Dancer, choreographer and artistic director Carlos Acosta CBE, Director of the Birmingham Royal Ballet, will receive the Outstanding Contribution to British Theatre Award at the UK Theatre Awards 2025, taking place on Sunday 12 October at 8 Northumberland Avenue. The UK Theatre Awards, sponsored by Encore, have celebrated the very best of theatre across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland for over 30 years.
Born in Havana in 1973, Carlos trained at the National Ballet School of Cuba, winning the prestigious Gold Medal at the Prix De Lausanne in 1990. He has since become one of the most renowned and influential figures in ballet worldwide, having performed globally with companies including National Ballet of Cuba, American Ballet Theatre, Paris Opera Ballet, Bolshoi Ballet, English National Ballet and, most notably, the Royal Ballet, where his 17-year career with the company spanned nearly every major ballet in its repertoire, and where he choreographed his first full length work, Don Quixote.
In 2003, Carlos’ semi-autobiographical show Tocororo premiered in Havana, before breaking box office records at Sadler’s Wells and receiving an Olivier Award nomination. Continuing to develop his own highly popular productions, including both classical and contemporary repertoire, he won the Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Dance in 2007 for Carlos Acosta and Friends of the Royal Ballet. He has established his own Cuban dance companies, Acosta Danza and Acosta Danza Yunior, as well as the Acosta Dance Foundation, a Dance Academy in Havana and a Dance Centre in London, providing platforms and world-class training for talented artists both in Cuba and the UK.
For one night only 
Def Leppard, the UK’s Greatest Arena Rock Band, today announce UK and EU tour dates in June and July 2026. The eleven dates announced today include headlining the iconic The O2 in London and the Utilita Arena in their hometown of Sheffield. Switzerland, Finland, Germany and the UK dates will be with Special Guests Extreme.
Fresh from her star-making turn as Eva Perón in Jamie Lloyd’s revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice‘s Evita – a performance that earned her extraordinary reviews and became one of the most talked-about moments in London this year – Rachel Zegler returns to the iconic London Palladium to take centre stage once more.
Today pop icon Anastacia has announced her #NTK 2026 UK and Ireland tour, set to take place in September 2026. The run of nine dates will mark a special moment in the star’s career, as she makes her long awaited return to London’s OVO Wembley Arena, for the first time since 2004!
Today GRAMMY-winner and Academy Award and Golden Globe-nominated actress and musician Ariana Grande has officially announced her highly anticipated The Eternal Sunshine Tour set to hit arenas across North America and the UK next summer. Produced by Live Nation, the tour will feature multiple nights in every city, including massive 
She’s back – live, personal and totally sensational. Samantha Barks invites you to an intimate, soul-stirring evening of music and storytelling. The West End’s brightest star takes on some of the UK’s most spectacular cathedrals, lit by candlelight, in a setting unlike anything she’s done before.
Diamond-certified and GRAMMY®Award-nominated artist Halsey continues the celebration for the 10th anniversary of her triple platinum certified full-length debut album, BADLANDS, with the announcement of her Back to Badlands Tour. 
With Body Horror’s re-emergence on the world’s stage, thanks recently to Coralie Fargeat’s award winning cautionary tale The Substance as a cinematic niche not to be reckoned with, the subject of human biology is increasingly becoming the focus of our 21st century lives. Social media a prism heightening what it is to supposedly achieve ‘perfection’, and the intentional omission of the horrors that lay beneath this. Team this with the alarm bell being rung about the state of our planet, and we’re presented with insidious issues of microplastics and climate very gradually intruding on our way of life. Post this year’s HollyShorts Film Festival which took place between 7th to 17th August, writer and director Guy Trevellyan had his short Body Horror film Plastic Surgery Screened at the iconic TCL Chinese Theatre. A metaphorical piece examining the way plastic pollution is infiltrating our health, Guy tells us more about what inspired him to produce the film, establishing his production company Nice Guy Pictures and what he’s learned from creating the film.