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The Latest Breaking News from Barbican

Les Miserables at 40: from flop to phenomenon, why the West End’s longest-running musical endures

Once dismissed as ‘Victor Hugo on the garbage dump,’ Les Mis is now the world’s longest-running musical. As it marks 40 years with a sold-out gala, Alfie Boe and the cast reflect on its appeal beyond the barricades

Evening Standard

Go fake yourself! The creators of trippy, four-hour art forgery epic Rohtko on their quest for truth

Based on a New York gallery scandal that was traced back to a Chinese maths teacher, Łukasz Twarkowsk’s play makes audiences question absolutely everything

The Guardian - UK

Dirty Looks: Desire and Decay in Fashion at the Barbican review — bury me here

5/5 Couture is ripped, stained, buried, exploded and dragged through the mud in an intelligent blockbuster fashion exhibition for the ages

Evening Standard

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Kenneth Branagh returns to the RSC for The Tempest and The Cherry Orchard

Next summer, the star will appear in Stratford-upon-Avon first as Prospero and then alongside Helen Hunt in Chekhov’s classic

The Guardian - UK

Walk, don't run, to see Mona Hatoum's fascinating new art exhibition at the Barbican

Encounters: Giacometti x Mona Hatoum at the Barbican will be a masterclass in examining the notions of home, family and war

Evening Standard

Herbie Hancock at the Barbican review: unpredictable, entertaining and ageless

4/5 The jazz legend is still throwing his famous curve balls at 85 years old

Evening Standard

Actor Jack Lowden goes old school at The Wolseley, loves a Smithfield stroll and escapes to... the M1

The Slow Horses actor has nights out with Martin Freeman and is a fan of strolling around the old City of London

Evening Standard

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Endangered languages and a fragile Earth: Barbican unveils its Autumn 2025 programme

The Barbican has unveiled its Autumn 2025 programme featuring events on endangered languages, environmental discussions, and a new festival on Fragile Earth

Evening Standard

Lara Pulver on Fiddler on the Roof: 'This show is always heartbreakingly relevant'

Lara Pulver is back on stage in the stupendous Fiddler on the Roof and back on our screens in the utterly bonkers Mobland, and back living in London... she tells us life’s getting better since she learned to stop seeking acclaim and started enjoying the ride

Evening Standard

Can South by Southwest’s London debut recreate Austin’s star-making power?

Organisers say SXSW London will be launchpad for global superstars, but event faces competition from capital’s crowded creative scene

The Guardian - UK

Anyone fancy a subwoofer massage? The show that shakes you senseless

From vibrating stages and a car park dance floor to metal pipes tuned to the frequency of ‘love’, the artists behind a new exhibition say their work may even change your body on a cellular level

The Guardian - UK

New images revealed of £240 million plans for Barbican makeover

The vision is said to have been well received with 90% approval from respondents

Evening Standard

Hidden London: the Barbican Launderette

This is more than a place to wash clothes, writes David Ellis

Evening Standard

‘You might find it scary’: artist Huma Bhabha squares up to Giacometti with wellies, skulls and teeth

The Pakistan-born sculptor was nervous to show her irreverent work – made using plastic bags, pincers and cork – beside the Swiss existential hero’s but tells us ‘they’re enjoying each other’s company’

The Guardian - UK

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The Guardian - UK

Holy Krapp! Gary Oldman and Stephen Rea unspool Beckett’s masterpiece about memory

Krapp’s Last Tape, in which an old man rummages through recordings of his younger self, is back for two star-powered revivals. This haunting play invites actors and audiences to reconnect with their past

Evening Standard

Arts education is a right, not a privilege: this is a national emergency

Arts education in London is lagging way behind regions like Ontario, and represents a dangerous blind spot that hampers the development of young people, says Devyani Saltzman, Barbican’s Director for Arts

The Independent UK

Cate Blanchett soars in the Barbican’s utterly engrossing update of Chekov’s The Seagull

4/5 Tom Burke and Emma Corrin also star in this three-hour production of the classic play that’s languid, thoughtful, and often hilarious

Evening Standard

Brutalist Barbican unveils plans for biggest renewal since it opened in 1982

The centre was constructed on London’s biggest post-war bombsite and hailed by Queen Elizabeth II at its 1982 opening, as “one of the wonders of the modern world.”

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The Guardian - UK

After The Brutalist: our readers name their favourite brutalist buildings

From London’s Barbican to Berlin’s Corbusierhaus, urban concrete edifices continue to inspire us – whether they be art spaces, apartment blocks or even car parks

Evening Standard

Sean Hayes follows Will And Grace co-star to make London theatre debut

Eric McCormack made his London debut in the musical Wild About You, at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane last year.

The Guardian - UK

At home with Simon Rattle: ‘There are still things I feel are beyond me’

The world-famous conductor, 70 this week, on family life in Berlin, why music keeps you young and the bleak outlook for the arts in Britain

The Guardian - UK

The best theatre to stream this month: Mathew Baynton’s Dream, Hadestown and more

Anaïs Mitchell’s underworld musical gets a West End spin and the Horrible Histories star’s Bottom are among this month’s highlights

Evening Standard

La Rondine at the Barbican review: this little-known Puccini work deserves a regular place in opera's canon

5/5 An Antonio Pappano favourite, Puccini’s eigth opera builds to the kind of heart-stopping climax familiar from the composer’s better-known works

Evening Standard

The Buddha of Suburbia at the Barbican review: an exuberant affair exploring cultural and sexual identity

4/5 There are terrific performances, puppets and plenty of shagging in this adaptation of Hanif Kureishi’s novel

The Guardian - UK

M. Butterfly review – Huang Ruo’s cross-cultural opera gets an enthralling UK premiere

Remarkable performances keep us guessing about the intricacies of the east-west relationship at the heart of this BBCSO/Barbican concert staging

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