The Time Out London blog team

Hardcore musical theatre nerds may remember that in 2020 we were due to get a transfer of the Jake Gyllenhaal-starring Broadway revival of Stephen Sondheim’s 1984 classic Sunday in the Park with George. If you’re unfamiliar, it’s a typically virtuosic work by the late genius that was inspired by the pointillist painter Georges Seurat's work A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, and follows a fictionalised version of the artist plus – years later – his cynical great grandson.  Long story short, if the Gyllenhaal version hadn’t got gazumped by the pandemic it’s unlikely that Sunday in the Park with George would come back around so soon. But it did, and so the coast is clear for Wicked lovers Jonathan Bailey and Ariana Grande to reunite as leads of a fresh production directed by Marianne Elliott, with design by Tom Scutt, that’ll run at the Barbican… next summer. That’s pretty much all we know for now, though it’s worth flagging up the fact that Elliott directed Bailey in an absolutely tremendous production of Sondheim’s Company back in 2018, so the omens are extremely good. His stage CV is rather longer than hers, but she did do a couple of shows in the US pre-popstardom and it’s actually quite thrilling to get her stage debut as a massive star.  As possibly the most musical theatre thing to have ever happened it’s clearly going to be enormously popular – one can imagine Americans might try and get involved – so while there’s a long time until it runs, you can...

In huge news for London’s dog owners, commuters and flâneurs, for the first time ever it is now possible to walk along the north bank of the Thames from Westminster to the Tower of London without straying more than a few metres from the river. It’s all thanks to a brand new embankment. The box-fresh Bazalgette Embankment – named after the Victoria engineer who created the OG Embankment and sewer Sir Joseph Bazalgette – opened to the public on January 13 on a former ‘super sewer’ work site. The 1.5 acre site next to Blackfriars Bridge was was closed off for nine years during the Thames Tideway Tunnel project, which allowed the construction of the 25-kilometre crap overflow-collecting tunnel.  Photograph: Danny Loo / Tideway The area has been given a brand spanking new lease of life, now home to a new public space. Bazalgette Embankment is the largest single structure built into the River Thames in around 150 years and boasts walkways, viewpoints, seating, public art, pocket parks and 71 trees. It’s one of seven new riverside embankments created by the super sewer project.  The artwork along the embankment features five sculptures by Glasgow-based Nathan Coley and includes ‘Waterwall’, an 8.8-metre-high sculpture with a cascading water feature. Photograph: Danny Loo / Tideway The area is fully accessible, with ramps and a four-metre-wide footpath. It can also be reached by boat, with new lifts installed to the east of Blackfriars Bridge. Underneath the site below ground,...

Sad news! A beloved book and art shop in Covent Garden is closing its doors forever this week after 26 years of trading. Magma on Shorts Gardens announced on social media that it would be shuttering for good on Friday, January 16.  The red-fronted shop is known for its curated selection analogue media, including books, indie magazines and prints, as well as selling things like games, gifts, jewellery and cards.  In an emotional farewell Instagram post, the shop said that ‘greed’ from their landlords had led to the decision to close the Covent Garden shop. The owners wrote: ‘We started Magma in this area 26 years ago, and our long-time landlords have decided that our time to leave has now come. In their words: “the current level where the market is at the moment, is not a level that could be sustained by Magma”.’ View this post on Instagram A post shared by Magma (@magma_books) ‘It is with very heavy hearts that we will be leaving this once vibrant, creative retail neighbourhood,’ the post added. ‘We are moving out of an area where almost every small, independent retail business has been pushed out, an area which was undoubtedly more interesting when we moved in and which is now almost identical to every other high street.’ Magma Covent Garden is having a closing down sale until its final day this week, with 40 percent off most items in the store. And don’t despair too much because this isn’t the total end of Magma – the shops’s kiosk in King’s...