Rhys Ifans is Atticus Finch as To Kill A Mockingbird comes to London in May 2020, Pet Shop Boys bring their greatest hits to The O2 and the Regent's Park Open Air Theatre season begins with a brand new musical of 101 Dalmatians.
In 2020, the V&A celebrates the significant contribution that the Royal Academy of Dance has made to the development of British ballet over the past hundred years. On Point: Royal Academy of Dance at 100 sees the museum explore the company's history through a display of costumes, designs and photographs from the RAD's archive and the V&A's Theatre & Performance Collection. Highlights include original ballet costumes and accessories worn by RAD founders and Presidents along with audio-visual footages, original photographs, letter, programmes and posters.
Taking place every May bank holiday weekend, the annual two-day international festival of hip hop and dance theatre, curated by Sadler's Wells associate artist Jonzi D, is back for a 17th year in 2020. Featuring performances from some of the world's greatest poppers, lockers, B-boys and B-girls, the line-up for this year's Breakin' Convention includes the return of South Korea's Jinjo Crew, "experts at whipping a packed house into a frenzied appreciation" (The Times), and France's Geometrie Variable, who explore a style resembling the inner mechanics of a timepiece. UK-based Spoken Movement, which was part of Dance Elargie: Dance Expanded here in October 2019, also joins the line-up. The festival takes over the whole Sadler's Wells space with dance workshops, graffiti, DJs and freestyle sessions taking place all over the building.
Canalway Cavalcade is a distinctive waterway festival that has been taking place at Little Venice since 1983. Organised by Inland Waterways Association volunteers, there will be an array of boats, trade show stalls and boater gatherings at this festival for water lovers. As well as the boating activities, there will also be Morris dancing, competitions, food, a real ale bar and family-friendly activities making it an enjoyable day out for families. Plus, with the location being quaint Little Venice, this creates the perfect opportunity for a gentle stroll and an enjoyable view alongside your lunch and ale.
Known for his improvisational comedy and random musings, Ross Noble returns to London with his brand-new UK tour, Humournoid. A radio and TV regular with appearances on BBC's QI and Have I Got News for You and Radio 4's Just a Minute and Britain in Bits, the comedian is renowned for his surreal and offbeat humour, and he will no doubt have the audience at the London Palladium howling with laughter.
Looking at their role as both a style statement and a high-tech fitness accessory, the Design Museum puts trainers in the spotlight with its new exhibition, Sneakers Unboxed: Studio to Street. With designs by the likes of Nike, Adidas and Puma as well as Colette and Comme des Garcons on display, the exhibition explores how sneakers have transformed our relationship with sportswear and developed into one of the biggest industries in the world - the reselling market worth is $2 billion. Visitors can go behind the scenes of the industry to explore the design process for the most innovative footwear including self-lacing, 3D printed and 100% recyclable trainers.
Adapted from Jane Austen's unfinished novel and "joyously directed" (Evening Standard) by Samuel West, The Watsons comes to the West End's Harold Pinter Theatre from Chichester via a hugely successful run at the Menier Chocolate Factory. "Jane Austen has never been quite as much fun as this before" said The Times review of Laura Wade's pithy comedy. The playwright herself appears to take on a role as halfway through the action a writer called Laura disguised as a maid interrupts the action. A "meta-theatrical free-for-all" (Standard), this "self-referential comedy... keeps you guessing until the last second" (The Times).
A line-up of the world's top galleries come to Somerset House for four days in May when Photo London returns to the capital for a sixth year. Renowned as one of the biggest photography events of the year, the showcase is not only a selling fair but also includes special exhibitions, installations and a curated programme of talks and presentations along with daily sixty minute tours giving knowledgeable insight into the fair. The 2020 line-up is yet to be announced.
Opening the 2020 summer season at the outdoor theatre in Regent's Park, 101 Dalmatians is the first musical to be commissioned by the Open Air Theatre. Based on Dodie Smith's much loved story about the crazed Cruella De Ville who wants to use the fur of spotty puppies to make a coat, the production is directed by Timothy Sheader, with puppetry by Toby Olie, the War Horse puppeteer who co-directed The Elephantom. For this production Toby is designing and directing the cast of canine characters. With a book by Zinnie Harris and music and lyrics by Douglas Hodge and set and costume design by Katrina Lindsay (responsible for the costume designs in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child) the strong creative team includes choreographer Liam Steel with musical supervision and orchestrations by Sarah Travis and musical direction by Tarek Merchant.
A colourful night-time power walking marathon, where the participants bare their colourfully decorated bras, the MoonWalk is a fun way to raise money for Walk the Walk - a breast cancer charity supporting medical research and care. This year there's a carnival theme so you can expect the walkers to stride out in some outrageous outfits and flamboyant underwear done up in feathers and sequins. Those that set out from Clapham Common get a fantastic evening tour past London's architectural highlights as well as the satisfaction of raising money for charity.
A mainstay of summer in London, the Regent's Park Open Air Theatre opens its gates for another season of al fresco drama in 2020, opening with their first newly commissioned musical, 101 Dalmatians, with puppetry designed and directed by Toby Olie. Then comes Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare's timeless story of two young people torn apart, directed by Kimberley Sykes. Timothy Sheader reunites with Jesus Christ Superstar choreographer Drew McOnie for Rodgers and Hammerstein's Carousel, a marvellous musical with a score that includes 'If I Loved You' and 'You'll Never Walk Alone'. For younger viewers, Dragons and Mythical Beasts presents a new 50-minute daytime show by Nicoll Entertainment and the team behind Dinosaur World Live. Enter a magical world of myths and legends in this fantastical new interactive show.
This spring, the V&A explores the development of watercolour painting during the Renaissance and the Age of Discovery with its new exhibition, Renaissance Watercolours: from Durer to Van Dyck. The exquisite medium will be shown in its best light through the display of 200 rarely seen masterpieces that illustrates them as a unified art form for the first time. Visitors will see how watercolour painting has played a vital role in our understanding, interpretation and documentation of the natural world with genres themed around landscape, natural history and portraiture. See works by seminal painters including Albrecht Durer, Nicholas Hilliard and Anthony van Dyck.
Keen to boost his flagging career, fading Hollywood action hero Jefferson Steele arrives in England to play King Lear in Stratford. That's the starting point for Ian Hislop and Nick Newman's comedy A Bunch of Amateurs, the very first play they wrote, which comes to Richmond Theatre as part of a UK tour. This "love letter to the world of amateur theatre" (as its authors describe it) follows the success of The Wipers Times and Trial By Laughter. The lead finds he's sharing the spotlight with a cast of enthusiastic amateur thespians and has to dig deep to find his inner strength - and discover his inner Lear.
In what promises to be an 'outrageously camp' evening, Julian Clary brings his show, Born to Mince, to the Bloomsbury Theatre this May. The famously filthy comedian will bare his soul like never before, all the spirit of entertainment. There will be singing, there will be laughing and there will be plenty of innuendos. Audiences can also expect a sneak preview from Julian's new memoir, A Night At the Lubricant.
After previously wowing audiences with her West End show Liza Pulman Sings Streisand, Fascinating Aida's Liza Pulman returns to the London stage with her new show, The Heart of It at Riverside Studios. The renowned singer and actress will be accompanied by some of the best musicians in the UK to lead audiences through the music of Sinatra, Michel Le Grand, Stevie Wonder and Randy Newman, reinventing a number of well-known timeless classics. Expect to be laughing and smiling one minute and then crying the next with a heart-warming blend of anecdotes and songs.
In 2020, two landscapes by Peter Paul Rubens will be reunited for the first time in over two hundred years as part of a brand-new exhibition at The Wallace Collection. Rubens: Reuniting the Great Landscapes will place The Rainbow Landscape and A View of Het Steen in the Early Morning together in a striking display. Despite being painted as a companion pair and kept together in Rubens' own collection, the paintings were separated when they were brought to London in 1803. This new exhibition provides new insights into how the paintings were developed and also displays a newly commissioned documentary exploring Ruben's work.
Tate Britain presents the first major survey of London-based painter Lynette Yiadom-Boakye with a showcase of more than 80 paintings and works on paper by the celebrated British artist. Widely regarded as one of the most important painters of her generation, Yiadom-Boakye has become known for her enigmatic portraits of fictitious people with many works alluding to historic European portraiture while demonstrating contemporary techniques. Making waves in the art industry, Yiadom-Boakye was awarded the prestigious Carnegie Prize in 2018 and shortlisted for the Turner Prize in 2013.
As part of its summer season, The Playground Theatre teams up with Jonathan Taylor Productions to present The Respectable Prostitute, the play by French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre that spawned a major international film. Set in hot and steamy 1940s America, the play follows an innocent prostitute who wants to tell the truth about a brutal murder that's taken place in the midst of lies, fake news, racism and other daily affronts in the Deep South. This will be the first staging of the play in nearly 75 years.
Rhys Ifans, recently seen in On Bear Ridge at the Royal Court Theatre, takes on the lead role of small-town lawyer Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird, the new play by Aaron Sorkin based on Harper Lee's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. Set in Alabama in 1934, the enduring story has sold more than 45 million copies worldwide and 2020 marks the 60th anniversary of its publication. The cast of well known and much loved characters includes Atticus's daughter Scout, her brother Jem, their housekeeper and caretaker Calpurnia, their visiting friend Dill, a mysterious neighbour the reclusive Arthur 'Boo' Radley. This story of racial injustice and the loss of childhood innocence is directed by Bartlett Sher who says, "what I most love about the story is this question of 'how do kids learn about justice?'".
London's hottest new music festival, All Points East, is back for its third year in 2020, taking place over two May weekends at Victoria Park along with four days of midweek fun. To kick things off, there's a three day music festival with appearances from headliners Tame Impala and Caribou as well as Glass Animals and Whitney. It's followed by a four-day community-focused midweek programme of comedy, food, outdoor cinema and more. Then comes a long weekend of three back to back shows with Kraftwerk 3D, Iggy Pop, Chromatics and Johnny Mar.
Discover the real life creatures, specimens and artefacts from the Natural History Museum's collection which could just as easily feature in J.K. Rowling's Fantastic Beasts. A partnership between the Natural History Museum, the BBC and Warner Bros. Fantastic Beasts: The Wonder of Nature - the museum's most ambitious exhibition to date - recreates remarkable animals in all their fantastic forms. Creatures from the natural, mythical worlds and the Wizarding World are represented by scientific specimens and historic objects as well as digital installations and characters from the wizarding world. See a tiger and a Galapagos marine iguana alongside an Erumpent horn and the dragon skull from Professor Lupin's classroom. Learn about conservationists like Newt Scamander who dedicates his life to better understanding the beasts and you'll leave with a better understanding of why protecting wildlife and the environment is so important.
The Foodies Festival returns to Syon Park this spring bringing MasterChef winners and famous chefs to leafy west London on the second Bank Holiday weekend in May. This year's line-up of culinary elite includes MasterChef Champion Dhruv Baker, Arnaud Stevens of Plate, Andrew Cole of Bingham Riverhouse and Kerth Gumbs of Ormer Mayfair. There's also a drinks theatre and live music stage as well as workshops, over 20 street food outlets, the Pimms Teapot, cookery classes for kids and garden games and crafting.
The Roundhouse celebrates the spoken word this May with the return of its three-week festival, The Last Word. Bringing together the biggest names and rising stars in the industry, it offers a line-up of poetry, podcasts, sound clashes, supper clubs and shows, blurring the lines between spoken word, music and film to provoke conversations around issues in today's society. One of the annual highlights on the line-up, the Poetry Slam Final returns with talent from all around the UK competing for the winning spot after the regional heats. Further events on the line-up include interactive show The Money, giving players the opportunity to work with a set of strangers in the hope of reaching a unanimous decision on what to spend a sum of money on; The Receipts, an intimate studio session from the acclaimed culture podcast; and British Book, which uses spoken word, poetry and live music to follow two siblings navigating their way through the UK immigration system.
The London-based duo Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe tour with their greatest hits for the first time, begin the seven date UK tour at The O2 on Thursday 28th May 2020. The Pet Shop Boys will be playing songs from their new album, Dreamworld, which encompasses all their hits from the past 30 years but also includes a new single featuring Years & Years. The duo have undoubtedly withstood the test of time - 35 years into their career, the Boys have sold more than 50 million albums and notched over 20 Top 10 hits with their infectious, catchy brand of "high-end, high-art disco pop for mind and body" (The Guardian). Constantly evolving - collaborators have included Girls Aloud, Kylie, The Killers and Lady GaGa.
On of the earth's coldest regions, the Arctic and its indigenous peoples, come under the spotlight at a major British Museum exhibition this spring. Select tools and clothing, artworks and objects used in everyday life are displayed to show how these resilient communities have lived in one of the most dramatic environments on the planet for nearly 30,000 years. Rare objects include 28,000 year old archaeological finds excavated from the thawing ground in Siberia and an 8-piece Igloolik winter costume made of caribou fur. The exhibition reveals the great diversity of cultures and the effect of global warming, showing how communities respond to dramatic shifts in the changing landscape in the most northern region of the world.
This summer you can see a new production of Richard Strauss's Greek tragedy Elektra by German director Christof Loy who staged an "intelligent production" (The Guardian) of Forza del Destino here at the Royal Opera House last year. The "powerful soprano" (Schmopera) Nina Stemme played an "unparalleled" Elektra at the Lyric Opera of Chicago last year and reprises her part in the title role. This passionate opera is about a father who sacrifices a daughter and a wife who kills her husband provoking their daughter to seek bloody revenge. No wonder is has the same power to shock as it did when it first premiered in 1909. Antonio Pappano conducts his first Strauss interpretation for The Royal Opera since 2002 while Finnish soprano Karita Mattila plays queen Klytamnestra for the first time.