This week's hottest theatre, dance, opera, world music, jazz and art events
THEATRE: Everyone’s favourite comedy air hostess, Pam Ann returns to London from tonight, with a brand new show, You F’Coffee at the Bloomsbury Theatre. Also opening tonight is A Tale of Two Cities at the Charing Cross Theatre, a new musical adaptation of Charles Dickens, starring Jonathan Ansell. From tomorrow, Cillian Murphy’s one man show, Misterman opens at the National Theatre Lyttelton brings a slice of Irish life to London.
On Friday, the first ever stage adaptation of Jung Chang’s multi-million selling novel, Wild Swans opens at the Young Vic, starring Katie Leung from the Harry Potter films.
DANCE: From Thursday, you can see the Royal Ballet of Flanders performing William Forsythe’s famous ballet Artifact at Sadler’s Wells.
OPERA: Wolfgang Rihm’s starkly expressionistic sonic “psychogram”, Jakob Lenz opens at the Hampstead Theatre tonight. The work charts the mental disintegration of the real-life Sturm Und Drang poet of the same name. This is the first ever English translation of Rihm’s most widely performed opera: it’s being put on to celebrate Rihm’s 60th birthday. Elsewhere you can see comedy La Fille Du Regiment at the Royal Opera House from Thursday. And at the Linbury Studio from Friday, OperaShots explores opera from different angles for eight nights: look out for The Divine Comedy’s Neil Hannon’s first step into the genre.
ART / EXHIBITIONS: From Thursday, you can see Ron Mueck's debut exhibition at the Hauser & Wirth Gallery on Savile Row. On display are recent sculptures linking realism to folklore, myth and magic making. From Friday, Mat Collishaw presents a manipulated video reinterpretation of Francis Bacon’s Velazquez’s Pope Innocent X called The End of Innocence at the Dilston Grove gallery. Entrance is free. Also opening on Friday is Crowns and Ducats: Shakespeare's Money and Medals at the British Museum. Remember all the hype about Dickens? Now it's Will's turn with the World Shakespeare Festival. You’ve been warned.
From Saturday, you can explore the new space in Covent Garden which has been taken over by the London Film Museum for their latest exhibition: Magnum on Set. Photographs taken by Magnum photographers on the sets of iconic movies are accompanied by other artefacts from the golden age of Hollywood.
JAZZ: This week’s Jazz highlight is at Kings Place on Saturday: a unique chance to hear saxophonist Martin Speake with a host of special guests, including guitarist Colin Oxley. If you can’t make it down, the concert will be recorded for Jazz Line-Up on BBC Radio 3.
WORLD MUSIC: Not one, but two world music festivals fight for your attention this week. Look out for La Linea, the London Latin Music Festival, which runs until 27 April. Venues across London (including the Barbican, Koko and Rich Mix) will feature a winning combination of Latin solo stars, bands, choirs and DJs bringing a fantastic 21st-century presentation of all that is best and current in contemporary Latin music. Over at the Southbank Centre, Alchemy festival runs until Sunday, bringing you, amongst other things, lots of exciting Indian and South Asian music.
Anything we’ve missed that you’re really looking forward to seeing this week? Let us know in the comments below.
We also have listings for ongoing shows at London’s top museums on our Museums and Galleries page.
