Wyndham’s theatre, London
Bryan Cranston, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Paapa Essiedu and Hayley Squires achieve theatrical alchemy in Ivo van Hove’s superb production

In 2014 Ivo van Hove’s Young Vic staging of Arthur Miller’s A View from the Bridge drew comparisons to monumental Greek drama. Lightning has struck twice with this magnificent, shuddering production of Miller’s 1946 play – it perfects the art of doing less for more effect and is performed at the same West End venue where its predecessor transferred.

Van Hove, known for giving the classics his own stamp, steps back here, it seems, letting the cast (and what a cast this is) not just inhabit their parts but somehow become them as if by magic. They articulate the devastating truths in this play about the corruptions of the American dream and the toxic inheritance handed down from fathers to sons. How relevant these truths seem today: it is as if Miller were speaking directly about now. A line can be drawn from the play’s themes of selling faulty equipment to government and the unaccountability of corrupt capitalist patriarchs to Trumpian facts and delusions, Grenfell and the Covid-era PPE scandal.

The 52-episode Christian podcast was announced with a number of actors involved yet many claim they had no idea about it

The Fox News announcement of a new podcast series on Jesus Christ has turned into a bizarre holiday tale in Hollywood, as several actors attached to massive, 52-episode project claim their recordings date back 15 years and are being released without their prior knowledge.

The new audiobook titled The Life of Jesus Christ Podcast, announced on Wednesday as part of a splashy rollout for the network’s new Christian vertical called Fox Faith, purports to guide listeners “through the life, teachings, and miracles of Jesus Christ”, with each episode introduced by Fox & Friends co-host Ainsley Earhardt.

A fire at Cop30 in Brazil, Israeli airstrikes in Gaza, Russian missiles hit Ukraine and a giraffe on the move in Kenya: the past seven days as captured by the world’s leading photojournalists

The wider TV and film industries have a long way to go in including disabled actors and creators, and leaving stereotypes behind

While the entertainment industry has been at pains to address issues of diversity in race, gender and sexuality, disability remains shockingly underrepresented. It’s not just that disabled actors are discounted for many roles. As actors and activists have pointed out, “blacking up” might have become taboo, but “cripping up” is still a shoo-in for awards. In almost 100 years, only three disabled actors have won an Oscar, compared to 25 able-bodied actors who have won for playing disabled characters.

The arrival this weekend of Wicked: For Good , the second part of a prequel story to The Wizard of Oz, has put the importance of authentic casting in the spotlight once more. The story of green-skinned witch Elphaba, and the prejudice she faces, Wicked is a celebration of difference. Yet since the hit musical opened in 2003, only able-bodied actors had played the part of Nessarose, Elphaba’s disabled sister. Last year, Marissa Bode became the first wheelchair-using actor to take the role, in part one of the film adaptation. The child Nessa is also played by a wheelchair user. The movies give the character greater agency and complexity, amending a scene that suggested she needs to be “fixed”.

Millions of people around the world are living with the harsh reality of Alzheimer’s disease, which also significantly impacts family members. Nobody is immune, as A-list actor Chris Hemsworth discovered when his own father was recently diagnosed. The revelation inspired Hemsworth to embark on a trip down memory lane with his father, which took them to Australia’s Northern Territory . The experience was captured on film for A Road Trip To Remember, a new documentary film from National Geographic.

Director Tom Barbor-Might had worked with Hemsworth on the latter’s documentary series, Limitless , also for National Geographic. Each episode of Limitless follows Hemsworth on a unique challenge to push himself to the limits, augmented with interviews with scientific experts on such practices as fasting, extreme temperatures, brain-boosting, and regulating one’s stress response. Barbor-Might directed the season 1 finale, “Acceptance,” which was very different in tone, dealing with the inevitability of death and the need to confront one’s own mortality.

“It was really interesting to see Chris in that more intimate personal space, and he was great at it,” Barbor-Might told Ars. “He was charming, emotional, and vulnerable, and it was really moving. It felt like there was more work to be done there.” When Craig Hemsworth received his Alzheimer’s diagnosis, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to explore that personal element further.

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In this week’s newsletter: When the video-sharing site launched in 2005, there were fears it would replace terrestrial television. It didn’t just replace it – it invented entirely new forms of content. ASMR, anyone?

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Barely a month goes by without more news of streaming sites overtaking traditional, terrestrial TV. Predominant among those sits YouTube, with more than 2.5 billion monthly viewers . For people my age – a sprightly 28 – and younger, YouTube is less of an app or website than our answer to radio: the ever-present background hum of modern life. While my mum might leave Radio 4 wittering or BBC News flickering in the corner as she potters about the house, I’ve got a video essay about Japan’s unique approach to urban planning playing on my phone. That’s not to say I never watch more traditional TV (although 99% of the time I’m accessing it through some other kind of subscription streaming app), but when I get home after a long day and the thought of ploughing through another hour of grim prestige fare feels too demanding, I’m probably watching YouTube. Which means it’s very unlikely that I’m watching the same thing as you.

When Google paid $1.65bn for the platform in 2006 , (just 18 months after it launched) the price seemed astronomical. Critics questioned whether that valuation could be justified for any video platform. The logic was simple – unless YouTube could replace television, it would never be worth it. Nearly two decades on, that framing undersells what actually happened. YouTube didn’t just replace television – it invented entirely new forms of content: vodcasts, vlogs, video essays, reaction videos, ASMR and its heinous cousin mukbang . The platform absorbed new trends and formats at lightning speed, building what became an alternative “online mainstream”. Before podcasters, TikTokers, Substackers and even influencers, there were YouTubers.

Barclays Center, Brooklyn

The Boy Is Mine pair were joined by guests such as Kelly Rowland, Fat Joe, Ciara and Tyrese for a sometimes strange, sometimes soaring throwback night

Supposedly feuding for over 25 years might be bad karma, but it’s great for ticket sales. Of course, Brandy and Monica aren’t actually fighting, they just did such a good job of pretending to hate each other on their 1998 duet The Boy Is Mine that the world has been convinced of it ever since. The R&B legends have taken pains to point out that their relationship is harmonious in multiple interviews leading up to this 32-date co-headline tour, even making fun of the drama in a recent Dunkin advert that featured them fighting over a frappe.

Happily, Brandy and Monica’s sisterhood also means they’re playing their biggest venues in decades. After emerging on stage from a vintage elevator wearing sunglasses and scowling expressions, the duo launches into a kind of sing-and-dance-off, trading places and performing a trio of classics apiece as the other watches with disdain. It’s a knowing nod to their purported rivalry that begins to take on the feeling of a variety segment, which isn’t helped by the trimming of songs like What About Us? and Like This and Like That to 90 seconds apiece. Even so, their camaraderie shines through as Brandy quickly breaks character to sway and sing along to Monica’s Don’t Take It Personal (Just One Of Dem Days), a showcase for her slightly raspy, soulful vocals during which she winds her hips and aims gun fingers at the audience.

London Coliseum
Nardus Williams is stylish as she is swept up in a maelstrom of passions and longings while pursued by three suitors in a revival of Christopher Alden’s 2008 production

Resonantly, English National Opera dedicates this run of Handel’s Partenope to Sir Charles Mackerras , who would have been 100 this week. More than anyone else, Mackerras was prime mover of the ENO’s pioneering reimaginings of Handel’s operas. This Partenope, first seen in 2008 , is a brave reassertion of that treasured inheritance. Sadly, though, the ENO itself is now a shadow of what it became in Mackerras’s day; its chief exec Jenny Mollica quit earlier this week.

Still, it remains cheering to see ENO can still turn in a high-class Handel show. In Partenope the characters may be classical staples but the superficially political plot is really more of a domestic comedy. Partenope herself, supposed founder of modern Naples, is being wooed by three princely suitors, one of whom, Arsace, is pursued by his former lover Rosmira, thinly disguised as a man. The maelstrom of passions and longings this gang can generate between them, though, are believable enough, sometimes searingly so.

Barbican Hall, London
This programme featured the LSO Futures at its best – three world premieres by Omri Kochavi, Sasha Scott and Donghoon Shin, whose piano concerto was brought to sparkling life by human dynamo Seong-Jin Cho

This was a concert rich in contrasts, from Sasha Scott’s eerie exploration of the borderland between sleep and waking to Pierre Boulez’s juxtaposition of directed music with freeform improvisation. It was LSO Futures at its best, with three world premieres – two of them commissioned by the far-sighted Helen Hamlyn Panufnik Composers’ Scheme, now in its 20th year – and featuring South Korean pianist Seong-Jin Cho as part of his LSO Artist Portrait series.

Taking its name from the Hebrew for “carvings”, Omri Kochavi’s Gilufim is a likable work, its limber profile hewn from a denser original. Discordant orchestral slabs were whittled away by the insistent tap, tap, tap of an effervescent marimba. A nut shaker representing a crackling fire did the rest, the music emerging from the flames with a newfound harmonic solidity. Scott’s unsettling Sly featured woozy wodges of sound interrupted by sinister slitherings and a panicky orchestral nightmare before a vibraphone chimed in triggering an uneasy state of awareness. On the podium, Maxime Pascal was the most unflappable of guides.