Five of the best ... films
The Favourite (15)
(Yorgos Lanthimos, 2018, Ire/UK/US) 119 mins
Three great performances – from Olivia Colman, Rachel Weisz and Emma Stone – ballast this brilliant fable of jostling power brokers at the 18th-century court of Queen Anne. Colman’s Anne has been garnering attention and will likely be a contender for big awards – but Stone (Abigail) and, particularly, Weisz (Sarah), as the favourites new and old, don’t deserve to be overshadowed.
Mary Poppins Returns (U)
(Rob Marshall, 2018, US) 130 mins
This freshly scrubbed and sparkling update of Disney’s family favourite from 1964 suggests that Hollywood’s po-mo phase has come to an end. There’s barely any self-referentiality or reinvention on show here; it’s basically a throwback, as exact a replica as possible of the original. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
RBG (PG)
(Julie Cohen, Betsy West, 2018, US) 98 mins
Celebratory portrait of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the equality rights lawyer who is now a key veteran of the US supreme court – and who has become a touchstone in digital culture, with blogs, Tumblrs and gifs by the bucketload dedicated to her. This doc, via copious interviews with RBG herself as well as legions of admirers, traces her path to the top as she is held to be America’s most enduring liberal conscience.
The Passenger (15)
(Michelangelo Antonioni, 1975, It/Sp/Fr) 125 mins
The third in Antonioni’s English-language trilogy (following Blow-Up and Zabriskie Point) has developed a cult reputation over the decades. Jack Nicholson plays a reporter who acquires the identity of a dead man – who turns out to be a gun runner with nasty people in tow. Maria Schneider, just a couple of years after Last Tango in Paris, plays a young student who helps him as he tries to evade his pursuers.
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (PG)
(Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, Rodney Rothman, 2018, US) 117 mins
Novel and impressive attempt to refresh the Spider-Man franchise, at risk from drowning in reboots. This animated take pulls Spideys in from parallel dimensions, upping the diversity count and providing ample spin-off fuel.
AP
Five of the best ... rock & pop
Ella Mai
In the space of four years, London’s Ella Mai has gone from X Factor reject (her girlband trio Arize didn’t make it past their initial audition) to earning two Grammy nominations for Boo’d Up, a spacious, future-R&B classic that nestled in the US Top 10 last summer. In the UK she’s still finding her feet, but this will likely be your last chance to see her in smaller venues, so don’t miss out.
Birmingham Tuesday 8; Manchester Wednesday 9; London Thursday 10 & Friday 11 January
Cate Le Bon
In the nearly three years since Welsh musician Cate Le Bon released Crab Day, her lauded fourth album of off-kilter psychedelia, she has enrolled in a furniture-making course in the Lake District, made an album with Tim Presley and produced the new Deerhunter record. This solo piano tour is her idea of taking a break.
Dún Laoghaire, Sunday 6; Hebden Bridge, Tuesday 8; Glasgow, Wednesday 9; Leeds, Thursday 10; London, 12 January
The 1975
Over the course of three albums Matthew “Matty” Healy and the other three have established themselves as one of the world’s biggest bands, with some critics hailing them as this generation’s Radiohead when it comes to capturing the prevailing mood. Like Thom Yorke, Healy’s also not adverse to busting out some unique dance moves, so brace yourselves.
SSE Arena, Belfast, Wednesday 9; 3Arena, Dublin, Thursday 10; touring to 25 January
Romare
Inspired by the cut’n’paste artworks of African-American artist Romare Bearden, Liverpool-via-Paris producer and DJ Archie Fairhurst fuses electronic music with jazz, psychedelia and samples from secondhand records. Expect to hear some songs from his two studio albums, Projections and Love Songs: Part Two, during this DJ set, plus multiple opportunities to show off his likely immaculate record collection.
XOYO, EC2, Saturday 5 January
MC
Sarah Jane Morris
The long career of British multi-genre singer-songwriter Sarah Jane Morris has invited comparison with eloquent marvels including Nina Simone, Janis Joplin and – at her rasping deep end – even Tom Waits, but ultimately she’s her own woman. These gigs showcase a raft of originals, including her powerful tribute to departed folk legend John Martyn.
Ronnie Scott’s, W1, Monday 7 to Wednesday 9 January
JF
Three of the best ... classical concerts
Sibelius, Abrahamsen and Nielsen
Simon Rattle and the London Symphony Orchestra launch into 2019 with three Nordic masterpieces. Hans Abrahamsen’s spellbinding 2013 song cycle Let Me Tell You – sung by the soprano for whom it was composed, Barbara Hannigan – holds its own against two of the 20th century’s greatest symphonies: Sibelius’s Seventh and Nielsen’s Fourth (Thu only).
Barbican Hall, EC2 Wednesday 9 & Thursday 10 January
Baroque at the Edge
This short festival brings together performers from different backgrounds and invites them to use pieces from the baroque era as the inspirations for their own music. So Elicia Silverstein juxtaposes solo violin works by Bach and Biber with Berio and Sciarrino, singer Nora Fischer and Mike Fentross on theorbo delve into the baroque worlds of Monteverdi and Purcell, and storyteller Nick Hennessy joins forces with guitarist Dave Malkin and 14-string viola d’amore player John Dipper for a fusion of Purcell and English folk.
LSO St Luke’s and Saint James, Clerkenwell, EC1, Saturday 5 & Sunday 6 January
Venus Unwrapped
The most far-reaching and ambitious of the Unwrapped series so far promises to dominate the 2019 concerts at Kings Place. The achievement of more than 100 female composers, from medieval times to the present day, will be celebrated in 60 events. The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment gets it all under way with a programme focusing on the music of Barbara Strozzi, a 17th-century Venetian contemporary of Monteverdi and Cavalli.
Kings Place, N1, from Thursday 10 January
AC
Five of the best ... exhibitions
William Kentridge
The modern age flickers by in black-and-white montages and animated sequences in the films of this rich and thoughtful artist. His moving images are framed by evocative installations that recreate revolutionary Russia or the paradoxes of Einsteinian relativity, while the politics of his homeland, South Africa, are seen in epic perspective.
The Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester to 3 March
Pin-Ups: Toulouse-Lautrec and the Art of Celebrity
The vision of Toulouse-Lautrec takes you into a very modern world of vulnerability and glamour. In his proto-pop art, he portrays the dancers and prostitutes of fin-de-siècle Paris with a sympathy that comes from close friendship. His posters are eternally seductive, his pastels intimate.
Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh, to 20 January
Mantegna and Bellini
Andrea Mantegna was court artist in the small Italian city state of Mantua, where his Roman-style house and captivating frescoes still bear witness to his ambition and brilliance. His brother-in-law Giovanni Bellini was the most gifted artist in 15th-century Venice, painting sensual Christs and haunting skies. This exhibition surveys them in parallel, from their occasional friendly competitions to their grand classical paintings.
The National Gallery, WC2, to 27 January
Charles II: Art & Power
The reign of Charles II saw changes that paved the way for modern Britain: a scientific revolution transformed attitudes to nature and technology, and London became a world city, in spite of plague and fire. This excellent exhibition charts those changes with exhibits including some of the first images recorded with a microscope, portraits of the royal mistresses, and Renaissance paintings that Charles owned.
The Queen’s Gallery at the Palace of Holyrood House, Edinburgh, to 2 January
Life in the Dark
Sometimes midwinter feels like living in the dark, but for many species that’s normal. This exhibition starts with Britain’s nocturnal creatures and then goes deeper into darkness, from blind fish and pale reptiles in caves to the bizarre forms found in the deep sea. Immersive installations and extraordinary specimens are combined with the latest research.
Natural History Museum, SW7, to 24 February
JJ
Five of the best ... theatre shows
Abigail’s Party
Break out the cheese-and-pineapple nibbles and the chilled Beaujolais (these days that’s an accepted thing) and put on the Demis Roussos record for another revival of Mike Leigh’s iconic 70s comedy of suburban manners and snobbery. Musical star Jodie Prenger (Oliver!, Calamity Jane) plays Beverly, the pushy hostess from hell who organises a party for her newly married neighbours.
Theatre Royal, Brighton, Thursday 10 to 19 January; touring to 20 April
Approaching Empty
Ishy Din, who has written for school drama Ackley Bridge, pens this evocation of the struggles of a post-industrial generation of British South-Asian men. When minicab office worker Mansha decides to buy the business from a lifelong chum, he discovers the difficulties of working with friends and family.
Kiln Theatre, NW6, Wednesday 9 January to 2 February; touring to 13 April
Coming Clean
A transfer from the King’s Head Theatre, Islington, this was the first play by Kevin Elyot, author of the award-winning My Night With Reg. Set in the 80s, when it was written, Coming Clean is a portrayal of a gay couple’s relationship, raising questions of monogamy and love in an open relationship, until one of them starts to want more …
Trafalgar Studios 2, SW1, Wednesday 9 January to 2 February
Songs for Nobodies
With her Patricia Highsmith play Switzerland running at this same venue until today and Honour at the Park Theatre in the past year, Australian playwright Joanna Murray-Smith is having something of a moment. This production, which also played at Wilton’s Music Hall, portrays five encounters between “‘nobodies” and “divas”: Bernadette Robinson performs as Patsy Cline, Edith Piaf, Judy Garland, Billie Holiday and Maria Callas, and the ordinary people who were changed by a brush with fame.
Ambassadors Theatre, WC2, Wednesday 9 January to 23 February
Rosenbaum’s Rescue
It’s one of the second world war’s big mysteries: how did 7,500 Jewish people in Denmark manage to escape the occupying Nazi regime in fishermen’s boats and get to safety in Sweden in 1943? This drama from A Bodin Saphir finds two old friends, Lars and Abraham, together during Hanukkah in 2001 in a remote coastal home, reigniting old tensions on the matter when a secret from the past emerges. Kate Fahy directs.
Park Theatre, N4, Wednesday 9 January to 9 February
MC
Three of the best ... dance shows
Akram Khan: Until the Lions
The incredible Akram Khan is winding down his performing career, and this will be the last time he dances in the Mahabharata-inspired Until the Lions, adapted from Karthika Naïr’s book, premiered in 2016 and made especially for the Roundhouse’s 360-degree setting. Khan’s co-stars Ching-Ying Chien and Joy Alpuerto Ritter are pretty fine, too.
Roundhouse, NW1 Friday 11 to 17 January
Olivier de Sagazan: Transfiguration
As part of the London international mime festival, French artist De Sagazan paints and sculpts himself, covering his head in clay to morph into a succession of grotesque and extraordinary creatures. Freaky, jaw-dropping, unsettling.
Sadler’s Wells: Lilian Baylis Studio, EC1, Thursday 10 & Friday 11 January
Popcity UK
This will snap you out of any new year blues: feed off the energy of 450 established and up-and-coming hip-hop dancers, all competing to represent the UK at the international finals later this year. Popping, hip-hop, Afrobeats and under-16s are the categories: let battle commence!
Ugly Duck, SE1, Saturday 5 January
LW
