Four, he recorded a raft of talent for EMI’s prog and folk imprint, Harvest.

His diverse roster included Roy Harper and Syd Barrett, with McDonald working on the latter’s 1970 release The Madcap Laughs.

He also proved instrumental in the studio for Linda Lewis, steering four of her albums between 1972 and 1975 and later secured credits on the landmark 1970 album Deep Purple in Rock.

That very same year, he collaborated with Eric Clapton to capture the defining Derek and the Dominos record, Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs.

By 1973, he had secured his second Grammy nomination for his work on Harry Nilsson’s A Little Touch of Schmilsson in the Night.

Leaving the music business behind, Phil and his wife Sandra – who survives him – moved to New York in 2001 and remained in the US.

Juan Atkins, the Detroit club music producer who pioneered techno as a genre, has died. He was 64.

Atkins’ death was confirmed in a social media post by his management firm Greensmith Artists. The post did not include a cause of death, though Greensmith said in a statement to Resident Advisor that he was found unresponsive in his hotel room in Mexico City prior to a planned performance. Atkins had suffered from diabetes-related complications in recent years.

Atkins, raised by a concert-promoter father in the shadow of Motown, formed his taste on the progressive Black-owned radio station WGPR-FM. As an artist, he rose to prominence as a teen in the early ’80s with the duo Cybotron, with Richard “3070” Davis. The pair, infatuated with Kraftwerk, Afro-futurism and acid-fried psych rock, retrofitted Detroit funk in the post-disco era with rigorous synthesizers and science-fiction themes on tracks like 1981’s “Alleys of Your Mind.”

They carved a new style of club music that echoed their city’s industrial legacy, and captivated the city’s Black teenage middle class. They scored a major underground hit with “Clear,” famously sampled by Missy Elliott and others.

After leaving Cybotron, Atkins also conjured a new alias, Model 500, for his solo records in 1985. The same year, he founded his longtime record label Metroplex, which released scores of his singles like “No UFO’s” along with 1995’s LP “Deep Space,” 1999’s “Mind and Body” and 2015’s “Digital Solutions.”

Atkins formed deep friendships with two other proto-techno producers, Derrick May and Kevin Saunderson, who became locally known as the Belleville Three (named for the small Michigan town where Atkins had moved to). The trio honed an aesthetic distinct from neighboring Chicago’s emerging style of house music, stripping out vintage soul for chillier, futuristic productions. While house was music was based on samples, designed to call a dance floor together, techno was meant to be challenging, alien and fundamentally new.

His music, including his other production projects like Infiniti and Borderland, was formally radical, and Atkins stressed that this strain of club music could “make social statements,” as he told the Guardian in 2024. Tracks like Cybotron’s “Industrial Lies” — “You buy the missile, buy the laser, buy the tank … Evict the widow, put the money in the bank” — worked as social critique and floor-filler alike. “My lyrics are supposed to make you think about something other than shaking your booty on the dance floor and falling in love.” he said. “I feel like artists have an obligation to say something meaningful.”

In the wake of Atkins’ inventions — as noted on his track “Techno Music” — a new class of acts like Jeff Mills, Drexciya, Robert Hood and Underground Resistance would go on to formalize techno as rooted in a Black, Midwestern subculture with a distinct instrumental virtuosity. While the genre has had a cross-border dialog with Germany since its inception, Atkins was confident that he and his scene got there first.

“I put it this way,” Atkins said. “I know I’m the first one to apply the word ‘techno’ to electronic music. I can’t claim to be the inventor or originator of electronic music, but I can definitely say that I got that.”

Atkins continued to tour and play prominent festivals like Detroit’s Movement and Amsterdam’s Dekmantel, often with his daughter, the musician Milan Ariel Atkins.

Detroit Mayor Mary Sheffield said in a public statement that Atkins “opened doors for generations of Detroit artists who followed him.”

“Today, millions of people dance to music that traces back to him and to our city,” Sheffield continued. “That is a Detroit story: genius, grit, and invention, from neighborhoods the world too often overlooked.”

The symphony orchestra takes its name from the Greek symphonía, meaning sounding in agreement, and orkhēstra which implies a public stage for dance or, in ancient Rome, where senators and other big shots sat. Democracy comes from dēmokratia, rule by the people. Even though the modern orchestra originated three centuries ago as a plaything of princes, there has always been an implicit connection — and tension — between orchestras and democracy.

Despite the orchestra never having been a financially sustainable model, dependent on some form of patronage, the symphony orchestra was embroiled in political activism by the early 19th century. Beethoven brazenly yanked the dedication to Napoleon from his “Eroica” Symphony when the “hero” proclaimed himself emperor in 1804, a betrayal of the democratic ideals of the French Revolution.

More than two centuries later, the orchestra continues to be a potent reminder of power to the people, a community of exquisitely trained artists marching to a beat, staying in tune and on message. In this year’s election season orchestras have been practicing the call for democratic thinking on a global scale, including in Los Angeles, Boston and Leipzig, Germany. Strikingly, this comes at a time when beleaguered orchestra musicians have also been demanding a more democratically minded workplace.

Throughout October and up to election day, Wild Up in L.A. has taken the lead in orchestral electoral activism. Its “Democracy Sessions” are an ongoing procession of interdisciplinary concerts, theatrical events, interactive gatherings, environmental presentations and gabfests in theaters, museums, libraries, parks, on neighborhood streets and around the L.A. River. Wild Up winds up its call for democracy with “Music to Vote By,” lunchtime solo acoustic sets, noon to 2 p.m., through Tuesday at the Democracy Center at the Japanese American National Museum Plaza in Little Tokyo.

Wild Up, itself, is a uniquely egalitarian collective, a chamber orchestra of composers and soloists, although one that nonetheless requires traditional leadership of its visionary founder, conductor Christopher Rountree. Rountree’s interdisciplinary “sessions” run from the musically sophisticated and accomplished to ad hoc and participatory funkiness, less designed to change minds than to relieve democracy anxiety.

A democracy zeitgeist, for instance, pervaded a performance at REDCAT of Louis Andriessen’s “De Staat,” a Dutch minimalist masterpiece from the mid-1970s. To intense rhythmic propulsion of piano and winds, four women vocalists intone excerpts from “The Republic,” in which Plato calls for rule of the people not the rule of music, fearful of a music that can alter “the most fundamental laws of the state.” Andriessen set out to show how mistaken Plato was.

Elsewhere, Rountree acted as an assembler, demonstrating democracy in action. In British composer Oliver Leith’s “Garland,” a kind of musical and theatrical tool kit, Rountree created a spectacle of song, dance, instrumental mayhem (whirly tubes, button whistles and the like added to the mix) and included amateur performers from the community hymn singing with the pros. It ended with a lovely appearance by a black horse all in the expanses of MOCA’s Geffen Contemporary. What does this have to do with the price of gasoline? Nothing more than a reminder that the quotidian world around us can be a hymn all by itself.

Wild Up’s performance of “Garland” at the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA.

(Josh Rose / Wild Up)

Germany is having its own brush with democracy with a recent election in which the far-right Alternative for Germany party won power in the central state of Saxony-Anhalt. The city of Leipzig borders that state, and its historic Gewandhaus Orchestra marked the days preceding the election with a democracy weekend it called “Reading the Signs.” The suggestion here was rather than falling for oversimplification and conspiracy theories when it comes to examining the interaction of “music, discourse and social action,” look to Beethoven.

That included a performance by Stegreif, an improvising orchestra that functions as a kind of German Wild Up. For Democracy Weekend, Stegreif “exploded” Beethoven’s “Eroica.”

It so happens that the Boston Symphony and Gewandhaus share a music director in Andris Nelsons, who has strived to bring the two orchestras together in joint projects. Sure enough, the BSO has been living up to its calling as the orchestra in the birthplace of American democracy. At Tanglewood, the orchestra’s summer home in the Berkshires, the orchestra celebrated the semiquincentennial with the premiere of Philip Glass’ “Lincoln” symphony and Yo-Yo Ma’s weeklong “We the People” residency, which offered a widely varied look at our democratic musical roots.

Then barely two weeks before the midterms, the BSO channeled Boston’s revolutionary spirit with explosive AI. At a time when much of the country sees artificial intelligence as a significant threat to democracy, the premiere of Tod Machover’s “already and not yet,” a concerto for orchestra with electronics bathed in AI, begs otherwise.

Machover’s brilliant new half-hour orchestral score asks AI for agency. It does so by treating the technology as stupid, musicians as creative artists and the audience as capable of opening its collective mind. It handles democracy not as a done deal, but a series of scary questions — and doesn’t trust the heartless machines for answers.

A commission in celebration of the 40th anniversary of the MIT Media Lab, “already and not yet” challenges us to make the world more beautiful by looking deeply into ourselves. The Media Lab is an unprecedented electronic playground born of AI. For one of the optimistic developers of AI, the musically minded computer scientist Marvin Minsky, the Media Lab functioned akin to a surgeon removing blockages to the imagination.

The interior of MIT’s groundbreaking Media Lab.

(Mark Swed)

Minsky was also a mentor to Machover, who has been at the Media Lab since the start and now heads the faculty. Machover’s AI is not a data collector in the sense of the commercial, data-gobbling, mind-numbing monstrosities lately foisted on the public. It becomes a new tool in his piece, not a way of life, something merely taught to listen and analyze in hopes of giving musicians a new idea or two.

With the help of an AI operator, Manaswi Mishra, who is embedded in the orchestra, the AI becomes the “already” in “already and not yet.” It doesn’t have much use in the tumultuous first movement, “SMASH UP,” when the world is a mess and that’s our problem. In the ethereal second movement, “WAKE UP,” players become individual and AI spits out responses that read as ordinary electronic mimicry, but the players, if game, take that as a challenge. Weirdly the machine brings them to life and as individuals. In the last movement, “STAND UP,” the machine is tamed! We frolic in a new, sonic wonderland. Even Thoreau might approve!

Can AI-assisted utopian art save democracy? That’s a tall order. Let it first try to do something about the BSO. As conductor, Kent Nagano was the ultimate listener (he can cut off the AI when it’s not interesting). After the performance he told me the orchestra was always game. And he sandwiched Machover with lithe, colorful Mendelssohn performances (including the Fifth Symphony).

But this is an orchestra in revolt, and it looked it. Grim of mien, many players on the night I attended sported red flowers on their lapels, a sign of their dissatisfaction with the administration for not renewing Nelsons’ contract when it expires this summer, after 13 years leading the BSO. The orchestra claimed it was broadsided by the announcement that management and Nelsons did not have a shared vision. The players want a say, an orchestra as democracy and more than just AI’s version of agency.

Ironically, Nelsons, who signed a nondisclosure agreement, doesn’t seem to show much vision when it comes to democracy. The Latvian conductor did not participate in Tanglewood’s democracy concerts (although he did conduct excerpts from John Adams’ “Nixon in China,” which sounded, in the radio broadcast, as having such a heavy hand that there was no room for free thinking).

In Leipzig, Nelsons’ contribution to the Gewandhaus democracy weekend was no democracy at all, only an irrelevant program of Tchaikovsky and Dvorak standards. Leipzig, bursting like Boston with young people, has become a German tech hub, it too could have used a whirl with democratic AI.

Swed is The Times’ former classical music critic.

The touring production of Meredith Willson’s “The Music Man” that opened Tuesday at the Ahmanson Theatre isn’t an Actors’ Equity Assn. production. When I listed the revival, directed by Matt Lenz, among my fall preview highlights, I assumed it would be of the caliber we have come to expect from Center Theatre Group.

I attended Tuesday’s opening and was disappointed to find a community-theater-level production beneath the superficial sheen of a commercial national tour. The costumes (by Santo Loquasto from the 2022 Broadway revival starring Hugh Jackman) are stunning. The painterly, storybook scenic design by Ann Beyersdorfer, engineered for maximum efficiency, is also lovely and blends beautifully with the Loquasto’s color palette.

The singing is robust, full-throated and spirited. Elizabeth D’Aiuto, who plays Marian, the librarian of this small Iowa town who captures the roving eye of traveling salesman and con man Harold Hill (Elliott Andrews), has a piercing soprano that many an opera singer would envy.

The barbershop harmonies spin an alluring web. The ensemble fills the Ahmanson with blazing, amplified sound. But the strong singing seems disconnected from the actual story. The music has little character. We might as well be watching a concert version of the show.

The problem is the acting, which is broad, detached and, frankly, often amateurish. I felt as if I were watching a polished troupe of semi-amateurs. The less said about the supporting cast, the better. The characterizations are unsubtle across the board. And how could it be otherwise when the actors seem more intent on impressing the audience than relating to one another?

Andrews seems particularly guilty of this sin. But then his character is meant to be smugly self-congratulatory. Harold Hill has come to River City to pull off another swindle. He’s selling musical instruments and costumes to a town that doesn’t yet even have a children’s marching band.

A wiry presence with a capering physical comedy spryness reminiscent of Dick Van Dyke (who starred in the 1980 Broadway revival of “The Music Man” that had a pre-Broadway run at the Pantages Theatre), Andrews makes a rather dashing and daring Harold Hill. He’s no Hugh Jackman, who had the Broadway audience in the palm of his hand when he essayed the role. But Andrews handsomely fills out the part and can sing appealingly when not too much emotion is required. But his theatrical self-absorption makes it hard to care about Harold and even harder to understand why Marian would fall for this transparent fake.

The magic of Marian’s love turning Harold into an upstanding man fizzles. Neither performer seems able to connect. Both are acting in their separate bubbles. It’s like we’re watching a pantomime of “The Music Man” with some glorious, blaring music.

For those who want to scratch an itch for golden age musical nostalgia, this sparkling yet empty production might suffice. But we should expect more from CTG, which is touting that this is the first major production of “The Music Man” to be done in Los Angeles in 46 years.

When I learned that this was a non-Equity production, I was disappointed that CTG was damaging its stature as a nonprofit theater leader by offering such an important showcase to this second-tier touring production. But now having seen the production, I’m more disappointed that audiences are being bamboozled as badly as the good people of River City.

Theatrical gimcrack is being palmed off as a precious stone. Yes, the score still shimmers, but not everything that glitters is gold.

For John and TJ Osborne, work and family have long been intertwined.

Today the siblings are known to country music fans as Brothers Osborne, the rock-leaning twosome that’s put 13 songs on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart and been named vocal duo of the year half a dozen times at the annual CMA Awards. Before they moved to Nashville, though, the brothers grew up helping out with their dad’s plumbing business in the late 1990s in the small fishing town of Deale, Md.

“You know how every country star opens a bar in Nashville?” John asks. “I was thinking it’d be funny to start a Brothers Osborne plumbing company that services all the bars.”

With TJ on lead vocals and John on lead guitar, the brothers look back at those early days in Deale on their nostalgic new album, “Watertown,” which came out last week, 10 years after the release of their first LP. It’s got handsome, well-drawn songs about long-lost loves and teenage indiscretions, not to mention one tune about some of the colorful Osbornes who don’t play in the band.

“We got a mama that you wouldn’t want to take home to mama,” TJ sings in “Family Business,” which rhymes that line with “Got a daddy with a girlfriend who loves marijuana” and “Sister took a swing at her first boy’s father.”

“I always tell people that TJ and I are the most boring people in our family,” John says. “Our sister really did punch her ex-husband in the face.”

TJ, 41, calls the album a tribute to the people who shaped him and his brother, who’s 44. “When you’re a kid, you want to run away from home and spread your wings,” the singer says. “Then at some point, it’s like that place is almost calling you back.”

That the Osbornes are at an age to memorialize the old days puts them on the outskirts, to some extent, of a country scene crowded with ascendant zoomers like Ella Langley, Tucker Wetmore and Megan Moroney. Yet the brothers are hardly fuddy-duddys: In 2021, TJ became the first country artist signed to a major label to come out as gay; musically, he and John consistently make unexpected stylistic choices — take the ringing new wave guitars in “Family Business” — even as they court down-the-middle success, as with the new album’s lead single, “Born and Raised Hell,” which features the country radio kingpin Cody Johnson.

“John and TJ don’t make corporate country music,” says Ashley McBryde, who’s collaborated repeatedly with the brothers. McBryde calls John “a guitar god” and says TJ’s deep voice “could make your kneecaps come unglued”; she adds that she likes to listen to their records “while I’m doing yard work, slinging a chainsaw.”

“Our mission the whole time has been: How do we thread the needle of doing something that’s a little left of center while making it commercial enough that people can hear it?” TJ says over coffee at an outdoor cafe in Griffith Park. The Osbornes are in town on a recent afternoon between tour dates; last night they did dinner at Nobu in West Hollywood — “bougie as f—,” John acknowledges — then “climbed up the La Cienega mountain,” as the guitarist puts it, back to their hotel on Sunset.

“The last 50 yards, I felt like I was gonna puke,” John says.

Does Nashville have good sushi?

“They do now,” John replies. “Back in the day, there was just this place Ken’s — kind of a hole in the wall where you’d get these huge styrofoam containers of rolls. It was really cheap, and we’d all get really stoned and eat tons of sushi.”

The brothers learned to play from their dad in Maryland in a family roots-music combo called Deuce and a Quarter; each went to Nashville to do his own thing but didn’t really gain any traction until they teamed up — a union they say their mother envisioned from the jump.

“I think the second TJ was born, she thought to herself: I have a country band on my hands,” John says. “She’s very — what’s the word I want to use? — goal-driven, in a good way. So when we finally joined forces and things started taking off, there was a bit of ‘I told you so’ about it.” He laughs. “In her defense, she was right.” (The brothers’ sister Natalie also works in Nashville as an A&R exec at the indie label Leo33, where she signed Zach Top.)

Brothers Osborne — nominated again for vocal duo of the year at next month’s CMAs ceremony — came up in a tightknit peer group that also included McBryde, Maren Morris and Kacey Musgraves. The duo broke out with a No. 1 showing for “Stay a Little Longer,” a single from their platinum 2016 debut; since then they’ve scored hits with tunes with like “21 Summer,” “Nobody’s Nobody” and “Burning Man,” the last a collab with Dierks Bentley that also went to No. 1.

Asked why they’ve been embraced by the traditional Nashville biz in a way that’s sometimes eluded Musgraves, TJ shakes his head. “There’s so many Kacey songs that I’m just like, How was this not a huge hit for her?” he says. “There is a game you have to play with country radio — doing things for them that we were willing to do that I know Kacey was just like, ‘No thanks.’”

Why does he reckon he and his brother were willing to jump through the hoops?

“I mean, we knew it would help,” he says. “We grew up in a poor family where everyone worked their asses off just to get by paycheck to paycheck. So I think for us it was about the fact that we’re gonna put in the work and get noticed.”

“You have to be willing to compromise — not your art or your dignity but compromise your time,” John says, “in the hopes that you can pursue a career in music because it’s very competitive.”

Over the past few years, some of Nashville’s biggest hits have come from outsiders like Post Malone experimenting with country music. Speaking broadly, TJ says the trendiness of the genre “is a little annoying because people are like, ‘I hate all country music,’ until their career flounders and suddenly they do a country record. Some of these people, they don’t know anything about it.

“At the same time, the genre is the biggest it’s ever been, which probably set the stage for a song like ‘Choosin’ Texas’ to be the song that it was,” he adds of Langley’s pedal-steel-soaked mega-smash, which just logged its 25th week atop Billboard’s Hot 100 — longer than any other song in chart history.

“I was just up in Brooklyn at a gay bar, and I’m like, All the gays are singing along — what the f—?” TJ says. “Also very jealous of that. I want a song all the gays are singing.”

Five years after he came out in a widely publicized Time magazine story, TJ says he doesn’t think much about his position as one of the few openly gay men in country music. As we keep talking, though, some things seem to come to mind.

“There was a moment recently with all the equity and inclusion stuff where [my identity] started to feel political — that was weird,” he says. “It felt like picking sides, even though I’m like, This is just my sexuality. But I feel like we’re kind of getting back out of that a bit.”

Then again, TJ recalls his appearance at May’s ACM Awards, where he presented Langley with the prize for female artist of the year. “I made a joke about my gay ass being up here giving this award, and there were comments from people being like, ‘I don’t understand why you have to talk about it,’” he says. “It’s like, F—, maybe people aren’t as open to it as I thought. It was proof to me that there’s still a lot of ground to cover.”

Is TJ up for doing the work of opening minds?

“I am. And I think it’s important work because there’s so many different types of gay people. There’s also so many different types of rural Americans. We’ll go to some places, and there are people who I perceive to maybe have some sort of bigotry towards me but I read them wrong and they’re actually totally cool.

“Look, you’re not gonna be able to convince everybody,” he adds. “There’s people that just hate on people for the stupidest reasons. Girls have it the worst. Anytime a girl does anything — ‘She looks like a slut,’ ‘She’s fat,’ ‘She’s too skinny.’ There’s just some mean people out there.”

“We’ve heard it all,” John says.

“There was this amazing burn we got one time where we’d taken ‘21 Summer’ out of the set,” TJ says, “and someone commented, ‘I can’t believe Brothers Osborne played 21 guitar solos but not ‘21 Summer.’” He laughs. “See, at least that’s pretty clever.”

TO some, Tiffany Pollard is the ultimate reality queen, gracing Celebrity Big Brother and many other shows with her own explosive brand of drama.

But it is less well-known that she is now a recording artist as well, thanks to a cheeky sample on Zara Larsson‘s track Hot & Sexy.

Tiff — who dubs herself the Head Bitch In Charge, or HBIC — speaks the refrain “beautiful, fly, hot and sexy” on the pop princess’s empowering song.

Speaking for the first time about the collab, Tiffany said: “Zara is multi- talented, and for her to come for the HBIC to honour a track blows my mind.

“I was in that studio. It was like I was Beethoven because I wanted to get it right and iconic just for her.

“I was dedicated to the piece and a lot of people dance to it, so we’re happy.”

Read more on Tiffany Pollard

ON AND OFF

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CBB SHOWDOWN

Late & Live chaos as CBB legend Tiffany Pollard brands Daley Thompson ‘rotten’

The track from Zara’s multi-platinum album Midnight Sun was even played during last week’s Victoria’s Secret catwalk.

But we’re not going to see Tiff on tour with Zara any time soon.

She revealed: “I don’t want to crush dreams or anything like that, but our girl is going to handle it. I’m not gonna be on tour — I got bad knees, honey.”

Tiffany’s back on the reality beat as she begins a stint on ITV’s Celebrity Big Brother — a decade on from her career-defining appearance.

Fans will remember her spats with Gemma Collins and the “David’s dead” misunderstanding when housemate Angie Bowie was told her ex-husband had died, but Tiffany thought it was David Gest who had passed away — until others found him asleep in bed.

Today Tiffany heads into a divided house, with the self-proclaimed “hierarchy” of Rochelle Rackham and Philip Regan facing accusations of bullying — but she is ready to take them on.

The outspoken American said: “It’s Halloween week and I’m gonna put the whore in horror.

“I’m gonna listen to people, I’m gonna have an authentic experience but I don’t want to be on my best behaviour.

“It’s called the hierarchy? The king and the queen of the house? Oh, please. It’s time for me to knock down the bricks.

“I only go around this life one good time and I want to make sure I’m living it authentically.

“I don’t want to quiet a voice of something that should have been said.

“I have a lot of people who are betting on me to be real and to just say what it is.”

Tiffany will also make time while staying in the UK for some of her favourite British pastimes — including watching Towie, Hollyoaks and tucking into our good old fish and chips.

Just hours before heading on to Big Brother, she said: “Bring all that vinegar. People are so nice here.”

We’ll see if she feels the same following her stint in the spy-on-the-wall house.

• Big Brother continues tonight at 9pm on ITV2 and ITVX.

Dutch withdrawal is the latest in a number of boycotts by countries unhappy about Israel’s inclusion.

The Netherlands has withdrawn from next year’s Eurovision Song Contest, its public broadcaster NPO has confirmed, citing “sensitivities” over Israel’s participation.

“We have known for some time that Israel’s participation elicits various reactions in society and causes discussion and division,” the NPO’s media director Jurre Bosman said in a statement.

“Therefore, after consultation with the board of broadcasters, the NPO has decided to forgo participation in 2027.”

The announcement follows a decision in August by Dutch broadcaster AVROTROS to boycott the competition. AVROTROS, which usually selects the Netherlands’ entry and broadcasts the show, said the event could “no longer be considered neutral”.

NPO stepped in last month, saying it would take responsibility for the Dutch entry to the competition, before reversing course on Tuesday.

Jet de Ranitz, NPO’s executive chairman, acknowledged that the decision would disappoint fans but stressed that the contest would still be aired on public channels.

“Due to the sensitivities surrounding the themes currently at play, we have decided to take a step back for the time being,” De Ranitz said.

The announcement follows the Netherlands’ boycott of the 2026 edition. Iceland, Spain, Ireland, and Slovenia all pulled out, with the latter three refusing to broadcast the show at all.

More withdrawals

In August, the organisers announced that countries would be unable to host the competition if “an armed conflict, a sensitive geopolitical situation, or any other situation materially affects the security, safety or stability of their state or immediate region.”

But that has not prevented withdrawals, with Ireland already having announced that it will not be participating in next year’s contest for the second year in a row.

Earlier this month, the Czech broadcaster also pulled out of next year’s event, but cited spending cuts as the reason.

Bulgaria will host next year’s edition of Eurovision for the first time in the Black Sea city of Burgas, after Bulgarian singer Darina Yotova, known as Dara, won this year’s contest in Vienna, Austria, with her catchy floor-filler ‘Bangaranga’. 

Since its first edition in 1956, Eurovision has become the world’s biggest live televised music event. It catapulted Swedish icons ABBA to worldwide fame, as well as boosting artists such as Celine Dion and Olivia Newton-John. 

GEORGE EZRA has been quiet since dropping his third album, Gold Rush Kid, four years ago.

But it turns out he’s busy behind the scenes helping other artists make music.

I’m told that after disappearing from public life following his last gig in 2023, the Green Green Grass singer is in no rush to jump back into the spotlight just yet.

Instead, he has started renting out his own recording studio so that it is not sitting empty.

I can reveal George, who has also stopped posting on social media, has set up a business at Hotel Quebec studios in Hertford.

He is advertising for artists and writers to come and work on their own music at the facility.

GEORGE’S JOY

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In an advert, he says: “Hello, my name is George Ezra and I would like to introduce you to my personal recording studio, Hotel Quebec, a state-of-the-art recording facility in Hertford, just outside of London, that was designed and built for me — my musical projects, my writing and my recording.

“It gives me great pleasure to tell you that the studio is now available for you to book and for you to record in, whether it’s for a day, a week, a month: if you are looking for a uniquely beautiful and creatively safe environment to work in, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

“On behalf of myself and the small but dedicated team here at Hotel Quebec, we hope you are well and we look forward to hearing from you.”

Those close to George said he had been quietly beavering away on his own projects in the studio, but added: “He wants to share what he’s created and it’s a clever side hustle.

“George has no confirmed plans or dates for a return yet, but he has been using the studio for his own projects.

“By renting the studio out, George can help other artists — and he’d much rather have that than the place being empty when he’s not using it.”

I told at the end of 2024 how George had quietly become a father for the first time, so I’m sure a few extra quid from the venture will be welcome.

The Brit Award winner has had three No1 albums and topped the singles chart in 2018 with Shotgun.

However, on his 2023 tour, he was forced to cancel some live ­performances due to acute vertigo, and he has always made it clear he’s not particularly keen on fame.

With that in mind, I can’t blame him for wanting some time away from the spotlight.

But I’ll be gutted if we don’t get any more music from George soon.

So I’m keeping my fingers crossed he doesn’t wait too much longer before treating us again.

MADGE IS CRAZY FUR ROCCO’S ART

ROCCO RITCHIE has found his biggest fan – in his mum Madonna.

She has shared a load of snaps from the budding artist’s most recent exhibition, which includes a self-portrait in which Rocco is cos-playing the Incredible Hulk.

Madge slipped into a fur coat and silky shorts for the event and told her Instagram followers: “Everyone knows I love art.

“Can you imagine how much more I love it when it’s my son, Rocco’s?

“It’s been so exciting watching him grow as an artist, finding his groove, his style, struggling with the loneliness of being a painter, locking himself in his studio. Watching him turn nothing into something.

“I love that he is moving into sculpture now.”

LEDS NIGHT FOR PAUL

THERE was a meeting of legendary musical minds over the weekend as Sir Paul McCartney headed out on a double date with Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page.

Beatles maestro Paul was spotted arriving at the trendy West London restaurant Dorian with his wife Nancy Shevell, before being joined by Jimmy and his missus, poet Scarlett Sabet.

The foursome were snapped during the course of their dinner, with one onlooker telling me: “They talked music non-stop. People were doing double takes when they saw Paul and Jimmy together.”

As Paul was heading home he was overheard telling the waiting photographers to make sure they took pictures of his “good side”.

It all looks good from where I’m sitting.

A RAYE OF HOPE

RAYE is considering legal action against an unnamed artist after they seemingly released a song written by her grandad without any credit or money for him.

The Where Is My Husband! singer, who clearly has music in her veins, revealed grandpa Michael wrote and recorded a track when he was younger and sent it to a record label who, without his knowledge, gave it to an artist, who she hasn’t named.

Raye, who won the Mercury Prize on Thursday, said: “He [Michael] was burnt by the industry. He wanted to make it as a songwriter, so he would write songs on the piano, score them and record it.

“Then he’d put them in boxes and post them to record labels in London, hoping that someone would play his tapes, like it, contact him and bring him down to London to live his dream. Unfortunately – and it was the case back in the day – so many songwriters were just absolutely done so dirty.

“He sent one song, and it was released two years later with no credit, no contact, and it completely broke his heart.

“There was nothing he could do about it – he had no money.

“He couldn’t afford a lawyer so no one cared.”

On whether she might pursue the case now she is a big star herself, Raye told the And The Writer Is… podcast: “I have looked into it.

“It’s just, financially, I just don’t know if the evidence is substantial enough because the evidence was sent off.

“All he has is a songwriting book with things jotted down, and yeah, it would be a giant thing.”

I’d love to see justice done.

DRAKE’S BOYBAND BIRTHDAY

DRAKE got a huge 40th birthday surprise when Backstreet Boys helped him celebrate the milestone.

The Hotline Bling rapper got up on stage in New York to sing with the group at Casa Cipriani, where they performed I Want It That Way.

I revealed last month that the American lads were poised to announce a run of shows at London’s O2 Arena in the coming weeks, with the concerts scheduled to take place next year.

Backstreet Boys will return to the Sphere in Las Vegas in December and January as part of their Into The Millennium residency.

After a nice break in the early new year, coming back to the UK will be the perfect way to kick-start 2027.

KASABIAN front- man Serge Pizzorno was the secret guest at the 20th anniversary celebrations of This Feeling in London.

The club, which has helped launch some of the biggest names in indie, put on a huge night of performances on Saturday.

Little Bit Of Love singer Tom Grennan was also on hand to perform a set as revellers partied until 2am.

HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL

@ Troubadour Wembley Park Theatre

★★★★☆

YOU’D be foolish to walk into a stage ­musical based on a Disney kids’ movie and expect an edgy take on youth culture.

But that’s exactly why the new stage ­version of High School Musical delivers – it doesn’t try to be anything it’s not.

Having opened in Manchester, clever staging at its new home in London takes you courtside as the East High gang juggle basketball, science class and drama club.

And you’re immediately made one of them as the cheer squad lead you in ­routines ahead of the Wildcats’ big game.

McFly’s Harry Judd stars as Coach Bolton while Tobias Turley and ­Leonor Correia play young lovers Troy and Gabriella, who meet on holiday then find themselves at the same school. But it’s Luke Bayer and Caitlin TIpping, as siblings Ryan and Sharpay, who steal the show.

The writers wisely reprise the banger, Bop To The Top, and the show ends with a frenetic all-cast montage. It’s unlikely to win any awards or challenge minds, but this extra helping of cheese went down a treat.

By Felicity Cross

A Michigan man and former studio engineer is facing the music for his theft of rapper Eminem’s unreleased works.

Joseph Strange, a 48-year-old Michigan resident, pleaded guilty to criminal copyright infringement and will be sentenced to prison in January, the Department of Justice announced Thursday. He faces up to five years in prison. Federal prosecutors accused Strange in March 2025 of stealing and selling unreleased work by Eminem (legal name Marshall Mathers III).

An attorney for Strange did not immediately respond Friday to The Times’ request for comment, but told Variety in a statement that his client is a “good” man and his “children have suffered greatly in all of this.” The attorney said the case is “far more complicated and nuanced matter” beyond the theft.

“Nevertheless, my client has taken accountability for what he has done, has tremendous remorse for what has happened to his family,” the attorney reportedly added, “and has great faith, as do I, in the judges of our district to see this case for what it is.”

A spokesperson for 15-time Grammy winner, maker of hits “The Monster” and “Lose Yourself,” did not comment.

Strange was charged in 2025 with copyright infringement and interstate transportation of stolen goods, federal prosecutors announced. Investigators said at the time that more than 25 songs had been played or distributed online without permission from Eminem or the group that owns his music, Capitol Labels Group. Investigators discovered the music on password-protected hard drives stored in a safe at Eminem’s studio in Ferndale, Mich., an FBI affidavit said. At the time, an attorney for Strange denied the “untested allegations.”

The charges against Strange arose after studio employees alerted the FBI of the theft in January 2025, alleging the unfinished releases were shared to a number of online platforms. Files from a hard drive in a safe were transferred to an external hard drive in October 2019 and January 2020, around the time when Strange was working at the studio.

A Canadian resident informed investigators that he purchased 25 unreleased Eminem songs from Strange for about $50,000 in Bitcoin and that he raised the funds through the support of a group of Eminem fans. He also claimed Strange also put some of Eminem’s handwritten lyrics up for sale.

The affidavit says a federal search of Strange’s home in January 2025 led to the discovery of numerous lyric sheets and notes handwritten by Eminem, a VHS tape of an unreleased video and hard drives with about 12,000 audio files.

“Joseph Strange abused a position of trust to unlawfully copy and sell unreleased music belonging to Eminem, profiting from works that were not yet authorized for public distribution,” said A. Tysen Duva, assistant attorney general for the Department of Justice Criminal Division. “His conduct undermined both legal and artistic rights.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

WITH Halloween fast approaching, our Spotlight on column focuses on Londonderry, Northern Ireland.

The city is home to Europe’s biggest Halloween festival – now in its 40th year.

To celebrate, the city is launching a year-round Derry Samhain Experience and a permanent Halloween mural.

Here are some other top tips from us, including where to stay and some hidden gems.

MUST SEE/DO

From October 28 to November 1, The Awakening The Walled City Trail fills the city centre with light installations, street theatre, fire performers and live music, while the Little Horrors programme keeps younger children busy.

On Halloween night the Carnival Parade sets off at 7pm, followed by fireworks over the River Foyle.

BOOK IT

20 ultra cheap girly hols – UK trips, city breaks & all inclusive stays from £59

SIP IT

Beachfront city with 300 sunshine days, wild sea lions & champagne vending machines

Pack a costume, as locals take dressing up seriously.

The trail, parade and fireworks are all free, but if you plan to visit make sure you book a bed as soon as possible.

BEST VIEW

Derry‘s 17th-century walls, built between 1613 and 1618 to protect English and Scottish settlers, are the only fully preserved city walls in Ireland.

They have never been breached, not even during the 105-day siege of 1689.

The mile-long loop takes you past seven gates and 24 restored cannons, including Roaring Meg, stamped “Fishmongers, London, 1642” after the livery company that paid for it.

From the ramparts you can look down over the Bogside, where murals and Free Derry Corner tell the story of the Troubles.

HIDDEN GEM

The Dickensian-style Derry Craft Village in the heart of the city is a reconstruction of an 18th-century street and 19th-century square, home to more than 70 local makers.

It was built by the Inner City Trust, a charity set up in 1976 to rebuild the city centre during the Troubles. Its cafes are good for a coffee or a bite.

Derry Girls fans should then pop next door to the Tower Museum, home of the Derry Girls Experience.

RATED RESTAURANT

Browns Bonds Hill, on the east bank of the River Foyle, serves modern dishes made with local, seasonal produce.

Opened in 2009 by chef patron Ian Orr, Michelin‘s inspectors single it out for its good value.

For something more casual, sister restaurant Browns in Town is across the river on Strand Road and serves classic burgers, steak sandwiches and pasta.

BEST BAR

Peadar O’Donnell’s on Waterloo Street has live traditional Irish music every night, in a pub done up like an old-fashioned grocer’s and hung with flags.

It’s a top spot to pull up a stool and sink a pint of Guinness. If it’s too busy, try the Gweedore Bar, under the same roof with an equally buzzy atmosphere.

HOTEL PICK

The Walled City Hotel opened last autumn with 40 rooms in a 1920s former Bank of Ireland building on Strand Road, a two-minute walk from the Guildhall.

Its vaulted ceilings now look down on a bar and restaurant. Rooms cost from £102 per night. See walledcityhotel.com.

Prince WIlliam once dreamed about being a policeman before he turned his hand to DJing – but The Prince of Wales has been brutally honest about his talents during a surprise TV interview

Prince WIlliam has revealed his childhood dreams of becoming a DJ live on TV.

He joined Cate Blanchett, Robert Irwin and Hannah Waddingham on The Graham Norton Show last night. During the episode William was asked whether he had wanted a different career growing up, other than becoming the future King, to which he surprised the audience by saying he had.

His dream role was once to be a policeman, and he even said he wanted to be a DJ. He said: “I did want to be a policeman when I was younger; I thought I could make a good policeman.” Graham interjected saying: “Well, you’re tall.” Then Robert chipped in: “There’s a bit more to it than that mate.”

Graham continued: “Well, you’d look good in the uniform and the hat.” Prince WIlliam added: “I wasn’t on the catwalk. Yeah, being a policeman I thought was quite cool and then I went through a phase of wanting to be a DJ – which didn’t go very well and I came up with a name, I was called DJ Xara with an ‘X’, it wasn’t good.”

Graham asked: “Did you DJ at school parties?” To which Prince William said: “No, I didn’t, I never got that good.”

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The audience is heard laughing along, prompting many royal fans to take to X to comment on the prince’s sense of humour, with many referring to William as “funny”.

One fan commented: “Prince William is articulate, funny and an intelligent decent man,” another added: “Prince William is pretty funny and bet he would look good in a police uniform.”

Another added: “I [red-heart emoji] seeing people realise just how charismatic and funny Prince William is, and that he has absolutely no problem laughing at himself. This clip of him on The Graham Norton Show is the perfect example of that. The poor man was absolutely red in the face from laughing so much.”

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