First up this week is news that the fantastic double whammy of Henry IV Part 1 and Part 2 at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre is extending.  You’ve now got until 9 October to catch this pair of incredible shows. I’ve seen both, and can confirm that Roger Allam’s Falstaff is unmissable, and Jamie Parker makes a great Prince Hal.

London theatre’s other cast news this week includes a treat for Over The Rainbow fans. Jessica Robinson (my favourite Dorothy wannabe) will take over from Stephanie Fearon in Smokey Joe’s Café at the Landor Theatre from 20 to 22 August. (Fearon’s recovering from a wrist operation: get well soon, Steph!)

And I now have full cast details for Birdsong, the new play based on Sebastian Faulks’s novel, which opens next month. You’ll recognise Genevieve O’Reilly from Spooks, and Lee Ross from EastEnders, Ashes To Ashes, Life On Mars and The Catherine Tate Show. They’ll star alongside Nicholas Farrell and Iain Mitchell, both regulars at the National Theatre. You’ll remember sexy Hollywood star Ben Barnes is playing the lead…

Other September openings to look forward to include Spare, which marks the opening of the New Diorama Theatre’s first full season. This new play by Sebastian Rex promises to be a provocative look at sexual abuse, where, in an unusual experiment in gender-neutral writing and gender-blind casting, the actors will pick a role at random each night. Also opening Off-West-End next month is Love on the Dole at the Finborough Theatre. This Jagged Fence production of Walter Greenwood’s classic Great Depression text opens on 7 September.

Finally, Happy Birthday Apollo Victoria Theatre! The theatre is celebrating its birthday on the same day as me (although I’m not 80!) – 10 October – with a gala performance featuring West End stars past and present. The theatre has been entertaining London audiences since it opened in 1930, then called the New Victoria Theatre. It seems like only yesterday I saw my first West End show there, back in 1988, aged about 7 (Starlight Express, if you’re wondering!). If you pop along today, you can see another great musical, Wicked. I’m looking forward to bringing you more news about this special gala show in the coming weeks…

Well, news about semi-finalist Steph Fearon bounced into my inbox this week. Fearon will be starring in a summer revival of Smokey Joe’s Café at the brilliant Landor Theatre, one of South London’s best pub theatres from 13 July. Smokey Joe’s Café showcases the musical of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller who wrote On Broadway, Jailhouse Rock and Stand By Me: plenty for the lovely Steph to get her winning vocal cords around!

From newbies to oldies: My Family star Robert Lindsay is coming back to the West End later in the year. He’ll play Aristotle Onassis in Onassis, Martin Sherman’s play about the last five years in the life of the Greek shipping magnate, focussing on his relationships with Jackie Kennedy, Maria Callas and his son Alexandros. The show, which is a transfer from Chichester, opens in London on 12 October (previews from 30 September). I think Robert Lindsay’s great. He’s won two Laurence Olivier Awards, and his other stage credits include Oliver!, Me And My Girl and Richard III.

And there’s news of another favorite Olivier Award winner coming to London in the autumn. The ever-wonderful Celia Imrie will play in Noel Coward’s classic comedy of bad manners, Hay Fever, directed by Stephen Unwin at the Rose Theatre from 23 September to 23 October.

Finally, if you’re already bored of the World Cup and starting to think about Christmas(!), there’s news of the Rose Theatre’s Christmas show. The Three Musketeers will be the Rose’s first musical, running from 27 November to 2 January. It’ll  feature music by George Stiles and lyrics by Paul Leigh, with a good dose of royal intrigue and sensational swordplay into the mix!

And the National are teasing us with their Christmas news: Catherine Tate is to star in a revival of Alan Ayckbourn’s Season’s Greetings this December… but they don’t have the exact dates finalised yet…