New musical The Prince of Egypt opens in the West End, David Hockney's Drawings are in the frame and the kimono is unwrapped at the V&A, it's all in February 2020.
Theatre Royal Bath Productions presents Joseph O'Connor's stage adaptation of Daphne du Maurier's classic Gothic romance in which a countess travels from Florence to Cornwall, to the home of her recently deceased husband. Her presence arousing suspicion and desire in equal measure. This touring production of My Cousin Rachel is directed by Anthony Banks and stars Helen George who is best known for playing the lead role of Trixie Franklin in the BAFTA-winning BBC One series Call the Midwife.
The first arts festival in the UK dedicated to British-Chinese performance and culture, the Chinese Arts Now (CAN) Festival comes to London this February. With the aim of building on the representation of Chinese artists in the UK, it boasts a packed programme covering everything from Chinese classical music to dance and circus. Highlights this year include Augmented Chinatown 2.0, an augmented reality tour around Chinatown; an award-winning comedy set by comedian Nigel Ng; and Invisible Harmony, a dance and circus performance that reflects on the East Asian experience of living in the west. Venues taking part include Jacksons Lane, Rich Mix, Shoreditch Town Hall and Little Angel Theatre.
Antony McDonald directs Gerald Barry's operatic treatment of Lewis Carroll's classic surreal tale as Alice's Adventures Under Ground receives its stage premiere on the Royal Opera House main stage in February 2020. The topsy-turvy worlds of Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass are given an innovative twist in this madcap opera which should be the ideal family treat.
In 2020, Tate Britain presents the first-ever exhibition to focus on baroque culture in Britain, which remains far lesser known in comparison to the pomp and glory of European baroque. British Baroque: Power and Illusion focuses on key historic moments such as the Restoration of Charles II in 1660 and the death of Queen Anne in 1714 in order to shine a spotlight on a much overlooked era and a time of momentous change in Britain. Works on loan from stately homes are shown in public for the very first time in order to explore how art was used to project a vision of power within the recently restored monarchy.
James McDermott's brand-new play, Time and Tide, receives its world premiere in London this February with a run at Park Theatre. A touching LGBT comic drama set in Norfolk, the new production from the award-winning playwright follows May, Ken, Nemo and Daz as they struggle to deal with life's pressures within a close-knit community that's struggling to come to terms with change. Wendy Nottingham, Paul Eason, Elliot Liburd and Josh Barrow make up the cast while Rob Ellis directs.
In a first-time collaboration between Sadler's Wells and Universal Music, Message In A Bottle is a brand-new dance show from triple Olivier Award-nominee Kate Prince. Set to the music of 17-time Grammy Award-winning artist Sting, the world premiere sees a village in the midst of celebrations come under siege, resulting in three siblings - Leto, Mati and Tana - separated from their parents and launched into an extraordinary journey to new lands. Gravity-defying lyrical hip hop dance and uplifting music come together in the feel good show with a cast of international dancers performing to Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic, Walking On The Moon, Shape of My Heart and Fields of Gold.
The Whitechapel Gallery puts the spotlight on a new generation of artists this year with its major new exhibition, Radical Figures: Painting in the New Millennium. Focusing on artists who use the body as a tool to tell stories and explore vital social concerns, the exhibition explores contemporary subjects such as gender and sexuality, society, politics, race and body image. Demonstrating how the medium of painting has garnered renewed interest in the past two decades, it puts the focus on artists who have come to prominence since 2000 with works on display by the likes of Michael Armitage, Cecily Brown, Ryan Mosley and Sanya Kantarovsky.
Caryl Churchill's dystopian drama, Far Away, receives a revival at the Donmar Warehouse this winter, twenty years after its ground-breaking premiere. Set within a world where government surveillance knows your every move and everything and everyone are at war, the chilling production is one of Churchill's best-loved plays. This production will see Jessica Hynes reprise her role while Lyndsey Turner directs.
David Mitchell makes his West End debut in Ben Elton's stage adaptation of the critically acclaimed BBC TV sitcom, Upstart Crow as the all-new comedy - written especially for the stage - comes to the Gielgud Theatre. Mitchell puts on the bald wig and bardish coddling pouch in his iconic characterisation of Will Shakespeare, starring alongside Gemma Whelan (a familiar face from Game of Thrones and as Anne Lister's sister Marian in Gentleman Jack) who plays Will's friend and housekeeper, the sweet and fragrant Kate. They are joined by a troupe of players as Will desperately tries to come up with a brilliant new plot. Olivier award-winner Sean Foley (The Ladykillers, Jeeves and Wooster and The Miser) directs.
Strictly favourite and the show's winner in 2018 Stacey Dooley returns to host the tour for the first time in 2020 as the Strictly Come Dancing: The Live Tour waltzes its way around the country from January. Celebrities and professional dancers from the 17th series of the award-winning BBC One show put on a sequin filled show, recreating the glitz and glamour seen on TV. Expect to see the impressive choreography and toe tapping live music that Strictly is known for. The tour judges will, as always, provide their feedback and scores after each performance, however it's the audience who decides who wins the coveted Glitterball Trophy at the end of each show as you vote via text for your favourite couple. Performing 32 sequin-filled shows, the live tour comes to London's O2 Arena for five shows in February for the grand finale.
An annual visual treat, the Kew Orchid Festival returns for its 25th year in 2020. This year the festival celebrates the diverse wildlife and vibrant culture of Indonesia. Made up of more than 17,500 islands, including Bali, Java and Borneo, the country's vast topography ranges from tropical rainforests to spectacular volcanoes and is home to a plethora of flora and fauna. Visitors to the festival will find themselves transported into an exotic paradise that captures the sights, smells and sounds of the country with a display of life-sized orangutans, tigers and rhinoceros decorated in flowers.
Running on one Sunday a month from February to April, Civilised Sundays at Jikoni returns for its second year in 2020, welcoming a broad line-up of guest speakers from the worlds of food, music and literature. Taking over Ravinder Bhogal's Marylebone restaurant, the event will see the chef serve a special one-off menu inspired by each guest, to be enjoyed while they discuss their backgrounds, careers and heritage. The series launches with award-winning musician Nitin Sawhney CBE, who combines jazz and electronica with Asian and other world influences. Next up is novelist, essayist and author Salman Rushdie who penned the Booker Prize-winning Midnight's Children. Finally, its the turn of Claudia Roden, one of the most respected and best-loved food writers in the business.
Elizabeth McGovern and Nigel Lindsay reprise their roles in Yasmina Reza's award-winning God of Carnage this winter when it comes to Rose Theatre Kingston as part of a UK tour. The hit comedy production enjoyed an acclaimed run in 2018 and this time round it will welcome two-time Olivier Award-winning actress Samantha Spiro and Star War's actor Simon Paisley Day to the cast. A study of modern parenting, the ruthless comedy sees two sets of parents meet for a tense discussion after their children are embroiled in a playground spat. But who will turn out to be the childish ones in the end?
Its online success led to a Broadway staging and now internet sensation Be More Chill is receiving a London run. What started out as a low-key production in New Jersey soon went on to become a phenomenon thanks to a strong fan base downloading the full soundtrack and getting it to number two on the Top Albums Chart. Now the Tony Award-nominated score and stage production will be brought to life at The Other Palace Theatre with a brand-new UK cast. Based on the novel of the same name by Ned Vizzini, the plot is centred around a boy, a girl and a supercomputer that lives inside the boy's head in order to form a zany, atypical love story accompanied by the infamous catchy songs More than Survive, Be More Chill and Michael in the Bathroom.
Keeping kids entertained for twelve days this February, the Imagine Children's Festival delivers a line-up of family fun for 0-12 year olds. Head to the Southbank Centre for colourful puppet show The Very Hungry Caterpillar, multi-sensory experience Nest and the chance to meet a dinosaur at Erth's Dinosaur Zoo. Other highlights include a celebration of the Harry Potter books and an adventure with Pippi Longstocking while special guests include Michael Rosen, Dermot O'Leary, Cressida Cowell and Konnie Huq.
Many Londoners are no doubt likely to relate to Paul Minx's new play, The Dog Walker, with a story revolving around loneliness and friendship in a big city. The world premiere of the brand-new comedy comes to the Jermyn Street Theatre this February, inviting audiences to follow the story of professional dog walker Herbert when he encounters lone ouzo drinker Keri. Harry Burton, best known for his acclaimed productions of Harold Pinter's The Dumb Waiter, The Leisure Society and Barking in Essex, directs the production.
A new translation of La Cage aux Folles by acclaimed actor, writer and theatre director Simon Callow comes to Park Theatre this February. While the story has spawned four blockbuster films and a Tony Award-winning musical, this will be a new version of the play with direction from Jez Bond and a cast featuring Michael Matus, Paul Hunter and Georgina Ambrey. Set in St. Tropez, the zany comedy focuses on nightclub owner Georges and his drag artiste partner Albin, who together create spectacular shows. Things take a more dramatic turn, however, when Georges son Lauren announced his engagement to the daughter of a right-wing politician.
This February, the Hayward Gallery presents Nevin Aladag's first UK solo show, Fanfare. Staged in the gallery's HENI Project Space, the free exhibition explores sound, rhythm and music through a display of recent works that see instruments played by the city rather than musicians. The playful video work Traces illustrates a tambourine bounding down a deserted street, a violin revolving on a spinning merry-go-round and an accordion hanging from a lamppost. Session, meanwhile, presents drums, bells and other percussive instruments from Pakistan, India and Iraq.
He's done the double, winning both the Turner Prize and an Oscar, and in spring 2020 '12 Years a Slave' filmmaker Steve McQueen is the subject of a major Tate Modern show. Putting on the first survey of his work, Tate displays personal and large-scale works spanning more than 20 years. Highlights include McQueen's earliest film shot on a Super 8 camera, Exodus 1992/97, a reflection on migration and multiculturalism in his home city of London. Recurrent themes in his work address issues of representation, identity and history. Large, immersive video installations present a close-up aerial view of the Statue of Liberty and an intense exploration of the labour conditions of gold miners in South Africa. The exhibition also features Weight 2016, a gold-plated mosquito net draped over a prison bed-frame and an exploration of the relation between protection and confinement.
Everyone's favourite Hollywood love story comes alive on the London stage this February when Pretty Woman: The Musical transfers from Broadway to the West End with a run at the Piccadilly Theatre. The direction and choreography come from two-time Tony Award-winner Jerry Mitchell (Kinky Boots, Legally Blonde, Hairspray) along with a book by the movie's director Garry Marshall and screenwriter J.F. Lawton. Grammy Award-winning musician Bryan Adams and his long-time collaborator Jim Vallance are responsible for the score with a number of original songs as well as Roy Orbison's 'Oh, Pretty Woman'.
This year, Queen's House presents Woburn Treasures, a major new collaboration with Woburn Abbey that sees the venue showcase works from the private art collection of The Duke and Duchess of Bedford - widely regarded as one of the most important private art collections of today. With a number of pieces on public display in a national museum for the first time in over 60 years, visitors will be able to see pieces by the likes of Van Dyck, Reynolds, Gainsborough and Canaletto. Highlights include a full-length portrait of Anne of Denmark by Flemish artist Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger, Lady Elizabeth Keppel by Sir Joshua Reynolds and Regatta on the Grand Canal by Canaletto.
Caryl Churchill's haunting drama, A Number, returns to the London stage in 2020 with a run at Bridge Theatre starring Roger Allam and Colin Morgan. An exploration of identity, intimacy and belonging, it sees an only son discover that he is, in fact, one of a number of identical copies. What will happen when he confronts his father about his outrageous genetic experiment? The thrilling piece won the 2002 Evening Standard Award for Best Play and has since been staged at the likes of The Young Vic theatre. Polly Findlay directs this production with Allam taking the role of Salter, the father, and Morgan playing all his sons.
Meet the giant insects and bizarre looking animals who used to inhabit earth 252 million years ago in the family friendly Permian Monsters: Life Before the Dinosaurs exhibition at the Horniman Museum. Before Triceratops and Tyrannosaurus Rex, life on earth was dominated by fearsome sabre-toothed predators, giant insects and strange reptiles with mammal-like characteristics. The Permian age ended with a mass extinction caused by a phenomenon getting a lot of press right now - global warming. It destroyed 90 per cent of all life. It would be millions of years before our planet's next great rulers arrived - the dinosaurs. You'll get to see fossil skeletons as well as full-size models and animatronics that bring the Permian back to life. Put your inner paleontologist to work with fossil digs in interactive pits throughout the exhibition.
Jennifer Saunders plays the clairvoyant Madame Arcati in Noel Coward's Blithe Spirit, directed by former National Theatre director Sir Richard Eyre. Written in 1941, Coward's witty comedy provided light relief at the height of World War II when it was first staged. In this new production, which played to sell out audiences at Theatre Royal Bath last summer, Jennifer is joined by original cast members Geoffrey Streatfeild who stars as novelist Charles, Lisa Dillon as his second wife Ruth Condomine and Emma Naomi as his first Elvira whose ghost is inadvertently summoned at a seance. When she appears, visible only to Charles, and determined to sabotage his current marriage, life gets more complicated. This is the third play from Jonathan Church's Summer Season to transfer to the West End following Arthur Miller's The Price and Switzerland at the Ambassadors. The new production tours the UK coming to Richmond Theatre from 17th until 22nd February before arriving in the West End at the Duke of York's Theatre for a five week run.
A crazy golf course inspired by the King's Cross rave culture of the '80s and '90s is popping up at Coal Drops Yard for six weeks from mid-February. Designed by artists Baker & Borowski, Club Golf is a striking new nine-hole outdoor course that has been designed with iconic warehouse clubs such as Bagleys and The Cross and The Key, both of which used to reside in Coal Drops Yard, in mind. Players will have their putting skills put to the test with an array of stairs and obstacles to tackle, all while trying not to get distracted by the bespoke wacky design.
Bringing together over 300 works by more than 50 pioneering international artists, the Barbican surveys the representation of masculinity across several mediums in its new exhibition, Masculinities: Liberation through Photography. An exploration of how masculinity is experienced, performed and socially constructed, it demonstrates how both photography and film have played a central role in influencing how masculinities are understood in contemporary society. Topics covered include queer identity, the black body, power and patriarchy and fatherhood and family.
Over 500 classic and racing cars go on display at the London Classic Car Show which comes to Olympia London this February. This year sees Range Rover celebrate 50 years as the leading luxury SUV while Audi quattro marks 40 years since its premiere. Both milestones will be referenced at the show with specially curated displays of the finest offerings from both of the brands. The 2020 show will also feature Car Stories, a brand-new addition that celebrates six of the world's most iconic and interesting cars along with high-profile personalities, drivers and owners in the industry. The 1987 Rothmans Porsche 962C, Adrian Newey's Lotus 49, and Sir Stirling Moss's Maserati 250F are just three of the cars on the line-up.
Street food pioneers Street Feast are making pizza the headline act this February with Slice World at Hawker House. London's biggest every pizza party, it will celebrate the best of the UK's pizza scene with the likes of Fundi, Vicoli di Napoli, Born and Raised, and Poli all serving their best slices - priced at just £2 a slice - to 4,000 diners. Winners of the 2018 London Pizza Festival, Wandercrust, will also be in attendance and there will be several vegan and vegetarian options.
Having hosted Jan Svoboda's first solo exhibition back in 1982, the Photographers' Gallery now presents Against the Light, the first major UK presentation of the Czech photographer since that first exhibition. Svoboda's ground-breaking experiments and visionary methods led to him becoming a pioneer in photographic appropriation and he went on to redefine many aspects of photography by bridging the traditions of Symbolism and Romanticism with the conceptual and self-reflexive tendencies of late Modernism. Co-organised with The Moravian Gallery in Brno, the exhibition puts around 50 vintage works on display showcasing a broad range of biographical material, personal photography and video interviews.
In spring each year The Photographers' Gallery in London shows an exhibition of work by the four artists shortlisted for the prestigious Deutsche Borse Photography Prize - worth £30,000 to the winner. The 2020 exhibition marks the prize's 24th year and features images by Mohamed Bourouissa, Anton Kusters, Mark Neville and Clare Strand, all four of whom are deemed to have made a significant contribution to photography over the past 12 months. The winner will be announced during the run of the exhibition, rewarding the photographer who has made the most significant contribution to the medium of photography during the past year.
Celebrating the freedom that Isadora Duncan brought to dance - particularly to women dancers and choreographers - Italian ballerina Viviana Durante directs Isadora Now at the Barbican. American dancer Isadora Duncan is often seen as 'the mother of modern dance' and this evening pays tribute to her contribution. The programme includes the rarely seen Dance of the Furies created by Duncan in 1905, the Five Brahms Waltzes in the Manner of Isadora Duncan by Frederick Ashton, and to close, a new group piece by choreographer Joy Alpuerto Ritter set to specially composed live music by Lih Qun Wong. The all-female ensemble includes Viviana Durante herself, giving her first solo appearance for a decade.
Downton Abbey has proved the nation's fascination with the upstairs and downstairs divide in high society, so many will be glad to hear that The National Gallery is providing the chance to peer into the goings on of such households with its major winter exhibition, Nicolaes Maes: Dutch Master of the Golden Age. Depicting everything from the illicit goings on of a servants' quarters to the enviable lives of the high society, Maes perfectly captured the upstairs and downstairs lifestyle in the Dutch Golden Age. This new exhibition puts nearly 50 paintings and drawings by the artist, who began his career as one of Rembrandt's most talented pupils, to show his full repertoire of both historical and biblical scenes as well as those capturing everyday life.
The Royal Academy of Arts invites visitors to admire the work of Flemish artist Leon Spilliaert this winter with the UK's first monographic exhibition of the artist. Through the display of around 90 works, the exhibition shines a spotlight on an artist who has remained surprisingly unknown outside of his native Belgium, where his dreamy landscapes - most notably night-time scenes - and moving self-portraits are well-known and admired. Striking images of his hometown and the coast are among those to be displayed in the exhibition with works from both public and private collections.
Four rock vocalists who starred in the musical We Will Rock You, a five-piece rock band and symphony orchestra perform Queen's greatest hits. After playing to sell out audiences in the UK and globally - including the London Coliseum where it was recorded for BBC Radio 2 - Queen Symphonic: A Rock Orchestra Experience comes to the UK in February 2020 for nine shows, stopping by the London Palladium on 24th February. Expect rousing rock as hit songs like Bohemian Rhapsody, We Are the Champions, Crazy Little Thing Called Love and We Will Rock You are given the full orchestra treatment.
With new musical numbers and lavish sets, The Prince of Egypt brings a glittering production based on the Dreamworks film to the Dominion stage. Journey through the wonders of Ancient Egypt as the brand-new stage show follows the story of Moses, adopted by the Pharaoh and raised together with his adopted brother, Ramses. Tensions rise as the two find themselves suddenly divided by a secret past. One must rule as Pharaoh, the other must rise up and free his true people. With music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz (who wrote the score for Wicked) and songs like 'When You Believe' - a big hit for Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey - you can expect a spine tingling soundtrack which includes ten new songs. The cast comes with a wealth of experience in shows like Sweeney Todd and Les Mis with Luke Brady as Moses and Liam Tamne playing his adopted brother, Ramses, while Gary Wilmot stars as Bedouin leader Jethro.
With co-direction from Kathy Burke and Scott Graham, Sally Abbott's new play, I Think We Are Alone, comes to Stratford East this winter to celebrate the 25th anniversary of physical theatre company Frantic Assembly. Created in partnership with Theatre Royal Plymouth, the play examines our need for love and forgiveness by following four individuals going through tough times. Sisters Charlotte and Polly have been drifting apart but they're about to come together and clear the air over events that still haunt them from their younger years. Meanwhile, Josie is struggling with grief and Graham is considering letting someone in to fill the missing piece in his heart.
Almost 100 years since the concept of surrealism was born, Dulwich Picture Gallery hosts the first major exhibition to explore its origins. British Surrealism: 1783-1952 shows how British Surrealism was a fundamental movement in the history of art and how it actually pre-dated the international movement's official beginnings. The works of more than 30 artists, including Francis Bacon, Henry Moore, Paul Nash and Graham Sutherland, go on display in the exhibition, offering an eclectic mix of paintings, sculptures, etchings and prints from 1783 to 1952. The exhibition poses the question of whether Henri Fuseli and William Blake deserve the title of 'proto-surrealists', and it explores how Surrealism had a major impact on British artists in the 1930s and '40s. Visitors can expect themes of war, dreams, politics, violence, the unconscious and the uncanny.
The Garden Museum explores the golden age of garden painting between two world wars with its new exhibition, Sanctuary: Artist-Gardeners 1919-1939. Showcasing the works of over 20 artists, the exhibition illustrates how the peaceful period between two wars allowed for a number of artists who also gardened to entwine their pastimes and find sanctuary by producing a number of exceptional works showcasing gardens and plants. After World War One, many reacted to the trauma by returning to pastoral landscapes and the exhibition showcases works such as Mahoney's 'The Garden', Evelyn Dunbar's 'Woman Tending Bocconea Cordata' and Nancy Nicholson's playful depiction of her father 'William Nicholson at Work'.
Widely acknowledged for his expertise in drawing, David Hockney's intimate portraits are put under the spotlight at this National Portrait Gallery exhibition showing around 150 works. David Hockney: Drawing from Life focuses on four sitters close to him and his self-portraits to examine his distinctive way of observing the world. His admiration for old and modern masters, from Holbein to Matisse, is evident in his neo-Classical style line drawings of the 1970s and the 'camera lucida' drawings of the late 1990s. Always open to new technology, in the 1980s he used composite Polaroids to 'draw with the camera', as he described it, creating Cubist depictions of form which paid homage to Picasso. More recently years, he has used iPhone and iPad apps to create vast landscapes. As well as self-portraits dating from his school-boy days, this exhibition reveals four subjects dear to Hockney's heart: his muse, Celia Birtwell; his mother, Laura Hockney; the curator, Gregory Evans, and master printer, Maurice Payne.
Showcasing 150 of the world's best brewers, BrewLDN is a brand new beer festival launching in 2020. Bringing all-female brewers Mothership, wood-fired brewery Cassels from NZ and local London and UK breweries to the Old Truman Brewery, the three-day event gives you the chance to sample a huge range of beers. Breweries including Small Beer Brew Co, London Fields Brewery and Tiny Rebel in Wales are on hand to educate visitors on their brewing processes and products. Enjoy tasting sessions, workshops and talks curated by beer expert Melissa Cole, author of The Beer Kitchen, and Gabe Cook, the Ciderologist and resident expert on Channel 4's Sunday Brunch. There will also be gourmet street food from Brigadiers, Prairie Fire BBQ and Vegan Nights, among others, as well as live music from Greg Wilson and the Old Dirty Brasstards plus resident DJs from Hoxton Radio.
The only gallery-presented art fair dedicated to modern craft and design, Collect 2020 comes to Somerset House this February. Returning for its 16th year, the fair has been a vital aspect in growing the market for contemporary craft, and this year's fair will see 40 international galleries from across the globe take part. Each gallery will curate their own displays made up from work made in the last five years by some of the world's leading contemporary artists and designers. All of the pieces will be for sale with the chance to purchase ceramic, glass, metal, wood and textile works from over 25 nations. Additionally, this year will present Collect Open with new craft-led installations by 12 individual artists and collectives showcased around Somerset House.
Fresh from returning as Uncle Bryn in the Gavin & Stacey Christmas special, Rob Brydon heads on tour in 2020, stopping by Alexandra Palace for one night in February. Songs and Stories sees the funny man show another string to his bow with the introduction of singing and music. Accompanied by an eight-piece band, it will be his first show to combine songs and music with his witty jokes and will see him perform everything from Sondheim to Rodgers and Hammerstein.
Described as a 'multi-sensory sonic theme park' Darkfield comes to London's King's Cross following three sold-out Edinburgh Festival runs. Three immersive shows - Seance, Flight and Coma - all take place in pitch black inside an individual container, plunging audiences into an exciting show where the use of headphones ensures they are fully immersed. Seance is set in a Victorian seance room and explores the psychology of the group taking part; Flight resembles an Airbus 320 economy cabin and takes audiences into two parallel worlds; and Coma puts all participants in a mass experiment where they must imagine a new collective reality.
Eccentric east London hotel Mama London presents an evening of Drag Bingo and Bottomless Bubbles this February. John Sizzle and his fellow queens Just May, Honey Foxx and Margo Marshall will bring their wit to the proceedings as they present their take on classic bingo. Guests will be able to tuck into a three-course feast with the Drag & Dine menu featuring carpaccio beef sirloin with horseradish cream and frangipane tart with blood orange puree, and there will be an hour of free-flowing bubbles to wash it down. After the bingo there will be live DJ sets until late along with house punch made with Havana rum and pie spiced apple juice.
Catwalk designs by Yves Saint Laurent, Star Wars costumes and a Jean Paul Gaultier designed kimono created for Madonna go on display at the V&A in 2020 as part of Kimono: Kyoto to Catwalk - the first major exhibition on the kimono in Europe. Exploring the kimono as a dynamic and evolving icon of fashion in both Japan and the rest of the world, the exhibition will also display a broad range of artworks alongside the kimonos to reveal the sartorial, aesthetics and social significance of the garment from the 1660s to the present day. Further highlights include costumes from the Oscar-winning Memoirs of a Geisha and a couture gown designed by John Galliano for Christian Dior.
A taste of New Orleans comes to London this February when Pop Brixton presents the biggest Mardi Gras celebration in Europe. Party goers will be able to enjoy a non-stop line-up of Afro-Latin jazz rock in an event that will see Carnival and Mardi Gras collide. The Coalminers will present uplifting funk, Dom Pipkin will bring the soul of New Orleans to the UK, and the Pomba Girls will bring their glitter, costumes and frolics to the occasion. There will also be street food vendors serving Louisiana-inspired food and drink.
Bottomless cocktail making experience Mix It pops up at the Montague's much Instagrammed Garden Terrace. Heated for the occasion, the garden terrace hosts an interactive two-hour cocktail class where you'll learn how to create new mixes from a list of cocktail ideas created by Pernod Ricard, famous for its anise-flavoured alcoholic drinks. During the two hour session you get unlimited spirits, plus mixers and cocktail ingredients while an expert bartender leads your group of a maximum of 14 people. Food from the hotel's bar menu can be ordered alongside the drinks at an additional charge. Bookings are essential.