James T Harding

We should forget our differences and all get along. That's the basic message of Pixar's latest film, BRAVE, a coming of age story set in a magical medieval Scottish kingdom. Unfortunately, the film's list of differences includes feminism.

Singer, actor and Radio 2 presenter Aled Jones is to host #searchforatwitterstar LIVE, the West End final of the online talent competition being run by the Twitter phenomenon @westendproducer.

This film deliberately tricks its audience. It starts out as an erotic romantic comedy, passes through political thriller and ends as a philosophical personal drama. What you realise at the end of the film, however, is that it was a personal drama all along: each set of genre conventions reflects the shifting perceptions of the main character, Frankie, a sassy aerospace engineer who works for the government designing drone planes.

Lee Mead, Matt Rawle and Stephen Rahman-Hughes, who have starred in some of the West End's biggest and most successful musicals in recent years, will come together with live musicians and a full choir, in a sharp and sexy musical theatre concert driven by astonishing voices and formidable musicianship, directed by Mitch Sebastian. The West End Men will get its world premiere at GLive, Guildford, on Wednesday 18 July. Further UK?dates will be announced very soon.

Jonathan Pearson, New York's newest transplant, and JDProductions 'Bound for Broadway' alum, will sing an intimate evening of jazz, showtunes, R&B-and God knows what else-in 'An Evening With Jonny and Friends!', a 90-minute cabaret show on Thursday, July 5, at 9:30 p.m. at The Duplex Cabaret Theatre in the West Village.

Producers Ben Sprecher and Sonia Friedman may bring their production of THE EXCORCIST, adapted from the 1971 novel by William Peter Blatty by John Pielmeier, to the John Golden Theatre on Broadway this fall, according to the New York Post.

Sexposition, the technique of making boring dialogue interesting by putting characters in a sexual situation, is subverted in an interesting way for one of the scenes of Either Way, an Icelanic film making its UK Premiere this week at the Edinburgh International Film Festival.

Music Theatre International (MTI) has awarded the Courage In Theatre Award to Manhattan's P94M, also known as The Spectrum School, a special education school in New York City. The Spectrum School's name comes from its ultimate goal: to provide Special Populations Educated Creatively Through Rigor, Understanding and Motivation.

The Tony-award winning Intiman Theatre turns 40 this year and will celebrate by launching a new summer theatre festival with four plays: Romeo and Juliet, Hedda Gabler, Miracle! and Dirty Story. The artists leading the charge - Dan Savage, Valerie Curtis-Newton, Andrew Russell and Allison Narver - are bringing passion projects with a twist to awaken the theatre. Check out the trailer below.

A concert version of Billy Butler's GAY BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN will be performed for ONE NIGHT ONLY, Monday, June 25th at 11:30pm at Joe's Pub at the Public Theater. Composer Billy Butler & his band The Monster Makers are back again at Joe's Pub to celebrate the new EP from the GAY BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN soundtrack.

Artistic Director Daniel Evans today announced that Geoffrey Streatfeild and Claudie Blakley will lead the company of Macbeth - the first Crucible production of the company's autumn season - which opens on Wednesday 5 September and runs until Saturday 6 October.

After an award-winning run in 2011, Casual Violence return to the Edinburgh Fringe to spin new yarns of tragicomedy sketch terror with CASUAL VIOLENCE: A KICK IN THE TEETH, at Just The Tonic @ The Caves - The Fancy Room, 2nd - 26th August 2012, 22:00 (not 14th or 21st).

The Traverse will bring together two of Scotland's mos famous playwrights, David Greig and David Harrower, in a special double bill as one of the Theatre's flagship shows for its 2012 Festival Programme this August. Presented back to back, David Greig's The Letter of Last Resort and David Harrower's Good With People take us from London to Helensburgh, tracing the paths of personal and political destruction in two highly-charged stories.

Magic Futurebox has announced the world premiere of The Pestilence is Coming!: A Super Fun New Musical about How You Will Probably Die Based on the Album by the Minor Leagues, with book by Katharine Clark Gray. Previews will run July 5th - 8th and performances July 11th - 15th and 18th - 22nd at Magic Futurebox at 55 33rd St., 4th Floor Brooklyn, NY 11232 D, N, R to 36th St.

Slide's most famous circus cabaret extravaganza, El'Circo, will present a brand new show this July, El'Circo Blanc. Experience the thrill of a Russian Winter fairytale featuring incredible aerial acts, illusion and soaring vocal prowess every Wednesday night in July (4th, 11th, 18th and 29th) at 7 for 7:30pm.

CPCC Summer Theatre will wrap up its 2012 season with the Broadway smash hit Legally Blonde: The Musical from July 13 to 21 at the Halton Theater, 1206 Elizabeth Ave., CPCC Central Campus, Charlotte.

Two of the country's leading actors will appear in the orchestral performance of A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Usher Hall on 13 August as part of Edinburgh International Festival 2012.

The Edinburgh International Book Festival today announced its programme for 2012. Charlotte Square Gardens will welcome Nobel Laureates, Booker and Pulitzer Prize winners and Poets Laureate as well as a stellar line up of the world's leading writers, poets, thinkers and commentators. With Guest Selectors, the Anobii First Book Award, the Edinburgh World Writers' Conference, the gamut of outstanding authors from Ali Smith to Zadie Smith, and a third year of the late night Unbound events, the Book Festival promises a summer of contemplation, inspiration and entertainment.

Beckman Unicorn, the producers of the new stage adaptation of Great Expectations, which has just announced a UK Tour prior to London's West End, have created the first ever Toy Theatre version of the classic novel as part of the international celebrations of the Charles Dickens bicentenary, and a life-size version of it will be on display at West End Live in Trafalgar Square this weekend, 23-24 June.

So who's like a sneak peek of comedian Jason Manford as Pirelli in the current West End production of SWEENEY TODD starring Imelda Staunton and Michael Ball? Check it out below!