Take Five

Wonderfully Winter! by Judith Schrut

The Bewitching Cast of Hex at the National Theatre, photo courtesy NT Press Office.

By the time you are reading this, the holiday bright lights and seasonal buzz will be fond memories and it will be some weeks until the snowdrops, crocus and chocolate mini eggs of spring are with us. Yes, it’s the perfect time to snuggle up and savour the first treats of the brand new year! Let us introduce you to five of our favourites.

1. Best In Show

After spending most of 2021 in darkness due to Covid shutdowns, British theatre is hotting up for a glorious New Year comeback, and we can hardly wait to tell you about it! Whether your fires are best lit by toasty and traditional pantomime, steamy and serious drama or toe-tapping, soul-warming musicals, you can rely on UK Theatreland to deliver a snowplough of great shows. All that’s needed is a big dose of old-fashioned audience love - we urge you to give generously.

There’s always a time and place for cherished West End oldies but goodies, especially when re-energised with fresh casts and creatives. Shows like Phantom of the Opera, Wicked and the Lion King still take the breath away, and Hamilton continues to live up to its hype. We’re looking forward to seeing all of these again soon.

If you’re after something new, West End newbies include a lavish and luscious revival of My Fair Lady and the eagerly awaited premiere of Moulin Rouge the Musical. It’s ‘Wilkommen’ and ‘Bienvenue’ to 1930’s Berlin, as the Kit Kat Club takes over London’s Playhouse Theatre, in a gobsmacking version of Cabaret, starring Eddie Redmayne and Jessie Buckley. Amy Adams makes her stage debut in Tennessee Williams’ classic, the Glass Menagerie. And don’t miss the rare second chance to be mesmerised by Mark Rylance as ‘Rooster’ Byron in the return of Jerusalem.

The eternally superb National Theatre presents Hex, a dark new musical that goes beyond the kiss that woke the Sleeping Beauty and tells the fairy’s tale; a revival of The Corn is Green, with Nicola Walker as a teacher determined to teach struggling Welsh coalminers to read and write; and The Father and The Assassin, by exciting Indian playwright Anupama Chandrasekhar. It’s the gripping story of Nathuram Godse, who assassinated Mahatma Gandhi in 1948.

You can also catch NT-originated Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime on tour across the UK. Even better knowing that friends and family back home can also enjoy these marvellous shows, as NT continues to broadcast in movie theatres across the USA and around the world with National Theatre Live.

London’s many off-West End venues offer a pleasure and quality match for West End best at a fraction of the price. The Young Vic has a thrilling Oklahoma, re-orchestrated for the 21st century, and Islington’s innovative Almeida Theatre brings us the world premiere of House of Shades.

For something completely different as well as beautiful, historic and inexpensive, you’ll love an evening at Wilton’s Music Hall. This one-of-a-kind gem in the heart of London is the oldest Grand Music Hall on the planet. Wilton’s proudly hosts a yearround programme of exceptional shows and community events. Upcoming highlights include Tonight You Belong to Me, featuring heart melting, smoky-voiced Christine Bovill singing well-loved tunes from the Jazz

Jessie Buckley sizzles in Cabaret at the KitKat Club, photo credit Joel Palmer, courtesy RawPR.

Age; the ever-popular Carradine’s Cockney Singalong; and Gilbert and Sullivan’s joyful and witty HMS Pinafore.

Britain’s excellent regional theatres should not be overlooked for outstanding drama, musicals and family-friendly shows. Belfast Theatre celebrates the late, great Stephen Sondheim, in a sparkling production of Into the Woods. Chichester Festival Theatre, home to world-class theatre productions including many West End transfers, premieres The Unfriend and The Taxidermist’s Daughter, while its acclaimed 2021 production of South Pacific transfers to Manchester Opera House, followed by a spectacular UK and Ireland tour. Sheffield’s theatre triplets, the Crucible, Lyceum and the Studio, mark their 50th birthdays with a packed and adventurous programme such as Rock/ Papers/Scissors, a trilogy which will play simultaneously at all three theatres, the same cast mindbogglingly moving from venue to venue while performing. Newlytouring shows in 2022 worth going that extra mile for include Chicago, Bugsy Malone, Anything Goes and Les Miserables.

Further information: wiltons.org.uk nationaltheatre.org.uk youngvic.org

Paul Cezanne, The Basket of Apples c1893, courtesy Tate Press Office, Art Institute of Chicago, Helen Birch Bartlett Memorial Collection.

2. Cosy Culture

Great Britain is happy host to the world’s top museums and art galleries. With free entry, first class collections, splendid late night events, family activities, mouthwatering foodoptions and tempting gift shops, a winter’s outing to one of Britain’s 2,500 museums and galleries is a perfect way to cheat the chill and cut those frosty feelings down to size.

Tate Modern and its gallery siblings Tate Britain, Tate St Ives and Tate Liverpool, are gearing up for a landmark year of exhibitions. Tate Liverpool opens with Radical Landscapes, while Tate St Ives gives us a retrospective of the life, work and Cornish connections of Barbara Hepworth, one of the 20th century’s greatest sculptors. Tate Britain’s shows include Walter Sickert, Hogarth and Europe and Life Between Islands Caribbean-British Art 50s–Now.

An awe-inspiring place to start your visit to Tate Modern is its 10th floor viewing gallery, with panoramic views of London’s skyline and the River Thames below. Entry to the Tate remains free, although you won’t want to miss this coming year’s paid ticket shows (free with membership). They’re topped by a retrospective of powerful and poetic artworks by Lubaina Himid; Surrealism Beyond Borders, Surrealist art and objects from around the world; and Cezanne, a fresh look at the artist who had such a huge influence on modern art.

If you’re not quite sure what you’re after, but just want a cosy-cultural day, head for the Victoria & Albert Museum in London’s South Kensington. The V&A, as it’s affectionately known, is the world’s greatest museum of art, design and performance and has a gallery for almost everything. From the moment you step into this exciting space and are greeted by the astonishing Dale Chihuly blown glass candelabra in the main entrance, we think you’ll be hooked. From that point the challenge is deciding which of its 150+ galleries to visit, from breathtaking jewellery, fashion, theatre and photography collections to vast and gorgeous displays of gold, silver, ceramics, glass and sculpture.

This year’s ticketed shows (members go free) include Fashioning Masculinities, the first major exhibition to tell the story of male attire, and Beatrix Potter: Drawn to Nature, a familyfriendly show revealing the extraordinary life of the beloved children’s author-illustrator.

Be sure to check out V&A’s recently refreshed Design 1900-Now and Raphael Cartoons galleries, and have tea and scones in the oldest museum café in the world, designed by none other than William Morris. The museum’s splendid gift shop is a show in itself, featuring a wide selection of original fashion, jewellery, homewares and toys crafted by contemporary British designers. Yes, it’s a BIG place, so if you’re not sure what to see first, the V&A’s range of free guided talks are an ideal way to start.

The British Museum was the world’s first national public museum when it opened in 1753. It reveals the history of humanity through 8 million objects, many of which you should be sure to see at least once in your lifetime, such as the Egyptian mummies, Rosetta Stone and Lewis Chessmen. Opening soon (ticketed; members free) is The World of Stonehenge, followed by the intriguingly titled Feminine Power.

The British Museum is, but one masterpiece in London’s Museum Mile. A walk along Museum Mile will provide you with fascinating insights into London past and present and an opportunity to discover 15 museums and galleries and their diverse collections. These include the Dickens

Museum, Sir John Soane’s Museum, Wellcome Collection of Science and

Medicine and London Transport Museum.

From hundreds of museum and gallery gems outside London, we highly recommend the International Slavery Museum, Liverpool, telling the history of the transatlantic slave trade through stories of resilience and resistance; the Thackray Museum of Medicine, Leeds; and Pontypool’s Big Pit National Coal Museum, with its astounding underground tour. The delightful American Museum, housed in an 18th-century manor outside Bath, is the only museum of Americana outside the USA.

Scotland is home to some of Britain’s family-friendliest museums. Glasgow’s Science Centre and Kelvingrove Gallery and Edinburgh’s Museum of Childhood and National Museum of Scotland are all enchanting places to while away a winter’s day, whatever your age or interest.

If you love curiosities and unusual treasures, Oxford’s Pitt Rivers Museum is a must. It displays one man’s (Augustus Pitt Rivers) obsessive collecting over a lifetime of exploration and discovery. The sheer quantity of stuff here becomes evident as soon as you step inside the main hall, where glass cabinets brimming with exhibits fill the walls and floors from top to bottom. Most visitors end up finding at least one object they wish they could take home with them.

Further information: vam.ac.uk tate.org.uk museum-mile.org.uk prm.ox.ac.uk

3. The Magic of Music

With hundreds of live music venues, it’s no wonder music lovers liken Britain to Music Heaven. When it comes to jazz, classical, do-wop or hip-hop, this may be a small island, but it’s one with an unrivalled set of musical grooves.

If all goes well, 2022 looks like a bumper crop musical year, with gigs, concerts and festivals tuning up and stepping once more into the spotlight after nearly two years’ silence.

London’s Southbank Centre ushers in the new year with an adventurous, diverse music programme throughout its Royal

Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall

and grandly refurbished Purcell Room. Particular treats include the Transatlantic Sessions, joining up top folk musicians from both sides of the ‘pond’; a centenary gala concert in honour of the late Ravi Shankar, featuring daughters Nora Jones and Anoushka Shankar; the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Concert; and the unique Chineke! Orchestra performing Duke Ellington’s wonderful, swinging Nutcracker Suite.

Classical fans won’t want to miss Sir András Schiff playing and conducting all five Beethoven piano concertos. Many other outstanding soloists, orchestras and conductors will also be appearing, like pianists Mitsuko Uchida and Yuja Wang, violinist Nicola Benedetti, cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason and singer Bryn Terfel. Amongst several American performers will be two of our favourites, singer Renee Fleming and conductor Marin Allsop.

Southbank’s much-loved festivals will also be back, including Imagine Children’s Festival, WOW (Women of the World), Grace Jones-curated Meltdown and the EFG London Jazz Festival. New this year will be the Purcell Sessions, bringing a year-long feast of contemporary culture.

You can count on the Southbank Centre to offer plenty for families and young people, like its FUNharmonics family concerts and OAE Tots, as well as loads of free options such as weekly after-work concerts, social dances and foyer events.

Few call it beautiful; many call it brutal, nonetheless the Barbican Centre boasts some brilliant sound spaces and welcomes 2022 with a glorious glut of world-class orchestras, bands, choirs and solo artists. For those not yet familiar, the Barbican is a 35-acre art, culture and housing complex in the heart of London, built over an area left flattened by World War II bombs. It’s home to the London and BBC Symphony Orchestras, Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the Museum of London, and includes concert halls, cinemas, a theatre and major art gallery as well as shops, pubs and restaurants, several hundred luxury apartments, magical roof gardens, a manmade lake with fountains and the best public library in the UK.

Barbican Centre’s upcoming year promises a wondrous variety of music and international artists, including a generous sprinkling of top musical Americans. There’s something for every age and taste, from a Frank Zappa Total Immersion Day, ‘ethnochaos’ with Ukraine’s DakhaBrakha Quartet, and a 24-hour concert of new music, London Contemporary Orchestra:24; to an afternoon of Antonio Vivaldi, an evening with Grammy-award winning bandleader Maria Schneider and her jazz orchestra, and a night with singer extraordinaire Joyce DiDonato. Her latest project, Eden, brings together timeless arias, poetry and drama to explore our place within nature.

Away from London we can’t wait for the Cheltenham Jazz Festival, showcasing global stars, up and coming newbies and lots of sound surprises under its very big jazz umbrella. Looking ahead to summer, we’re hoping for a full-on season of music festivals, much missed in 2020 and 2021. We recommend Nocturne Live, five nights of incredible sounds set against the stunning backdrop of Blenheim Palace’s Great Court; Love Supreme, the best of jazz and blues played out in a Sussex countryside setting; and WOMAD, the world’s greatest festival of Music, Art and Dance. So stay tuned: we’ll be back in a few months to tell you more about these and other magical music events.

Further information: southbankcentre.co.uk barbican.org.uk lovesupremefestival.com

4. Great Illuminations

Who doesn’t dream of a little more light in winter? Well, with this winter’s outdoor illuminations more abundant and adventurous than ever, many shining their lights well into the new year, that dream may well be a reality.

Waddesdon Manor in Buckinghamshire will be illuminating its Pleasure Gardens nightly until the end of January. Follow the light trail and be dazzled by colourful tree canopies, giant dandelions and a brilliant tunnel of light loops. Each day as the sun goes down, the Manor’s façade will be illumined by lights dancing to sequenced music.

In January, Winter Lights will transform London’s Canary Wharf, with 25 installations designed by light artists from around the globe. Look out for the pack of mammoths in Harbour Quay Gardens, sittable lit benches and twelve illuminated swans dancing in the dock. As well as stunning artworks, there will be pop-up street food and hot drinks stalls along the way, and firepits where you can toast marshmallows and sip hot chocolate. Winter Lights is free, with a downloadable map available to guide you.

Marston Park in Somerset will be lit up through springtime, with Fields of Light, a shimmering show by internationally acclaimed British artist Bruce Munro. The display features thousands of giant coloured spheres on stems, ‘planted’ along the Park’s lakeside path and through its woodlands. As darkness falls, the lake’s black mirror splendidly reflects the changing patterns of surrounding trees. You can even make a night of it by booking into one of Marston Park’s luxurious bell tents, each with its own mini lightwork: a firepit surrounded by illuminated stems, blooming with coloured light.

London’s Illuminated River is a recently completed, permanent display of lights designed by American Leo Villareal. It’s the world’s longest piece of public art, stretching for 3.2 miles from London Bridge to Lambeth Bridge. This environmentallyfriendly installation transforms the River Thames at night with a beautiful and spellbinding series of light artworks spanning nine historic bridges.

Brits have an endearing habit of nicknaming public favourites as ‘national treasures’. This includes the Queen, the BBC, Sir David Attenborough and Dame Judi Dench. The National Trust is another of these. In case you are not yet acquainted, the National Trust is the biggest conservation charity in Europe, looking after hundreds of historic houses, millions of objects, vast areas of coastline, countryside and green spaces for the British public to enjoy and cherish. This year, National Trust sites are putting on some of the UK’s best light shows, with many staying aglow through winter.

Ignite: Fire and Fantasy at Nymans Gardens, West Sussex, is one to book now, in case you haven’t had enough illuminated fun by the time it opens in February 2022. The intimate gardens of Nymans, set around a romantic house and ruins, will be the backdrop for a fantastical family-friendly trail of light and soundscapes, put on by Ignite Trails. Ignite’s unique after-dark experience also comes to Tyntesfield near Bristol, lighting up the grounds and gardens of this iconic Victorian gothic mansion with glittering flora, fiery stars and scintillating spheres.

Further information: canarywharf.com marstonpark.co.uk nationaltrust.org.uk

The Clew, part of Canary Wharf’s Winter Lights Festival, photo by Nunzio Prinna

Iluminations on London’s South Bank, Photo by Pete Woodhead. Bruce Munro Lightworks, Marston Park at Dusk, photo courtesy Marston Park.

Somerset House Ice Rink, photo by Luke Dyson, courtesy Somerset House Press Office

5. Get Your Skates On

Whether you’re a champion figure skater, a rink regular or a nervous novice, you’ll be wowed by the UK’s terrific choice of winter ice skating options.

Favourite London skate sites include rinks at the Natural History Museum, Somerset House’s magnificent 18th century courtyard and Canary Wharf, nestled beneath the soaring buildings of Canada Square’s financial giants and surrounded by twinkly lights, glamorous shops, bars and restaurants. Most venues offer skating lessons as well as skate aids for the young ones in the form of adorable childsize polar bears and penguins.

There’s plenty for ice lovers outside the capital too. Take a spin round the fairytale skate setting at Hampton Court, Henry VIII’s riverside palace. In Scotland, you

Poldark & friends, Ice Skating under the Dome at the Eden Project, courtesy Eden Project Media Office.

can skate-stroll up and down Edinburgh’s famous George Street. Enjoy icy thrills and spills beneath the fabulous bubble domes of Cornwall’s Eden Project.

Brighton Ice Rink is always popular, with its illuminated light show and spectacular Royal Pavilion backdrop. And it’s uniquely Green, powered solely by wind and solar energy. Bath Ice offers 1000 square metres of winter wonderland against the backdrop of Georgian Bath. After skating the day away why not try your luck at nearby Glow Golf, complete with fairy lights and glow-in-the dark golf balls.

Further information: somersethouse.org.uk edenproject.com bathonice.com royalpavilionicerink.co.uk

All venues, events and shows featured in this article have announced they will have Covid safety measures in place and follow the latest UK Government Covid safety guidelines.

Take Five brings the best of British to Americans in Britain each quarter. We’d love to hear how you’re wonder-fulling your winter – get in touch with Judith at judith0777@gmail.com.