London

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January
Sport Masters Snooker
Jan 11-18
Second only to the World Championship in terms of prize money, the Masters offers a rare chance for Londoners to watch the green-baize kings up close. ‘Rocket’ Ronnie O’Sullivan appeared in every final from 2004-2007, though Mark Selby is the defending champion.
Wembley Arena (www.whatsonwembley.com)

Alternative Nightlife Camille O’Sullivan – The Dark Angel
Jan 14
The cult French-Irish chanteuse brings her new show to London for one night only. A fireball of talent, Camille covers Brecht, Brel, Nick Cave and David Bowie.
The Roundhouse (www.roundhouse.org.uk)

Film The Wrestler
Jan 16
After navel-gazing techno dud ‘The Fountain’, Darren Aronofsky returns with this down-home heart-tugger about a past-it wrestler played by Mickey Rourke. Won the Golden Lion at this year’s Venice Film Festival. Feature continues

Sport Rugby Union – Wasps v Leinster
Jan 17
Wasps’ home ground in High Wycombe isn’t big enough to accommodate everyone who wants to watch this crucial Heineken Cup clash, but here everyone can get a ticket.
Twickenham Stadium (www.wasps.co.uk)

Kristen Schaal and Kurt Braunohler

Comedy Kristen Schaal and Kurt Braunohler – Double Down Hearts
Jan 20-Feb 1
The toast of the New York alternative comedy scene, this exquisitely silly duo are not to be missed. This was the show at this year’s Edinburgh Festival that everyone was fighting to get tickets for, with its tale of murder, gambling, phone-sex and harelips. Schaal is perhaps best known for her role as the kooky stalker Mel on international smash hit TV show ‘The Flight of the Conchords’.
Soho Theatre (www.sohotheatre.com)

Theatre A View from the Bridge
Previews from Jan 22
Influenced by the McCarthy witchhunts, Arthur Miller’s 1956 play explores what happens when a longshoreman takes in two illegal Italian immigrants. Ken Stott plays Eddie.
Duke of York’s (www.dukeofyorkstheatre.co.uk)

Theatre Private Lives
Jan 22-Feb 28
Jasper Britton and Claire Price scratch each other’s eyes out as the divorced couple in Noël Coward’s ‘Private Lives’. Lucy Bailey’s production kicks off Hampstead’s fiftieth anniversary celebrations, chosen because a Hampstead revival in 1962 both put the theatre on the map and revitalised the playwright’s flagging reputation.
Hampstead Theatre (www.hampsteadtheatre.com)

The End closing parties (© Simon Mac)

Nightlife The End closing parties
Jan 23-25
It’s been one of London’s finest ever clubs, so there’ll surely be tears before bedtime on the final finale weekend. But tears of joy too, because the line-ups are sensational. Squeeze in to join Fabio & Grooverider and all the best D&B DJ dons on the Friday, and then Laurent Garnier, Mr C, Erol Alkan, Ben Watt, Layo & Bushwacka! plus guests on the Saturday, with a Jaded after-party carrying on into Sunday. Legendary!
The End (www.endclub.com)

Theatre Spring Awakening
Jan 23-Feb 28
Frank Wedekind’s oft-banned 1891 play about masturbation and sexual repression is improbable material for a musical, but it was a big hit on Broadway.
Lyric Hammersmith (www.lyric.co.uk)

Gay & Lesbian Leee Black Childers
Jan 30
Childers is one of the key witnesses of twentieth century popular culture. As an intimate of the Warhol Factory in the 1960s, he met and photographed the stars of the New York gay underground, absorbing Warhol’s reportage aesthetic, photographing David Bowie and documenting the birth of punk.
Purcell Room, Southbank Centre (www.southbankcentre.co.uk)

Theatre Shun-kin
Jan 30-Feb 21
Complicite returns to the Barbican with a tale of devotion, passion and power inspired by the Japanese writer Jun’chiro Tanizaki. Simon McBurney directs a Japanese cast. With English surtitles.
Barbican Theatre (www.barbican.org.uk)

Art Unveiled: New Art from the Middle East
Jan 30-May 6
After the gallery’s inaugural show – a muted response to art’s big red Chinese dragon – comes a much less explored area of the Asian contemporary art scene, again courtesy of Mr Saatchi’s deep pockets. What little we know about Arabic art in this country will be greatly enhanced by this exhibition of more than 20 artists hailing from Cairo, Tehran, Beirut, Jordan and other cultural hotspots in the region.
Saatchi Gallery (www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk)

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