Pop
The return of the big American stars … Whether it’s been postponed by Covid or ready to see Europe again, the big American pop hiters are on the move this summer. Billie Eilish, just out of a delirious American tour and Coachella’s performance, will be here in June (3-26). Lady Gaga’s world tour finally arrives in London in July (29-30), with her album Chromatica (2020) and a new single from Top Gun, Hold My Hand. August promises that Christina Aguilera (August 2-5) will embrace her Latin roots, and next-generation star Noah Cyrus (Miley’s little sister, August 10-14), who will publish her own debut album on July 15th.
… And not forgetting the royalty of British pop. The release of the repressed longing for live music continues to beat with a triumvirate of local stars in parade. Ed Sheeran’s UK / Spring / Summer UK tour enters its second half, with several nights in the stadiums in June (through July 1), including a five-concert run at Wembley. Harry Styles, who has been at number 1 on the UK charts for six weeks, has a long-awaited new third album, Harry’s House; plays its extensive stages in June (11-19). Be sure to also catch his act of support, the superlative Mitski. Liam Gallagher, whose new album has just landed, is giving two big solo concerts at Knebworth Park (July 3-4), echoing Oasis’ tenure there 25 years ago. Kitty Empires
Nish Kumar will perform at the Edinburgh Festival. Photo: Tristram Kenton / The Guardian
Performance
The Edinburgh Festival Strip The strip has returned and is once again full of sweets. Kathy and Stella Solve in Murder is a comedy-murder mystery musical by Olivier winner Jon Brittain and Matthew Floyd Jones (of Frisky & Mannish). Rafaella Marcus’ sap promises a queer urban fable about bisexuality, while Emily Aboud’s Bogeyman offers a ghost story inspired by the Haitian revolution. Winners of an unexplored Ugly Bucket award offer a “techno clown funeral” to explore the loss in Good Grief, Caste-ing de Nouveau Riché vibrantly draws the experience of black actresses and there are the best Sami Ibrahim, Dipo Baruwa-Etti and Chris. Bush at the Paines Plow Emerging Roundabout.
The comedy features costly sets by Nish Kumar, Fern Brady, Ed Gamble, Nina Conti, Phil Wang, Tim Key and Stewart Lee, musicals by Flo and Joan, Michelle Brasier and Jonny & the Baptists, as well as opportunity to see viral. live stars Rosie Holt and Michael Spicer. August 5-29; all dates, times and tickets at edfringe.com. Holly Williams
Art
Milton Avery at the Royal Academy of London Gentle, modest, with his excellent gift for color and his simplified grace, Milton Avery (1885-1965) is a singular master of American art. Later, at age 40, he was almost 70 years old before he began painting the large-scale landscapes that made him famous: anthems in Connecticut in the spring, Vermont in the fall, spiral firs, glowing pebbles, and grouped sheep. This long-awaited survey (July 15-October 18), the first in Europe, will also include his humorous portraits of family and friends: everything he loved in a painting poem. Laura Cumming
Dance
The Car Man, Royal Albert Hall When Matthew Bourne’s radical rethinking of Bizet’s Carmen premiered in 2000, critic Jack Tinker described it as a “bump, pump, great success.” Twenty years and several rebirths later, there is no reason to think that this new continuous production with 65 dancers and musicians will be anything else. With the action changed to a garage in the small town of the United States in the 50’s, where a charismatic vagabond wreaks havoc, the play is one of Bourne’s best: sexy, exciting and emotionally exciting (June 9-19) . Sarah Crompton
The London Symphony Orchestra’s performance in Trafalgar Square last August, conducted by Simon Rattle. Photography: Mark Allan
Classic
LSO in Trafalgar Square Playing on a giant temporary stage in Trafalgar Square, the London Symphony Orchestra and conductor Simon Rattle will perform for free in front of thousands of people on Saturday 11 June, with cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason as guest star making her live debut with LSO, and a world premiere, Faiya !, by Ayanna Witter-Johnson. Other music includes George Gershwin’s An American in Paris, Max Bruch’s Kol Nidre and Ernest Bloch’s Prayer from Jewish Life. Bring a picnic and a pillow (but not glass bottles). Fiona Maddocks
Movie
New female voices in cinema With the directors who won the first prizes at the last Venice and Berlin film festivals, as well as Cannes 2021, and films of women who have won the Oscar for best film both In recent years, it may be time to look at the next generation of female voices in cinema. And based on the summer releases, they are daring, unconventional and anything less polite.
Take Pleasure (June 17), the extraordinary and unwavering debut of Ninja Thyberg, who follows an ambitious Swedish adult film actress as she advances in the U.S. porn hierarchy. He sows his eyes and opens his eyes; a hard watch, but a completely fearless piece of film. The attractive Moon, 66 Questions (June 24) by Greek director Jacqueline Lentzou is a kinder proposal, but no less so: it explores the strange relationship between a daughter and her sick father. Also recommended is Silent Land (July 22), Haneke’s brilliant study of a perfect marriage in crisis by Polish director Aga Woszczynska. Wendy Ide
Theater
Rock / Paper / Scissors, Sheffield Theaters From June 16 to July 2, the three Sheffield Theaters, the Crucible, the Lyceum and the Studio, will come together to put together three new plays by Chris (Standing at the Sky’s Edge) Bush . The same cast will play the interrelated but autonomous dramas – about a scissors maker and a family feud – simultaneously on different stages, passing between buildings and scenes, leaving one stage to reach another. Robert Hastie, Anthony Lau and Elin Schofield co-direct this first theater, the centerpiece of Sheffield’s 50th anniversary celebrations. Susannah Clapp
Paddy Consider the HBO spin-off Game of Thrones House of the Dragon. Photo: Landmark Media / Alamy
TV
Fantasy showdown Winter is approaching. Again! Game of Thrones fans should be able to get through “this” final season, thanks to the long-awaited arrival of the HBO prequel to House of the Dragon (August 22 on Sky Atlantic / Now TV). Based on George RR Martin’s Fire & Blood, set 200 years before the original saga, it traces the history of Targaryen House and is estimated to have cost $ 20 million per episode (presumably for all those peroxide wigs of platinum).
Breathing fire in the neck just 11 days later is the Amazon series The Lord of the Rings (September 2 on Amazon Prime Video), subtitled The Rings of Power. Even more expensive at $ 58 million per episode, it brings to the screen for the first time the “Second Age” of JRR Tolkien’s Middle-earth, millennia before the events of The Hobbit. Comparisons between the two mega-budget epics are inevitable. Will there be a TV show that governs them all? Michael Hogan
Performance
A summer of culture at the South Bank in London There are plenty of cultural offerings to attract you to the Thames this season. Grace Jones, curated by Meltdown (June 10-19) at Southbank Center, would always be fabulous, and has lined up Skunk Anansie, Dry Cleaning, Baaba Maal and Peaches. There are also plenty of free events, from classical music to electronica and rave-jazz, at the New Music Biennial (July 1-3).
The Hayward Gallery celebrates black art and culture throughout the summer, with its In the Black Fantastic exhibition of 11 contemporary artists (June 29-September 18). A weekend curated by Inua Ellams offers music, poetry, film and talks (July 15-17), while the Riverside Terrace stage hosts DJs, live music and dancing (July 15-August 28). And the National Theater’s open-air River Stage returns for five weekends (July 15-August 14), with the Hofesh Schecter Company, Manchester’s Home Theater and Johnny Woo and John Sizzle curating drag shows and DJ. Hot stuff! HW
Jadden Khaki in the Iranian film Hit the Road. Photo: TCD / Prod.DB / Alamy
Movie
Hit the Road Not only one of the most successful films in recent memory, this magnificent Iranian road movie, which juggles comedy with a painfully sad subtext, is simply one of the best films you will see this year. Its director, Panah Panahi, is the son of acclaimed director Jafar Panahi, and was mentored by the great Abbas Kiarostami. But he is clearly a remarkable talent in his own right. The chaos contained in the story combines a covert commentary on life under a repressive regime with pre-revolution Iranian pop music, lip-syncing and a very funny joke about a dog. In cinemas from July 29. YES
Theater
Updated classics on stage Richard Bean aims to repeat the great triumph of One Man, Two Guvnors with a new version of Sheridan’s The Rivals, set in 1940 and written with Oliver Chris. Jack Absolute Flies Again (July 2-September 3) is directed at the Olivier by Emily Burns and stars Laurie Davidson and Caroline Quentin.
Al Donmar, Noma Dumezweni is the heroine of A Doll’s House – Part Two (June 10-August 6), the sequel to Lucas Hnath’s Ibsen play, directed by James Macdonald, Nora facing the family to whom she closed the door.
Emilia Clarke appears in Harold Pinter’s 21st-century version of Anya Reiss’s Chekhov’s Seagull, Delayed by the Pandemic since the Spring of 2020, starring Tom Rhys Harries and Indira Varma, directed by Jamie Lloyd (29 from June to September 10). In Edinburgh, Adura Onashile plays the lead role in Liz Lochhead’s Scottish version of Medea, directed by Michael Boyd at the Hub (August 10-28).
The CSR updates not a play but its casting policy by giving the lead role to Richard III to Arthur Hughes, who has a radial dysplasia that affects his right arm. It’s not the first time a disabled actor has taken on the role; in 2017 Mat Fraser starred in a Northern …