Entertainment

After years of stalled plans and failed planning applications, St Albans Odeon is now in the hands of James Hannaway - the person who restored the wonderfully successful Rex cinema in Berkhamsted. If the money can be found, there is a fighting chance that we could have the Odeon up and running in similar style. There is nothing the people of St Albans would like better than simply to have their cinema back and this is the chance to do it.

St. Albans is rapidly acquiring a reputuation as a good venue for comedy gigs. The Alban Arena frequently gets national names to visit and perform. We now even have our very own comedy 'festival' annually, with Laughs in the Park. Now I wouldn't say it is anywhere near Glastonbury's exalted position in the national psyche, but as it's only the second year of existence, it still has time.

Kenneth Grahame’s enduring tale of Mole, Ratty, Badger, Mr Toad, and their many friends, comes to the Abbey Theatre this Christmas. This stage version of The Wind in the Willows, by Alan Bennett, with additional lyrics and music by Jeremy Sams, caused a popular sensation when it first appeared at The National Theatre in 1990. It has since become a classic in its own right.

You live in St Albans, you are wondering what’s on to entertain you this month…..so we have listed a few of our top choices for you to choose from!

Jerusalem, the anthem of the Women’s Institute, and popular hymn, is a symbol of England and its “Green and Pleasant Land”. Jerusalem the play, written by St. Albans local Jez Butterworth, is a completely different kettle of fish. First performed at The Royal Court in 2009, to great acclaim, it is set in the archetypal English village of Flintock, in the heart of Wiltshire, and covers twenty four hours in the life of Johnny “Rooster” Byron.

Wednesday 1st July, 2009 is a date to put in your diaries! St Michael’s Village, St Albans will be filled with music, dance and fun for all.

It's official, the Christmas lights of St Albans are switched on! Entertainment and fun started yesterday at noon.By the afternoon, the town centre was filled with hundreds of happy little faces who were all set for the countdown with Santa, Elvis Schmelvis, Sarah-Jane Honeywell and The Little Mermaid Pantomine Stars.

St Albans Operatic Society is proud to present Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd - The Demon Barber of Fleet Street at the Alban Arena, St Albans from Tuesday 13th to Saturday 17th October 2009. For those of you who don't know the show, or haven't seen the Jonny Depp film, it is a dark tale of love and revenge that is thrilling, chilling and, in places, extremely funny. The show won many awards on its debut 30 years ago and has starred a number of musical legends from Angela Lansbury, Sheila Hancock, Julia Mackenzie in the Mrs Lovett role to George Hearns, Dennis Quilley, Alun Armstrong, Johnny Depp and Bryn Terfel in the Todd role.

Things I Know to be True, by the critically acclaimed playwright Andrew Bovell in conjunction with Frantic Assembly theatre company, is the touching, funny and visceral next production by the Company of Ten. It is a complex and intense portrait of the mechanics of a family, and a marriage, through the eyes of four siblings struggling to define themselves beyond their parents’ love and expectations.

On a crisp Saturday morning, if you wander down French Row in St Albans, you might find a bearded man wearing a cap and strumming his guitar. In front of him is a sign which reads ‘Leukemia Busters’. I wanted to find out more about this man known as Breezy…