Five of the best … films
Little Women (U)
(Greta Gerwig, 2019, US) 135 mins
Louisa May Alcott’s classic kids’ book is much hankered after by film-makers; and Greta Gerwig, in her follow-up to Lady Bird, looks as if she’s very much cracked it. With a top-notch cast – Saoirse Ronan, Emma Watson, Florence Pugh, Laura Dern – complemented by Timothée Chalamet, Gerwig has recalibrated the March sisters’ story as a gently feminist fable for the 21st century. Out on Boxing Day.
Cats (U)
(Tom Hooper, 2019, UK/US) TBC mins
Can this screen adaptation of the permanent-fixture Andrew Lloyd Webber musical ever recover from its disastrous first trailer launch? Its big idea – human performers seemingly shrunk to cat size – has taken a major shellacking, but who’s to say this isn’t going to end up as a cult classic of the future? Stranger things have happened …
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (12A)
(JJ Abrams, 2019, US) 142 mins
And now, the end is near … wave goodbye to Luke, Leia and all the rest as Episode IX wraps up the third Star Wars trilogy. Time has taken its toll, with Carrie Fisher revived via CGI, Mark Hamill ghosting about the place and JJ Abrams landing the director’s gig after Lucasfilm’s change of direction. So where does Star Wars go from here? In Marvel’s Kevin Feige we – and Disney – trust.
Spies in Disguise (PG)
(Nick Bruno, Troy Quane, 2019, US) 102 mins
Here’s a fun prospect for a Christmas treat for the kids: Will Smith, superspy, gets turned into a pigeon in an animated yarn from the outfit behind Ice Age and Rio. Spider-Man’s Tom Holland voices – to no one’s surprise, let’s face it – a nerdy young lab guy who’s good with the gadgets (but is also accidentally responsible for the pigeon thing). Ideal for soaking up a few hours in the school holidays. Out on Boxing Day.
Jumanji: The Next Level (12A)
(Jake Kasdan, 2019, US) 123 mins
Fuelled by eyebrow-waggler Dwayne Johnson’s apparently inexhaustible supply of infectious goodwill, the 2017 Jumanji remake went down better than expected. This second bite at the brain-hopping video game brings the crew back together, plus Danny DeVito and Danny Glover as crotchety OAPs along for the ride.
AP
Five of the best … rock, pop & jazz
Maya Jane Coles
This year saw house producer, remixer and DJ Maya Jane Coles returning to her Nocturnal Sunshine moniker, culminating in last month’s second album, Full Circle. A place for the bassier, murkier, more hip-hop-leaning side of her oeuvre (Coles wanted to be “the female Timbaland” when she started producing at 14), expect it to crop up at this pre-Christmas blow-out.
Night Tales, E8, Saturday 21 December
Fatboy Slim
Norman Cook – who for a new generation may be best known as Woody from The Circle’s dad – headlines this night of exploratory dance music, offering up the big-beat bops that made his name. Route 94 will also be on hand with house bangers, there is hardcore-tinged electro from Prospa, and newcomers Eli & Fur deliver on the moody electronics.
Mayfield Depot, Manchester, Saturday 21 December
John
John like to keep things simple. On their Bandcamp page, their bio reads: “Four arms, four legs, two heads, wood, metal and plastic. A band of two Johns from Crystal Palace, London, UK.” Their ferocious, 26-minute-long second album, Out Here on the Fringes, takes their love of rocket-fuelled brevity and chucks in politically charged lyrics about austerity and single-use plastic.
Broadcast, Glasgow, Saturday 21; Sneaky Pete’s, Edinburgh, Sunday 22 December
Joesef
A year or so ago, the mononymous Joesef was performing at an open-mic night in his native Glasgow, unsure if he really wanted to be a singer. After some strong, supportive words from a friend-turned-manager, the 24-year-old started recording, turning a recent heartbreak into his debut EP, Play Me Something Nice. He has recently been longlisted for the BBC Sound of 2020 poll, which isn’t a bad early confidence boost.
SWG3: Galvanizers, Glasgow, Monday 23 December
MC
Liane Carroll’s Cold Turkey
Modestly majestic UK singer-pianist Carroll has a soul diva’s earthiness, the turn-on-a-dime timing of a jazz improviser and the dark idiosyncrasies of a Tom Waits – a mix that has brought her an international reputation. Her Christmas shows at Ronnie’s are remedies for seasonal hangovers both physical and spiritual.
Ronnie Scott’s, W1, Thursday 26 & Friday 27 December
JF
Two of the best … classical concerts
The Soldier’s Tale
Stravinsky’s pioneering music-theatre piece, which pares drama down to its bare essentials to tell the story of a soldier who sells his soul to the devil, is not perhaps the most obvious pre-Christmas fare. But with a lineup of outstanding instrumentalists led by the one of the greatest violinists around today, Isabelle Faust , and with the French actor Dominique Horwitz as the narrator, it promises to be a special musical treat. Faust precedes The Soldier’s Tale with Bartók’s Sonata for Solo Violin, one of his final masterpieces; it’s fearsomely difficult to play, but exactly the kind of technical challenge that the always immaculate Faust will no doubt take in her stride.
Wigmore Hall, W1, Monday 23 December
St John’s Smith Square Christmas festival
An extended choral festival in the weeks leading up to Christmas has become one of the most popular fixtures in the St John’s Smith Square calendar. And concerts conducted by Stephen Layton and the choirs he directs have become almost as much of an institution as the festival itself. True to tradition, this year’s event ends with Layton conducting the six cantatas that make up Bach’s Christmas Oratorio and Handel’s Messiah, both with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. The Bach will be sung by the choir of Trinity College, Cambridge, where Layton is director of music, and the Handel by Polyphony, the chamber choir that he founded in 1986.
St John’s Smith Square, SW1, Sunday 22 & Monday 23 December
AC
Five of the best … exhibitions
Hogarth: Place and Progress
Try a Hogarthian Christmas instead of a Dickensian one. Rakes and harlots warm themselves by a brazier after a night’s revelling while a churchgoer looks on in disapproval in a Covent Garden snow scene. Poverty and luxury, corruption and comedy constantly collide in this fairytale of old London. Dickens was a fan – as you will be.
Sir John Soane’s Museum, WC2, to 5 January
Olafur Eliasson
In the bleak midwinter it is both eerie and uplifting to explore this Nordic artist’s captivating chemistry of light and colour. Like the aurora borealis, his visions of intense illumination and deep shadow evoke wonder and awe. But Eliasson always returns you to reality and to the climate crisis we have created for the planet and ourselves.
Tate Modern, SE1, to 5 January
Jan de Beer
You can’t get more Christmassy than a Renaissance picture of the Nativity or the Adoration of the Magi, and the 16th-century Antwerp artist Jan de Beer painted plenty of them. His atmospheric Nativity in the Barber Institute’s collection sets luminous angels and a glowing crib in a night-shrouded stable. It stars here in a survey of his paintings and drawings that gives a bit of context to those arty Christmas cards.
The Barber Institute of Fine Arts, Birmingham, to 19 January
Tutankhamun: Treasures of the Golden Pharaoh
I bet you don’t get Christmas presents as good as the stuff Tutankhamun took into the beyond. When the uniquely unspoiled tomb of this young ruler of ancient Egypt was discovered in 1922 it was stacked with luxuries and treats, as if a drunken Santa had offloaded his entire stash there. Ready-to-assemble golden chariots, bows, boomerangs: this exhibition is a party cracker for all ages.
Saatchi Gallery, SW3, to 3 May
Inspired By the East
European art’s obsession with the “east” begins with the three Magi. These gift-giving regulars in the Nativity story have been portrayed by European painters from Botticelli to Rembrandt in what was imagined to be “oriental” garb. This exhibition reveals how Rubens and other artists based such depictions on portrayals of dress in the Ottoman empire as it surveys European art’s secret love affair with Islam.
British Museum, WC1, to 26 January
JJ
Five of the best … theatre shows
Three Sisters
Yes, it is another version of Chekhov’s Three Sisters. But this one has been adapted by poet and playwright Inua Ellams, who wrote the acclaimed Barber Shop Chronicles. Ellams has set the play during the Nigerian civil war in 1967, with the three sisters longing to return home to Lagos. It stars Sarah Niles, Natalie Simpson and Racheal Ofori and is directed by the fearless Nadia Fall.
National Theatre: Lyttelton, SE1, to 19 February
La Clique
The circus and cabaret act returns to London for the first time in 10 years. There is something about this cluster of variety turns, acrobats and musical acts that feels a little bit creaky – but oh so tempting. There is a juggling act with champagne glasses, aerialists and contortionists, and a fire-breathing routine to top things off.
Leicester Square Spiegeltent, WC2, to 4 January
Pippi Longstocking
The Royal & Derngate had a hit last year with The Worst Witch, which whizzed into the West End. This year, they’re the first UK theatre to adapt Astrid Lindgren’s much-loved books about Pippi Longstocking – in all her rowdy, red-haired glory. Mike Akers adapts, with original music from Kneehigh’s Stu Barker, and direction from Jesse Jones and Helena Middleton from the Wardrobe Ensemble. A seriously imaginative creative team, who should produce something special.
Royal & Derngate: The Royal, Northampton, to 31 December
Pinocchio
Citizens Theatre staged a brilliant take on A Christmas Carol last year and have a knack for creating truly distinctive festive shows. High expectations, then, for Lu Kemp and Robert Alan Evans’s adaptation of Carlo Collodi’s Pinocchio, which reunites last year’s winning gang, including director Dominic Hill. There will also be an immersive soundscape from Nikola Kodjabashia, dazzling puppetry and just a dash of darkness.
Tramway, Glasgow, to 4 January
Teenage Dick
Michael Longhurst’s opening season at the Donmar continues to surprise and fascinate. Mike Lew’s play is a darkly comic twist on Richard III. It is set in a US high school where Richard, who has hemiplegia, lusts for power and revenge on his tormentors. But is it better to be loved or feared? Daniel Monks stars in the title role, with Ruth Madeley, who appeared in Russell T Davies’s Years and Years, also featuring.
Donmar Warehouse, WC2, to 1 February
MG
Three of the best … dance shows
The Little Match Girl
Arthur Pita’s bittersweet family show has become a staple of the Christmas schedules, and it is a funny, poignant and surreal piece of dance theatre. Pita’s version of the Hans Christian Andersen tale comes with a touch of commedia dell’arte, operatic arias and an unexpected lunar adventure, plus music by Frank Moon. For ages five and over.
Sadler’s Wells: Lilian Baylis Studio, EC1, to 29 December
Russian State Ballet of Siberia
One of the many Russian companies touring traditional classical ballets around the UK, this one comes with a live orchestra, which makes all the difference. They will be performing a seasonal Nutcracker and the most famous ballet of all, Swan Lake.
St David’s Hall, Cardiff, to 31 December; touring to 15 March
The Nutcracker and I
An imaginative take on the evergreen ballet by pianist Alexandra Dariescu, performing movements from Tchaikovsky’s score while turning the ballet’s story into her own biography, with the help of dancer Imogen Ash interacting with projected animations.
Saffron Hall, Saffron Walden, Saturday 21 & Sunday 22 December
LW
Main composite image: Universal; Liane Carroll; British Museum; Allstar/Columbia Pictures; Sony; Tristram Kenton/The Guardian
