Speaking to The Independent, the BBC's head of music television Mark Cooper said the rock legends were "nervous about how much they should share". The Stones, he told the paper, were "stepping out of their comfort zone". He added: "At this point, I'm quite optimistic we'll get a sufficient amount of music." The BBC statement said: "We're confident that we'll be able to deliver fantastic coverage of this year's amazing Glastonbury line-up." The Rolling Stones' spokesman declined to comment. The veteran rockers, he said, chose to remain "tight-lipped" on the subject.
The Rolling Stones will play on the festival's main Pyramid Stage on Saturday 29 June. Mumford and Sons and the Arctic Monkeys are the other headline acts at this year's event at Worthy Farm, Somerset.
On Broadway - Cameron Mackintosh has announced that his re-imagined version of the Alain Boublil/Claude-Michel Schonberg musical Les Miserables will make its debut at Broadway's Imperial Theatre in 2014. The show will begin previews on March 1 with a projected opening date of March 23. Casting for the show is underway and is set to be completed by later this summer. The Imperial is a familiar home for the show, the original Broadway production having played there for close to 13 years; beginning at the Broadway Theatre on March 12, 1987, moving to the Imperial on October 17, 1990, where it remained until its closing on May 18, 2003, for a total run of 6,680 performances.
On Merseyside - Neil Young & Crazy Horse, JLS, Little Mix and Soul II Soul will perform at a new Liverpool music festival. Liverpool International Music Festival, which replaces the Mathew Street Festival, will take place during the August bank holiday weekend. The event launches on 18 August with legendary Canadian singer-songwriter Neil Young at the city's Echo Arena. As part of their farewell tour, JLS are set to appear at Pier Head with Little Mix, Eliza Doolittle and Union J. The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra will play at Sefton Park, with internationally acclaimed opera singer Bryn Terfel singing over three nights at Liverpool Philharmonic Hall.
On The Fringe - This summer's Edinburgh Fringe will be the largest ever with a 6.5% increase on last year's figures to 2,871 shows registered with the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society. The biggest gain is to the theatre section of the programme, which is almost 10% bigger than last year with 824 shows. Comedy, the largest sector with a third of all shows, is down a marginal five shows to 953. Most genres have an increase of between 10 or 20 shows.
Fringe Society chief executive Kath Mainland said, "It is a really good thing that it is bigger. That it has grown again is an indication of the robust health that the fringe is in. It means that companies and artists still see it as a valuable place to bring their work because of the exposure they are given."
Al Fresco - Plans to open a new 250-seat outdoor theatre in Brighton as a permanent home for professional touring groups are being developed. Trustees behind the amphitheatre, which will be called Brighton Open Air Theatre, hope that it will be built at a park close to the city centre in time for next May. The open-air venue is being developed according to plans left by local playwright and builder Adrian Bunting, who recently died. At Bunting's request, there will be an open artistic policy, in which professional productions will be selected by ballot. The theatre is being privately funded, with £18,000 left by Bunting to kickstart the project.
(Jim E
