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The best things to do this week
Kew’s botanical gardens really go for it with the Christmas display, tangling elaborate lights all over its ornate buildings and wild plant life. Head down the mile-long, twinkling trail and see a shower of silvery vines at the Treetop Walkway, then spy folkloric illuminations of mythical fairy creatures and will-o’-the-wisps.
Cameron Mackintosh’s returning 2004 musical version couldn’t look more magical. The story is a hodgepodge of the movie, PL Travers’s original books and a few ideas of writer Julian Fellowes’s own. It serves up everything you could want in a mega-budget family musical: memorable songs, dazzling visuals and a nostalgic ideal of a London that never existed. It’s supercalifragelistically good fun.
Hit up this quirky little small and sharing plates spot, where every table has been prettily hand-painted – its owners are a pair of theatre set designers. The vibrant, eclectic cooking is excellent. Case in point: swede tartare.
The brilliant Steve McQueen’s ‘Year 3’ is a collection of school photos of almost every Year 3 class in the city. It’s a celebration of this city’s diversity, and its vast variety of races, cultures and backgrounds. This art shows us London now, and it shows us London in the future – wide open, diverse and brilliant.
This long-anticipated sequel feels entirely fresh. The world it creates is charming, the wit sparkles and – one brief burst of ‘Reindeer(s) Are Better Than People’ aside – the songs are all new. So let go of ‘Let It Go’ and clear some room for a new batch of earworms.
St Vincent, aka pop star Annie Clark, is hosting a champagne bar in Covent Garden. Working with fancy-pants bubbly brand Veuve Clicquot, she’s created Souvenir: a pop-up bar where she’s in control of everything from the lighting to the entertainment, and she’s even going to be performing among the attendees between sips. Souvenir, 6a Langley Court. Fri Nov 22-Sat Nov 23, 4pm-11.30pm.
Henry VIII may have been an ice-cold monster, but there’s no denying that his former palace makes an impressive backdrop for this open-air rink. It’s a whopping 1,040 square metres, and as it’s a little further out west, it doesn’t get quite as crowded as the central rinks.
There’s something distinctly Shakespearean about this tale of two boys who get caught up in the violent postcode wars of south-east London. Based on writer-director Andrew ‘Rapman’ Onwubolu’s own childhood, it’s part music video, part gang drama and it’s one of the most important London stories of the year.
Liberty is a two-day, totally free festival where deaf and disabled artists take over venues across Waltham Forest. And there’s a party vibe running through the line-up, like Deaf Rave - a Saturday night out that’s full of sign-language rap by performers including hip hop star Signkid.
See this show of huge, massive, enormous paintings by a German giant. The big war-ravaged canvases are classic Kiefer – the detritus of the twentieth century laid bare. This is his attempt to find meaning in this increasingly meaningless world. It works seriously well.
This free event is set to be a colourful affair as London’s tallest ‘homegrown’ LED Christmas tree will light up with more than 100,000 low-energy lights. The showstopper is ‘Sonic Runway’, a light and sound installation that’s come from Nevada’s Burning Man festival to make its European debut. To infinity and Wembley Park!
Check out this show of misty, sad and ethereal paintings by the artist famous for her moody blue works. This exhibition coincides with Paul’s autobiography being published and there’s plenty to read into these artworks by seeing them as the output of an artist genuinely finding her voice.
For views in any season, head to Forza Wine, a bar with the best of both worlds: an outdoor, bench-filled terrace and an indoor area with tall tables and glass doors revealing that skyline. A spin-off from Peckham’s much-loved Italian restaurant Forza Win, it takes the grape stuff seriously and serves up some great Italian cocktails.
Party troupe Sink the Pink play ‘queer space explorers’ in an alternative take on the classic British panto. Expect a healthy dose of hedonistic drag and riotous cabaret with a pop-rock soundtrack. Out of this world? Oh yes it is!
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