★★★★☆ This night began as a night at the ballet should, with that rare thing – the sound of a live orchestra tuning-up over expectant audience hubbub. And then suddenly, it was curtain-up into a transformed world of grace, drama and beauty, as music and motion, staging and costume merged into an astonishing and indescribable whole. And who better to produce that alchemy than The Birmingham Royal Ballet accompanied by the RB Sinfonia?

★★★★☆ Contemporary relevance to the AIDs crisis aside, the reputation and legacy of Rent is based on its music. What’s most interesting about these tunes is that they straddle the anthem-quality of classic show tunes whilst being inflected by a considerably more modern sensibility.

★★★★☆ It’s a pleasant take on teenage angst and hormones before the completely unbridled years of the sexual revolution. Not that there aren’t plenty of smutty little jokes delivered with a wink in the Carry On… tradition. The closest counterpart to Dreamboats is Grease in this respect: a bunch of teenagers who constantly burst into song because their hormonal energies are (presently) unspent.

★★★★☆ Our heroine, Helena, lives alone or in flat-shares. She loves cats and feeling lonely and in need of a furry cuddle gets a ginger kitten, described as cute, loving and friendly, from an ad in the paper. The cat turns out to be a monster, dominating her life and destroying her home . . . As a cat lover myself, I enjoyed and sympathised with Passpawt, so more power to Heavenlee’s elbow.