Our pick of the exciting art, theatre, jazz, dance, and folk events opening this week
ART / EXHIBITIONS: Opening tomorrow is the National Gallery's latest blockbuster - Turner Inspired: In The Light of Claude. Also opening tomorrow is The Crisis Commission at Somerset House: works by Antony Gormley, Tracey Emin, Yinka Shonibare and Gillian Wearing responding to themes of homelessness in aid of Crisis. Another couple of fun-sounding exhibitions are Designing Women at the Fashion and Textile Museum, looking at textile design in postwar Britain, and David Hall: End Piece… a show coinciding with the end of analogue TV at Ambika P3. Both open on Friday. Our final arty pick for this week is Island Stories: Fifty Years of Photography in Britain at the V&A, more than 80 photographs looking at the diversity of life in the UK since 1945.
DANCE: There’s loads of dance on offer this week. You can check out Matthew Bourne's Nutcracker!, making an unseasonable trip to the New Wimbledon Theatre for five nights from tonight. ROH2's Classic Cut presents Shobana Jeyasingh's celebrated Configurations in an intriguing show of two halves in the Linbury Studio also from tonight. Our third dance selection for you this week is the Birmingham Royal Ballet, on stage at the London Coliseum this week. Choose between Spring Passions (tonight and tomorrow) and Coppelia, on for five shows from Thursday. And finally, from Saturday, you can see a revival of Christopher Wheeldon's acclaimed Alice's Adventures In Wonderland at the Royal Opera House.
THEATRE: Theatrephiles can choose from a stage version of Belleville Rendez-vous at the Greenwich Theatre from tonight; or Shivered, a new play by Phillip Ridley, premiering at the Southwark Playhouse also from tonight. Tomorrow is the opening night of Moon On A Rainbow Shawl at the National Theatre, the story of Ephraim, who will stop at nothing to escape his dead-end job and start afresh in England.
FOLK: The Nest Collective is promoting a major St Patrick's Day event, the London Gaelic Voices Festival 2012, at the Irish Centre in Camden on Sunday. From midday until late, the venue will be bouncing along to gigs and workshops from leading Gaelic artists and bands. This should be authentic, meaty fare, and it's a snip at £18 for an all-inclusive day ticket.
JAZZ: Pianist Neil Cowley, a former member of the Brand New Heavies, fronts a spiky jazz trio with pop attitudes. Their most recent album, 'The Face of Mount Molehill' is by all accounts a stormer and you can see the guys in action at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on Thursday.
Anything we’ve missed that you’re really looking forward to seeing this week? Let us know in the comments below.
We have listings for ongoing shows at London's top museums on our Museums and Galleries page.
Finally, here's how the Neil Cowley Trio made their last album:
