Our picks of the top theatre, dance and exhibitions opening in London this week
Be There First: London Shows Opening
In theatre: quirky Irish comedy The Playboy of the Western World, starring Misfit Robert Sheehan, opens at the Old Vic tonight. Also opening tonight are Rock of Ages at the Shaftesbury Theatre, starring the 80s, Justin Lee Collins and Shayne Ward; and Hacked at Theatre 503, bringing six writers’ responses to the recent phone hacking scandal to the stage.
Phaedra’s Love is a revival of Sarah Kane's blackly comic reworking of Seneca's tragedy of monarchy, incest and fatal obsession at the Arcola, which opens tomorrow. As does Riot, a comic tragedy about some stabbings at the opening of a Swedish furniture store in February 2005, at the Soho Theatre. From Thursday you can see Terrible Advice, by Ghost Stories writer Andy Nyman, starring Scott Bakula and Caroline Quentin, at the Menier Chocolate Factory.
The Go! Go! Go! Show is back for a fortnight at the Garrick from Saturday; take your kids to find out more about that sock-eating Fluffalope. And Cool Hand Luke opens at the Aldwych Theatre on Monday, starring Marc Warren, previously of Hustle, now responsible for those annoying Tivo ads, presumably financing his recent foray into the West End.
Our suggestion for dance fans this week is La La La Human Steps at Sadler’s Wells from tomorrow; it’s a new work by Edouard Lock, celebrating his 30 years in the business.
Three of London’s big institutions have new exhibitions opening tomorrow. Take your pick from Pipilotti Rist at the Hayward; Traders: The East India Company and Asia at the National Maritime Museum or the Inside Out Picture Show at the Museum of London.
From Saturday, Celebrating Forty Years of Mr Benn and Thirty Years of Danger Mouse is a selling exhibition at The Illustration Cupboard, hoping to suck up the nostalgia juice of two decades worth of children’s TV shows.
Last Chance To See: London Shows Closing
This Is Where We Got To When You Came In comes to a close at the Bush Theatre on Friday, as does The God of Soho at the Globe. It’s also the final night of Bold Tendencies 5 in Peckham Rye’s Multistorey Carpark.
Saturday is your last chance to see Adam Hills – Mess Around at the Soho Theatre, A Clockwork Orange at Theatre Royal Stratford East, Wittenberg at the Gate, The Belle’s Stratagem at the Southwark Playhouse, Street Scene at the Young Vic, South Pacific at the Barbican and Ruby Wax’s Losing It at the Duchess.
Monday is your last chance to see *that* dress at Buckingham Palace.
We have listings for ongoing shows at London’s top museums on our Museums and Galleries page
