Five of the best ... films
Incredibles 2 (PG)
(Brad Bird, 2018, US) 118 mins
Fourteen years on, the sequel to one of Pixar’s most admired films serves up an equally brilliant helping of sharp-witted superhero antics, this time given a feminist makeover. Elastigirl takes the foreground as she is singled out to front a campaign to rehabilitate the “supers”, and ends up battling with virtual nasty the Screenslaver.
First Reformed (15)
(Paul Schrader, 2017, US) 113 mins
Schrader is no stranger to the dour, agonised fable of faith in crisis, and this is arguably his most direct treatment yet. Ethan Hawke is the pastor of an ancient, barely used chapel, operated by a big-money megachurch; meanwhile, the husband of one of his flock is behaving erratically. Cue an unfiltered clash of guilt, idealism and despair.
Vertigo (PG)
(Alfred Hitchcock, 1958, US) 128 mins
The creepy Hitchcock masterwork starring James Stewart was largely scorned on release, but in 2012 made No 1 in Sight & Sound’s all-time greatest film poll. In 2018, it gets a 60th-anniversary restoration and reissue. Combining lurching special-effects trickery and traditional Hitchcock themes of voyeurism and obsession, it remains a much-copied, much-parodied discussion of the male gaze.
Yellow Submarine (U)
(George Dunning, 1968, UK) 85 mins
“In the town, where I was born ... ” The Beatles’ contract-filler film, released here as 50th-anniversary restoration, turned out to be a delight: a lysergic animation stuffed with mid-period classics, harking back to everything from Alice in Wonderland and forward to the comic buffoonery of Monty Python.
Mary Shelley (12A)
(Haifaa al-Mansour, 2017, UK) 121 mins
The teenage Frankenstein author gets her own biopic, tangling with a conceited Percy Shelley, a callous Lord Byron and stern but sympathetic father William Godwin. Saudi director Haifaa al-Mansour brings out an intense melancholy in the character as the script grapples effectively with #MeToo-ish concerns over relationship rights and authorship.
AP
Five of the best ... rock & pop gigs
Citadel festival
“A Sunday well spent brings a week of content,” runs the proverb on the ethos page of this London festival’s site. That its website has an ethos page in the first place tells you all need to know: expect dance workshops, a sports day and even a science camp as well as music from holistic yoga soundtrackers Tame Impala and synthpop nerds Chvrches.
Gunnersbury Park, W3, Sunday 15 July
Eminem
While last year’s Revival album continued the once-potent rapper’s descent into hollow navel-gazing (and introduced us to a truly awful beard), it did at least give him another UK No 1 in the shape of the Ed Sheeran-assisted River. Expect it to slot nicely alongside his other empty-but-catchy recent mass singalongs, The Monster and Love the Way You Lie.
Twickenham Stadium, Saturday 14 & Sunday 15 July
HMLTD
Fusing glam, industrial electronica and pop (recent single Pictures of You was co-written by Selena Gomez collaborator Justin Tranter), the immaculately made-up HMLTD tread the fine line between avant-garde renegades and NME also-rans King Adora. Not boring, though, which seems like a win in 2018.
St Albans, Tuesday 17; Tunbridge Wells, Wednesday 18; Guildford, Thursday 19; Thirsk, Friday 20 July
Faith Evans
While the last thing anyone needed was another rummage around the late Notorious BIG’s threadbare vault, 2017’s duets album The King & I was put together with affection by his widow Faith Evans (pictured, below), whose bruised vocals offer the familiar verses a touch of raw emotion. This short UK tour is in support of that album, but will hopefully act as a reminder of Evans’s incredible voice.
Manchester, Friday 20; touring to 22 July
MC
Julian Siegel Quartet
Though gifted multi-instrumentalist Siegel has been an inspired contributor to many bands, his decade-old quartet – a fiery and percussive fusion of postbop, rock, Latin music and more – is his personal creative triumph. Siegel’s group joins a classy programme at the Swanage jazz festival, revitalised following its much-mourned apparent demise last year.
Swanage Jazz Festival, Sunday 15 July
JF
Three of the best ... classical concerts
Isabeau
Opera Holland Park continues its explorations of the dustier corners of the late 19th-century Italian repertory with Mascagni’s take on the medieval legend of Lady Godiva. Isabeau was an attempt to get away from his well-known verismo style into a nostalgic world of chivalry and romance. Martin Lloyd-Evans directs this UK premiere, with Anne Sophie Duprels in the title role.
Holland Park Theatre, W8, Saturday 14, Wednesday 18 & Friday 20; to 28 July
Juliana
The very last event in this year’s Cheltenham music festival brings the most substantial new work of the fortnight. Joseph Phibbs’s chamber three-hander is based upon Strindberg’s play Miss Julie, updating the action to present-day Sweden. In Nova Music Opera’s production, which is directed by Richard Williams and conducted by George Vass, Cheryl Evener sings the role of Juliana, with Rebecca Afonwy-Jones as Kerstin and Samuel Pantcheff as Juan.
Parabola Arts Centre, Cheltenham, Sunday 15 July; touring to 21 October
L’Ange De Nisida
The Royal Opera and the CD label Opera Rara join forces to resurrect one of the rarest of Donizetti rarities. L’Ange De Nisida was never performed as intended in 1839, and Donizetti recycled some of its music in later works, particularly La Favorite. These concert performances will be the world premiere of the painstakingly reconstructed original score; they are conducted by Mark Elder, with Joyce El-Khoury, David Junghoon Kim and Vito Priante leading the cast.
Royal Opera House, WC2, Wednesday 18 & 21 July
AC
Five of the best ... exhibitions
Life in the Dark
This exploration of the nocturnal world promises a sensory as well as scientific journey into the lives of Mexican blind cave fish, deep sea creatures and subterranean bats. What is it like to live without light, and why did so many animals evolve that way? Should be fascinating, but look out for the cave boa.
Natural History Museum, SW7, to 6 January
Liverpool Biennial
Everything from the abstract paintings of Sean Scully at the Walker Art Gallery, to a conversation between fillm-maker Agnès Varda and curator Hans-Ulrich Obrist can be experienced at Liverpool’s multi-site, multimedia art festival. Melanie Smith, George Osodi, Silke Otto-Knapp and Annie Pootoogook are among the global mix.
Various venues, Saturday 15 to 28 October
Tim Stoner
Sunshine and gardens, parks and shadows play pleasantly in Stoner’s contemporary British take on impressionism. Abstract geometries and featureless figures prove he is no nostalgist, however. There is something missing but it seems to be intentional; Stoner’s scenes of modern life are elegant yet empty, cool yet melancholy. Is he saying something about our pursuit of pleasures that never really mean anything?
Modern Art, E2, to 11 August
Yves Klein
The monochrome art of this bold French painter, performer and alchemist has proved an enduring classic of the contemporary. Klein patented his own shade of blue and put it on everything from corals to one-colour canvases. He controversially also made blue imprints of female models in performances whose absurd 1960s sexism can make him look like the Austin Powers of art.
Blenheim Palace, Woodstock, Wednesday 18 July to 7 October
Jameel Prize 5
Islam has been inspiring great art for more than a millennium, from the medieval Alhambra in Granada to European artists including Matisse, who drew on its beauty to invent, or rather import, abstraction. This prize highlights eight artists and designers who adapt Islamic traditions, such as Hayv Kahraman’s paintings on linen and Wardha Shabbir’s abstract watercolours.
Victoria & Albert Museum, SW7, to 25 November
JJ
Five of the best ... theatre shows
Milton Keynes international festival
The biennial festival has a host of events – from large-scale outdoor performances to circus, music, standup and free family events – and tackles such issues as migration, identity and community. This year, it kicks off on Friday with the Catalonian company Sarruga parading from nightfall through the city centre with its towering mechanical insects on bikes.
Various venues, Friday 20 to 29 July
Barry Humphries’ Weimar Cabaret
Leaving Dame Edna Everage behind, Barry Humphries, along with cabaret star Meow Meow, explores the music of the culturally experimental interwar period in Germany, including Kurt Weill, a lifelong fascination since finding sheet music in a Melbourne bookshop as a teenager.
Barbican Theatre, EC2, to 29 July
The Meeting
Charlotte Jones is best known for her award-winning 2001 play, Humble Boy, and the book for Andrew Lloyd Webber’s version of The Woman in White. The actor and writer has been quiet of late but a new play, The Meeting, gets an airing at Chichester. It concerns a frustrated daughter and her deaf mother who find sanctuary from the world’s troubles amid a Quaker community where silence is sacrosanct, until a stranger arrives to fracture their peace.
Chichester Festival Theatre, to 11 August
Spamilton: An American Parody
If you haven’t been able to get to, or afford, Hamilton (and it does live up to the hype), then this might work as a second best. It does what it says on the musical theatre tin, taking the mickey out of the award-winning hip-hop musical about the American founding fathers, and other shows too. It is written and directed by Gerard Alessandrini, who also gave us Forbidden Broadway, the long-running spoof on show toons.
Menier Chocolate Factory, SE1, to 8 September
The Lehman Trilogy
Not long after a musical about the Rothschild banking dynasty comes this, a three-part play (over one evening) about the Lehman Brothers, the trio who founded the New York firm that, 163 years later, collapsed and triggered the largest financial crisis in history. Ben Power’s version of Stefano Massini’s play is directed by Sam Mendes and stars Simon Russell Beale, Adam Godley and Ben Miles.
National Theatre: Lyttelton, SE1, until 20 October
MC
Three of the best ... dance shows
Che Malambo
French choreographer Gilles Brinas celebrates the poetry, machismo and heart of the history of the South American gauchos. This high-powered combination of drumming, dancing and traditional song, with some cowboy rope twirling and contemporary beats added in, is performed by an all-male cast from Buenos Aires.
Peacock Theatre, WC2, Wednesday 18 to 22 July
National Youth Dance Company: Used to Be Blonde
Israeli choreographer Sharon Eyal brings her trademark mix of club, trance and intensity to the bright young dancers of NYDC, drawing together their distinctive individualities to create a 41-strong ensemble of formidable dynamism and style.
Brighton Dome, Friday 20 July
Rough Fiction and London Arts Orchestra: The Expected
Two superb dance artists, Christopher Akrill and Sonya Cullingford, work with the musicians of LAO to reimagine the dark and dramatic love story at the heart of Schoenberg’s haunting string sextet Verklärte Nacht.
Wilton’s Music Hall, E1, Monday 16 July
JM
Main composite image: Trustee’s of the Natural History Museum; Kevin Winter/Live Nation; Pixar/AP
