Tickets for both “Obskur Pet Shop Boys” shows at Huxleys Neue Welt in Berlin on 12^th and 13^th July go on sale today at 11 am local time. All details at the link below.

There will be a special preview screening of Sergei Eisenstein’s “Battleship Potemkin” with music by Pet Shop Boys at the Max Linder cinema in Paris, France on Friday, 5^th June. First released in 1925, the newly restored centenary edition of Eisenstein’s masterpiece with the PSB score is coming to French cinemas for the first time on 17^th June 2026. All details at the link below.

The first preview of the Jonathan Harvey/Pet Shop Boys musical, “Closer to Heaven” was performed on this day in 2001 at the Arts Theatre in London, with the official press night following on May 31^st. The original cast album was released several months later and is still available on streaming services.

Neil and Chris had originally started writing the musical together with Jonathan Harvey in 1996. “We wanted to write something that wasn’t Les Mis or Rent,” says Chris. “A play about contemporary life with contemporary music that was not long and boring.” 

Since its first run of shows in 2001, “Closer to Heaven” has returned to London theatre stages several times, most recently at the Turbine Theatre in 2024. It also premiered in Brisbane, Australia in 2005, in Brighton, UK in 2009 and in Dallas, USA in 2010. And one of its main characters, Billie Trix, returned in 2019 with her own one-woman show, “Musik”, also written by Jonathan Harvey with some new Tennant/Lowe songs.

Next time you’re in a bookshop, look out for “Mighty Real” by Barry Walters, an excellent history of LGBTQ music, its artists and audiences, which includes a chapter on Pet Shop Boys, Dusty Springfield and Liza Minnelli. It was published this week. Neil x