THEATRE
MUSICALS
A chill wind is blowing down Shaftesbury Avenue. This year is unlikely to be
remembered for its big West End musical openings. We need only be detained
here by Rupert Goold’s revival of Oliver! (Theatre Royal Drury Lane, in
preview now) - with Rowan Atkinson’s Fagin, and its three Olivers, and Nancy
voted for by the BBC’s I’d Do Anything - and the new musical of Priscilla,
Queen of the Desert (Palace Theatre, previews from Mar 10) starring a
dragged-up Jason Donovan. Off-West End, at the Lyric Hammersmith, is the
British premiere of New York’s hit highbrow, sexually charged musical based
on Wedekind’s Spring Awakening(in preview from Jan 23).
THE NATIONAL THEATRE
Following Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, there is the welcome return of The
Pitmen Painters (Lyttelton, in preview from Jan 27). Other talking points in
an enticing season should be Richard Bean’s England People Very Nice
(Olivier, in preview from Feb 4), billed as “a riotous journey through four
waves of immigration from the 17th century to today”, and commissioned and
directed by Nicholas Hytner; Peter Flannery’s adaptation of the film Burnt
by the Sun (Lyttelton, in preview from Feb 24); Rupert Goold directing JB
Priestley’s Time and the Conways (Lyttelton, in preview from Apr 28); and,
in June, Helen Mirren in Racine’s Phaedra.
THE DONMAR
It is at the more high-minded end of commercial theatreland that producers are
burning star power to keep theatres from going dark. This tiny powerhouse’s
acclaimed branching-out to Wyndham’s theatre, in the West End, continues
with Judi Dench in Yukio Mishima’s Madame De Sade (in preview from Mar 13)
and Jude Law as Hamlet (in preview from May 29), both now directed by
Michael Grandage. No slacking on the home front, either, with Gillian
Anderson in A Doll’s House (in preview from May 14). In July, Rachel Weisz
returns to the theatre that made her name as Blanche Dubois in A Streetcar
Named Desire.
THE OLD VIC
Kevin Spacey now seems to be fulfilling his ambition of staging the serious in
a nonsubsidised house. He directs a world premiere, Complicit (in preview
from Wednesday), starring Richard Dreyfuss, David Suchet and Elizabeth
McGovern. Then there isDancing at Lughnasa, with Niamh Cusack and Susan
Lynch (in preview from Feb 26). And in May comes Sam Mendes’s ambitious
Bridge Project, stagings of The Cherry Orchard and A Winter’s Tale with
Simon Russell Beale, Ethan Hawke, Sinead Cusack and Rebecca Hall.
THE ROYAL COURT
Refusing to relinquish its crown as a new writing powerhouse, the Court has
new plays by Mark Ravenhill (Over There, from Feb 25), Polly Stenham (Tusk
Tusk, from Mar 28) and Jez Butterworth (Jerusalem, from July 10).
ELSEWHERE IN LONDON
Jez Butterworth is also on at the Almeida, where Toby Jones, Amanda Drew and
Andrew Lincoln appear in Parlour Song (from Mar 19). At the Trafalgar
Studios, Imelda Staunton stars in Entertaining Mr Sloane (in preview from
Jan 22). At the Duke of York’s, Ken Stott and Hayley Attwell appear in A
View from the Bridge (in preview from Jan 22), and at the Apollo theatre,
James McAvoy, Nigel Harman and Lyndsey Marshall are in the British premiere
of the acclaimed American play Three Days of Rain (in preview from Jan 30).
TOURING AND OUTSIDE LONDON
The insatiable Donmar has teamed up with the National Theatre of Scotland to
tourBe Near Me, an adaptation of an Andrew O’Hagan novel, with Ian
McDiarmid, which starts in Kilmarnock (Jan 14), before visiting venues
nationwide, including, naturally, the Donmar. Impressively wide-travelling,
too, is the Theatre Royal Haymarket’s Waiting for Godot, starring
supertramps Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart (starts Malvern, Mar 5; arrives
in London Apr 30). Lenny Henry’s Othello, at the West Yorkshire Playhouse,
Leeds (from Feb 14), for Northern Broadsides, will spark interest.At the
Royal Shakespeare Company, Stratford, Greg Hicks as Leontes inThe Winter’s
Tale, directed by David Farr (Courtyard, from Mar 31), is more expected
casting. The spring season includes Antony Sher’s Prospero inThe Tempest
(from Feb 18). At the Curve, Leicester, Tim Supple, who had a hit with his
Indian-influenced Midsummer Night’s Dream, does As You Like It (from Feb
26). Patricia Nicol
DANCE
ENGLISH NATIONAL BALLET
The centenary of Diaghilev’s trailblazing Ballets Russes is celebrated in a
season including Scheherazade and Le Spectre de la Rose (both with designs
after Bakst’s exotic originals), Les Sylphides, Apollo, The Rite of Spring
and a premiere of Faune, by David Dawson (Sadler’s Wells, June 16-20).
THE ROYAL BALLET
Les Sylphides features alongside another Diaghilev, The Firebird, on a bill
with a new piece by Alastair Marriott (ROH, May 4-30). A talking point
should be Isadora, Deborah MacMillan’s reduced revision of her late husband
Kenneth’s problematical 1981 ballet about Isadora Duncan (Mar 11-21). Will
this succeed?
BIRMINGHAM ROYAL BALLET
David Bintley revives his witty 1993 production of Delibes’s Sylvia
(Birmingham Hippodrome, Feb 25-28), as well as the colourful “Still Life” at
the Penguin Café (Mar 4-7), with tours following.
40TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATIONS
In its 40th year, Northern Ballet Theatre revives Gillian Lynne’s A Simple
Man, about LS Lowry (Grand Theatre, Leeds, Feb 26-28). Scottish Ballet
premieres a new version of Bizet’s Carmen, a departure for the choreographer
Richard Alston (Theatre Royal, Glasgow, Apr 15-18). Both tour.
SPRING DANCE AT THE COLISEUM
American Ballet Theatre with Swan Lake and Le Corsaire (Mar 25-Apr 4); a
Russell Maliphant bill (Apr 7-11); and ballroom in Cheek to Cheek (Apr
22-26).
SADLER’S WELLS
Eonnagata is a new collaboration between Sylvie Guillem, Russell Maliphant and
Robert Lepage (Feb 26-Mar 8). The Focus on Forsythe season (Apr 20-May 10)
celebrates the iconoclastic William Forsythe. The summer show is Shall We
Dance, by, and starring, Adam Cooper, to Richard Rodgers’s hits (July 23-Aug
30). David Dougill
CLASSICAL
YEAR OF ANNIVERSARIES
Purcell, Handel, Haydn and Mendelssohn all have significant anniversaries in
2009 (Purcell’s 350th and Mendelssohn’s 200th birthdays; and 250 and 200
years since Handel’s and Haydn’s deaths), and the musical world is
celebrating. Radio 3 plans to broadcast all 42 of Handel’s operas, and all
104 of Haydn’s numbered symphonies – and more – will be played, two a week,
in 2009.
TERFEL SINGS THE FLYING DUTCHMAN
The Welsh baritone sings Wagner’s tormented antihero in a new production by
Tim Albery at Covent Garden.
VIENNA CITY OF DREAMS
Esa-Pekka Salonen’s first big project as the Philharmonia’s new principal
conductor is a mini-series of concerts highlighting Viennese music at the
turn of the 20th century: lots of Mahler, of course, but also his disciples
Berg, Webern and Schoenberg, whose magnificent orchestral cantata
Gurrelieder launches the festivities at the Royal Festival Hall, in London,
and the Symphony Hall, in Birmingham, in February.
DANIELLE DE NIESE
Glyndebourne’s celebrated all-singing-and-dancing Cleopatra returns to the
McVicar production of Giulio Cesare this summer (May 22-July 3), but she
also celebrates the Handel year, making her Royal Opera debut in a new
production of Acis and Galatea.
BIRTWISTLE PREMIERE
The Corridor is Harrison Birtwistle’s latest music-theatre piece for chamber
forces, in collaboration with one of his favourite authors, David Harsent.
Peter Gill directs Mark Padmore and Elizabeth Atherton in the world premiere
at the Aldeburgh Festival in June. It’s later to be seen at Queen Elizabeth
Hall, in London, and the Bregenz Festival.
HALLE GOTTERDAMMERUNG
The world-class Wagnerians Ben Heppner, as Siegfried, and Katarina Dalayman,
as Brünnhilde, star in concert performances of the Ring’s concluding
tragedy, spread over two evenings (May 9 and 10).
MODERN OPERA AT ENO
A trio of 20thand 21st-century operas headlines the list of new productions at
the London Coliseum during 2009. John Adams’s Doctor Atomic - a docu-opera
about the creator of the atom bomb, Robert Oppenheimer - opens in February
in the recent Met production. May sees a new David Alden staging of
Britten’s Peter Grimes, with starry leads (Stuart Skelton, Amanda Roocroft,
Gerald Finley), and the UK premiere of Kaija Saariaho’s neo-medieval romance
L’Amour de loin follows in July.
JONES DIRECTS FALSTAFF
British opera’s most genial and controversial director, Richard Jones, tackles
Verdi’s valedictory masterpiece for the first time in his career at
Glyndebourne. Vladimir Jurowski conducts and the British baritone
Christopher Purves, recently Master Ford to Bryn Terfel’s Fat Knight in
Cardiff, sings the title role for the first time (May-July)
NIELSEN SYMPHONIES
Starting on Wednesday, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra joins forces
with Mark Elder’s Hallé for a complete cycle of Carl Nielsen’s too rarely
heard six symphonies in Birmingham and Manchester. Hugh Canning
POP
THE BIG ALBUMS
This year’s important releases include the new album from U2, No Line on the
Horizon (due on Mar 2). The Irish megastars have surrounded themselves with
familiar faces for this one, with production duties shared by Steve
Lillywhite and the team of Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois. A beleaguered record
industry will be hoping they can surpass the 9m sales of How to Dismantle an
Atomic Bomb. Springsteen fans, meanwhile, will be hoping the Boss continues
his recent fine run of form with Working on a Dream (out at the end of this
month). The Prodigy will be hoping this comeback (Invaders Must Die, Mar 2)
fares better than their last one; while Morrissey will be hoping people can
stop fussing about the strange cover art for his Years of Refusal album (Feb
16) and concentrate on the music.
THE BIG REUNIONS
Music fans of a certain age, and music fans of an even more certain age, will
be salivating at the prospect of this year’s two heralded reunions: Blur and
the Specials. Admittedly, Blur haven’t been gone all that long, but Damon
Albarn seems to have lived through several musical lifetimes in the interim,
and Graham Coxon has been turning out scintillating solo albums, so it will
be fascinating to find out just what the 2009 version of Blur will be like
(July 2 and 3, Hyde Park). The Specials have been away a lot longer, yet, as
we gaze around a “broken Britain” of job losses, failing businesses and
urban tension, it feels eerily like the same land that spawned their seminal
hit, Ghost Town, nearly 30 years ago. Relevant, then, and returning Apr 22
at the Academy, Newcastle.
THE BIG CROWDS
There are only a few bands around who should ever attempt to connect with a
stadium full of people. Two who demonstrably know how to do it are Oasis and
AC/DC, both of whom will be playing stadium gigs this summer. AC/DC play
Wembley Stadium on June 26 and Hampden Park, in Glasgow, on June 30. Oasis
will be playing a variety of sports stadiums in the same month.
THE RETURN OF LILY ALLEN
Is it just me, or have the “new Lily Allens” all been a bit disappointing? In
fact, it’s getting quite hard to remember who they were, isn’t it? Thank
heavens, then, for the return of the real thing. Pop music needs her, and
the tabloids, frankly, could do with her too. Lead single The Fear will be
followed by an album, It’s Not Me, It’s You, on Feb 9.
OH, GO ON, THEN . . . ANOTHER NEW LILY ALLEN
Cosmo Jarvis has written 200 songs, and he’s only 19. Some of them are rather
good, suggesting someone who has been listening not only to Lily Allen, but
to Alex Turner and Billy Bragg. Sample lyric, concerning a fantasy date with
Britney Spears: “She’d say hit me baby one more time / And I’d say no way
Britney, domestic violence is a crime”. A series of digital EPs will lead up
to a debut album this summer.
THE INDUSTRY FAVOURITE
A quirky outsider has rapidly become this year’s industry insider, as everyone
from the Brit Awards people to the NME has been won over by Florence Welch’s
music - somewhere between PJ Harvey and Kate Bush.
THE ONES WHO HAVE BEEN LISTENING TO JOY DIVISION
White Lies put in the legwork last year, with plenty of festival appearances
and a headline tour, and should reap the benefits in 2009. You won’t have to
wait long to immerse yourselves in their doomy yet surely arena-bound songs,
which evoke the spirit of Ian Curtis’s lyrics and Peter Hook’s bass. Their
debut album, To Lose My Life, is due Jan 19.
THE ONE YOU ALREADY KNOW
Lisa Hannigan’s debut album, Sea Sew, will be released on Feb 3, but if you’re
one of the many who fell in love with Damien Rice’s album O, and
particularly if you fell in love with that backing singer with the amazing
voice, you already know Hannigan’s work. Now she’s stepping out of Rice’s
shadow, and her homemade, handcrafted sound should win her plenty of fans
among those who appreciate old-fashioned singer-songwriters. Mark
Edwards
