What's On
Major new musical Opening Night, based on the legendary John Cassavetes film, is having its world premiere in the West End. It follows a theatre company as it prepares to stage a new play on Broadway but backstage drama ensues when the production’s leading lady is hit by tragedy, which forces everyone to deliver the performance of their lives. And there are some big hitters involved – Tony and Olivier Award winner Ivo van Hove is directing, Rufus Wainwright is behind the music and lyrics, and BAFTA and Olivier Award winner Sheridan Smith is starring.
The Women By Women photography exhibit is returning to Central London for International Women’s Day. Produced by Action Aid UK, the exhibition will feature female refugees and the contribution they make to their communities along with the women who support them. The works of five female photographers from Poland, Uganda, Bangladesh, Colombia, and Turkey will be showcased at the Oxo Tower Ward and tell the stories of 21 female refugees.
AN IDEA OF A LIFE
Female artists Meera Shakti Osborne, Lesley Asare, and Sarina Mantle will be featured in An Idea of a Life exhibit at the Women’s Museum in March. The exhibit will showcase the history of communities led by the Abbess and nuns from c.666AD to the early 16th Century near Barking Abbey and will show their everyday history. It will also include objects excavated from the area that demonstrated how women were connected to significant historic places.
SPAGO AT 45 PARK LANE
Beverly Hills fave and celeb magnet Spago, founded by Wolfgang Puck, is coming back across the pond to the capital for a pop-up this March. The restaurant will be taking over Puck’s London restaurant CUT at 45 Park Lane for three days, with Byron Puck and Tetsu Yahagi coming over to collaborate with 45 Park Lane’s Elliot Grover on a five-course dinner menu. Dishes will include lobster and asparagus salad with yuzu miso vinaigrette; bacon-wrapped monkfish with broad beans and chanterelle mushrooms; uovo in raviolo with French black truffles; grilled New York steak with braised beef cheeks, wild ramps and ricotta-nettle gnocchi; and tiramisu.
DAVID BOWIE - A LONDON DAY
As David Bowie was preparing to release his 18th studio album Black Tie White Noise, photographer Kevin Davies was commissioned to shoot promotional images for the record, and so he spent a day in December 1992 shooting Bowie in Clerkenwell. Once selected images had been approved for press use, all the films, contact sheets and prints went into storage, where they remained untouched until 2020. Now Davies is showcasing a selection of photographs taken on that day at the Fitzrovia Chapel with the David Bowie – A London Day exhibition. As well as depicting the musical icon in his prime, the images also serve as an exploration of the analogue photography process.
Step into the surreal and playful world of Chinese artist Rong Bao at the Saatchi Gallery. The RCA graduate’s debut exhibition Rong Bao Is Me is a showcase of her sculptural practice, where she transforms familiar objects into mischievous, sensorial and interactive artworks. Her installations stretch our perception of the physical and foster a sense of fun as a pushback against the norms of society.
Chef Eric Wan (of Dinner by Heston) runs modern Vietnamese pop-up Lá Lốt, inspired by his Chinese/Vietnamese background and his mother’s birthplace of Chợ Lớn in Saigon, where he puts a twist on traditional ingredients and street food dishes. He’s taking over High Ground in Angel for two nights this March, with four-course menu including dishes like chicken, sweet basil & peanut salad; beef, star anise & lemongrass with jasmine rice; and Vietnamese coffee tiramisu. And you can add on paired wines from the High Ground team, who’ll be pouring Austrian and European bottles. You can book a table by buying a £20 ticket here, which’ll be taken off your bill at the end.
THE ART OF BANKSY
The Art of Banksy first landed in London in the spring of 2021 after touring the world, popping up in cities from Melbourne to Miami, and following another international jaunt, it returned to the capital in 2023. After closing at the start of this year, the exhibition is on its way back for a third run, this time opening in a new space in Soho. The show is not authorised by the artist and therefore not curated in collaboration with him (not really Banksy’s style is it?) so all the pieces on show are loans from private collectors. In fact, the exhibition will display the world’s largest collection of official Banksy works from 1997 – 2008. This time around, over 150 pieces will be on show, including the iconic ‘Girl and Balloon’ ‘Flower Thrower’ and ‘Rude Copper’ as well as artworks from Dismaland, ones that reference the war in Ukraine and some going on public display for the first time.
BERT HARDY | PHOTOJOURNALISM IN WAR AND PEACE
The Photographers’ Gallery is looking back on the four-decades-long career of Bert Hardy this spring with this Photojournalism in War and Peace exhibition. This retrospective covers his work at Picture Post magazine, including his portrayal of post-war life in Britain and the way he revealed the social conditions and working-class lives of the time. His photographs taken during the Blitz, the liberation of Bergen-Belsen and the war in Southeast Asia will also be on show alongside archival material like press passes, diaries, and correspondence.
HOKO X WUN'S TEA ROOM WONTON NOODLES POP-UP
Wun’s Tea Room & Bar (from the team behind Bun House in Chinatown and the Pleasant Lady stall in Old Spitalfields Market) has been closed since last summer, but it’s coming back this February and March for a collab with Hong Kong milk tea and French toast experts HOKO. The pop-up will see the Soho spot transformed into a wonton noodles shop where you can grab bowls of the HK speciality, as well as HOKO favourites. There’ll be several wonton noodles options on the menu, each of which will be served with hand-wrapped wontons filled with pork and shrimp. Plus, there’ll be plates of char siu BBQ pork rice, lo mein and HOKO’s classic French toast, as well as plenty of tea to sip on.
FOR BLACK BOYS WHO HAVE CONSIDERED SUICIDE WHEN THE HUE GETS TOO HEAVY
Ryan Calais Cameron’s Olivier-Award nominated For Black Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When The Hue Gets Too Heavy is back on the West End, this time at the Garrick Theatre, following three previous sold-out runs. Inspired by Ntozake Shange’s seminal work For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf and conceived by Ryan Calais Cameron in the wake of Trayvon Martin’s killing in 2012, For Black Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When The Hue Gets Too Heavy uses six young Black men who meet for group therapy to explore themes like colourism, love, masculinity and trauma.
ROMEO & JULIET
He already has one iconic role to his name in Peter Parker aka Spiderman, and now Tom Holland is taking on another this summer in the shape of Romeo. This version of Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet is being directed by Jamie Lloyd, who’s got a string of critically acclaimed productions to his name, most recently the award-winning revival of Sunset Boulevard starring Nicole Scherzinger. Francesca Amewudah-Rivers will be playing Juliet, with Freema Agyeman as Nurse, Michael Balogun as Friar, Daniel Quinn-Toye as Paris, Ray Sesay as Tybalt, Nima Taleghani as Benvolio, and Joshua-Alexander Williams as Mercutio.
THE DIVINE
It’s farewell to The Glory but it’s long live The Divine. Yes following the closure of legendary queer bar The Glory in Haggerston, owners Jonny Woo, John Sizzle and Colin Rothbart have opened a new spot just down the road in Dalston. The Divine is a 200-capacity bar with a bigger stage, a new light and sound system, and a packed programme, with the likes of Yshee Black, Keela Kraving, Rose Feroce, Baby Lame, and Crayola The Queen passing through. The legendary LIPSYNC1000 and MAN UP drag contests made famous at The Glory are also making the move up the road too, so we’re sure The Divine is going to be just as raucous and become just as beloved as its predecessor.
KEW ORCHID FESTIVAL
The annual orchid festival is back at Kew and this year’s theme is Madagascar, which, thanks to its incredible biodiversity, is home to some of the world’s rarest plant species. You can get a little taste of Madagascar’s varied landscapes and native wildlife across the different zones inside the Princess of Wales Conservatory. As well as an array of orchid displays, there’ll be a range of plant sculptures on show, including giraffe weevils and ring-tailed lemurs, and an exhibition of Malagasy photographer Tina Waibel’s work.
FLOW AT OUTERNET
See the history of Western art translated into dance with <FLOW> at Outernet. Created by design studio d’strict, <FLOW> moves from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance, Impressionism and beyond through the movement of digital ‘giants’ who gradually break out of their constraints and into freeform dance, showing how the world has transformed. As well as playing on Outernet’s floor-to-ceiling screens, the display is accompanied by a bespoke score from Australian composer Tristan Barton.
Zheng Bo is the latest artist to be given Somerset House’s courtyard commission and they’re turning the space into a bamboo garden. Bamboo as Method is an expression of Zheng’s eco-queer approach and looks to redistribute the power that humans are assumed to have over nature. Made of 300 locally sourced bamboo, the garden will give visitors a chance to disconnect from the hustle of normal life and immerse themselves in nature by spending time sketching one of the ten different species of bamboo. Biodegradable paper will be provided for the drawings, which will then be composted into the soil to fertilise the garden, to complete the cycle of creativity and ecology.
BARBARA KRUGER | THINKING OF YOU. I MEAN ME. I MEAN YOU.
American artist Barbara Kruger is getting her first institutional solo show in the capital for more than 20 years at Serpentine South, and her first time back showing at the gallery since 1994. Thinking of You. I Mean Me. I Mean You. will feature installations, moving image pieces and soundscapes, including some of her iconic works like ‘Untitled (I shop therefore I am)’ and ‘Untitled (Your body is a battleground)’ that have recently been reworked to incorporate video. As well as the works on show at Serpentine, you’ll also be able to see her pieces displayed on the screens at Outernet on Tottenham Court Road.
THE DUCHESS OF MALFI
Ten years after opening the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, The Duchess of Malfi, John Webster’s revenge tragedy, is back on stage at the candlelit theatre. This time Rachel Bagshaw is directing the play, where a recently widowed duchess falls in love with her steward and has to fight her brothers to gain control of her life.