London

April/May | June and beyond

April/May

AROUND TOWN
Beijing Olympic Torch relay
The flame will be carried through London by 80 torchbearers.

THEATRE
Shakespeare’s history plays
The RSC brings ‘Richard ll’, ‘Henry IV’, the three parts of ‘Henry VI’ and ‘Richard lll’ to the Roundhouse with up-and-coming star Jonathan Slinger as both Richard II and III. Director Michael Boyd promises that the acoustics will be sorted.
From Apr 1, Roundhouse

AROUND TOWN
‘Amazing Butterflies’
In an interactive maze installed on the Natural History Museum’s east lawn, visitors will be ‘shrunk’ into the world of caterpillars and butterflies before emerging into a hothouse to walk among hundreds of free-flying tropical butterflies from America, Africa and Asia.
Apr 5-Aug 17, Natural History Museum
Feature continues

CLASSICAL
'The Minotaur'
The world premiere of a Harrison Birtwistle opera is an event. One of the few living composers undaunted by writing full-scale stage works, Sir Harry sees ‘The Minotaur’ take the stage at Covent Garden on April 15. The great John Tomlinson, creator of the Green Knight in Birtwistle’s ‘Gawain’ sings the bullish title-role, Philip Langridge the role of Translator – his son, Stephen, coincidentally directs. Antonio Pappano conducts.
April 15, Royal Opera House

COMEDY
Omid Djalili
The most famous British-Iranian comic around is back on stage after his successful BBC TV show and his numerous appearances in films. He’s a highly talented comic who makes it all look so easy, with a massive following.
Apr 18, Hammersmith Apollo

MUSIC
Camden Crawl
The annual million-gig shindig returns – and to more venues than ever before. As usual, the headliners will remain secret until all the tickets are sold, but last year saw Amy Winehouse play to a packed Dublin Castle, and we can expect similar delights from 2008’s roster. Plus there’ll be an expanded daytime programme of non-gigging events to discourage you from starting drinking too early.
Apr 18-19

DANCE
‘Rushes’
Kim Brandstrup’s premiere for the Royal Ballet marks his debut on the main stage at Covent Garden. He’s calling it ‘Rushes’ and it will be danced to some recently unearthed, previously unused film music by Prokofiev.
In rep, Apr 23-May 14, Royal Opera House

THEATRE
'The City'
Martin Crimp has written a follow-up to his memorable ‘The Country’. As before, this will be directed by Katie Mitchell. Don’t expect too many laughs.
From Apr 24, Royal Court Theatre

SPORT
Football: Chelsea vs Manchester United
Fergie and the Reds pitch up at Stamford Bridge – or will the Premier League title already be on its way to the Emirates?
Apr 26, Stamford Bridge

FILM
'Shine a Light'
The trailer pitches it as ‘Marty versus Mick’ as Scorsese films the Rolling Stones at the Beacon Theater in New York over two nights of their last tour in 2006, when they were joined at an ‘intimate’ gig by guests including Jack White and Christina Aguilera. Jagger has issues with cameras that ‘whizz about all the time’, while Marty protests wryly that ‘it would be good to have a camera that moves’.
Released late Apr

AROUND TOWN
Rhizotron and the Xstrata Treetop Walkway at Kew
Entered through an apparent crack in the earth, the Rhizotron – intended to be both fun and educational – will illuminate the vital relationship between tree roots and micro-organisms in the soil. The £3 million high-level Xstrata Treetop Walkway will head in the opposite direction, taking visitors 18 metres into the tree canopy for a bird’s-eye view of Kew.
May 2008, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

'Breakin' Convention'

DANCE
‘Breakin’ Convention’
A non-stop, high-energy bank holiday celebration of international hip hop.
May 3-5, Sadler’s Wells

AROUND TOWN
Jack the Ripper and the East End
Looking at the human stories behind the penny-dreadful account. Bringing together the surviving original documents for the first time, this exhibition at the Museum in Docklands will include police files, photographs and letters from the public in a bid to map the world that witnessed the murders and was transformed by them.
May 15-Nov 2, Museum in Docklands

MUSIC
Girls Aloud arena tour
The hardiest of reality TV survivors, Girls Aloud, shake off those persistent split rumours once again, having booked themselves in for a massive arena tour. Which means they’ll have to stay together at least until July, no matter how much they hate each other.
May 16-17, 02 Arena

FILM
‘Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull’
Steven Spielberg and Harrison Ford renuite for a fourth instalment of the Indiana Jones franchise, some 19 years since the last one. Ray Winstone, Cate Blanchett, Jim Broadbent, John Hurt and young gun Shia LaBoeuf all co-star, but the big question hangs over 65-year-old Ford’s ability to convince as a hard-edged adventurer.
Released May 22

THEATRE
‘Rosmersholm’
Anthony Page directs rarely performed Ibsen and brings Helen McRory back to the theatre.
From May 22, Almeida Theatre

April/May | June and beyond


April/May | June and beyond

Radiohead

June and beyond
MUSIC
Radiohead
The ’Head play east London’s Victoria Park this summer. Now they can recoup their losses after the ‘pay what you like’ policy for ‘In Rainbows'. Book now!
June 24-25.

FILM
David Lean retrospective
Lean, one of Britain’s foremost filmmakers, would have been 100 years old had he lived until March this year, and so BFI Southbank is celebrating in his absence with a full retrospective from the master craft of Britain’s wartime studio system to the widescreen showmanship of international epics of the ’60s and ’70s. The season features ten restorations of his films including ‘Brief Encounter’, ‘Doctor Zhivago’ and ‘Lawrence of Arabia’.
June and July, BFI Southbank

ART
‘Radical Light: Italy’s Divisionist Painters 1891-1910’
This will be the first time, outside Italy, that painters employing dots, dashes and stabbing brushwork such as Segantini and Previati will be seen alongside their more famous futurist friends Boccioni, Balla and Severini. Both groups went in for machines rather than nature, social change over bohemianism and physics instead of painterly whim. Expect fireworks.
June 18-Sept 7, National Gallery

'Black Watch' at Barbican Theatre

THEATRE
‘Black Watch’
Hurrah! The most anticipated event of the year. Gregory Burke’s play, a sensation at the Edinburgh Festival in 2006, finally makes it to London. From June 24, Barbican Theatre

AROUND TOWN
‘The Big Smoke’
One year on from the smoking ban, the Museum of London plans to mount a display looking at the history of the habit in London. Using objects and images from the museum’s collections, it will chart the history of, and attitudes towards, the practice, from the introduction of tobacco to London to the present.
July 1-Sept 21, Museum of London

GAY
London Pride
It rained on our parade last year, but don’t let that put you off. This year’s London Pride celebrations have been moved back a week in the hope of better weather. Prior to that, there’s the Pride Arts Festival – three whole weeks of gay-themed visual arts, comedy and theatre events.
July 5 (www.pridelondon.org)

MUSIC
Camp Bestival
Big Chill-style spin-off of the IoW-based festival which has enjoyed runaway success since Glastonbury became deemed ‘too commercial, maan’ by snooty music snobs such as ourselves. Camp Bestival will boast a similarly free-ranging line-up as its parent fest, with tasteful dance acts rubbing fancily dressed shoulders with the likes of Kid Creole & The Coconuts, Billy Bragg and Suzanne Vega.
July 18-20, Dorset

Lovebox Weekender

MUSIC
Lovebox Weekender
Last year’s Lovebox was one of the highlights of London’s alleged ‘summer’, and we’re not just saying that because we sponsored it. The quality and diversity of bands and stages, plus the imaginative family-friendly sideshows, meant a good time was had by all, except Sly Stone for some reason. Still, the good news is he won’t be there to spoil things. With The Flaming Lips already booked for Sunday night, this year’s ’Box promises to be bigger and better in every way, Tower Hamlets Council permitting, of course.
July 21-22

DANCE
‘West Side Story’
A fiftieth anniversary production of Jerome Robbins’ landmark musical.
July 22-Aug 31, Sadler’s Wells

ART
‘Hadrian: Empire and Conflict’
The BM sticks closer to home for the second of its blockbusters to utilise the platform inside the Reading Room, which was adapted last year for the invading terracotta army. Hadrian, the emperor of Rome from 117-138AD, is best known for building a much smaller wall than his Chinese counterpart, although it too kept the marauding barbarians of the north from coming too far south. Hadrian’s ruthless military style will be on display, as will his soft spot for beautiful architecture.
July 24-Oct 26, British Museum

DANCE
Guangzhou Acrobatics Troupe
This group from China will perform what is bound to be the wackiest dance event of 2008, ‘The Acrobatic Swan Lake’. Contortionist antics combined with Tchaikovsky promises to provide a deliciously weird night in the theatre.
Aug 4-9, Royal Opera House

'Fashion vs Sport'