Happy New Year! And Here's Your Arts Ahead for 2012

Well, here's my mighty round-up ahead of all the excitement this Olympic year from londonist.

Another Tuesday, another Arts Ahead for you. But this time, it's for the whole of 2012.

Alphabetically, you could look at it like this:

Adam Cooper, Big Dance, Cultural Olympiad, David Hockney, Exposure, Freud (Lucien), Globe Theatre, Hirst (Damien), I-Einstein on the Beach(!), Jubilee (Diamond), King Lear and Kronos Quartet, Long Day's Journey Into Night, Metamorphosis: Titian, (All) New People, Oil Tanks, Porgy and Bess, (The) Queen, Reverb, Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela, (Sweeney) Todd, Umbrellas (for Singin In The Rain), Viva Forever, World Shakespeare Festival...

X.. Y... and...

Zach Braff.

That's not to mention Cate Blanchett at the Barbican's 30th birthday, Mozart at the Royal Opera House or any of the 1000s of Dickens 2012 events happening in London. Even Nick Curtis at the Standard is getting excited: does that say Annus Fabulous in that url?!

Can you see why I might've been somewhat, shall we say, restless over the Christmas break?!

I've likened the past few weeks to the clunking, jerky movements heading up a rollercoaster before you finally get to the top, look at a beautiful view all around you (thanks, Christmas in the Shire), and then, Wwwoooosh! From today I've plunged into a spinning, twisting, unrestricted, unregulated freefall that'll continue until ooh, it's all over. In the middle of September.

Welcome to 2012.

Londonist: Arts Ahead 3-10 December

Temperatures drop, shopping stress rises, and London rolls into festive season good and proper this week. Here's our guide to the saner side of London's arts scene; it's not all about carols and pantos, you know.

That Hamlet starts at the Novello today, without the skull, but most definitely with Doctor Who. Tickets are pretty hard to come by. If you get your hands on one, let us know how. Londonist is wondering about selling its granny in return for a seat – any takers?

The less-hyped, but still exciting A Little Night Music also opens today, at the Menier Chocolate Factory. It a "sophisticated musical in waltz time" and has got the ever-fabulous Maureen Lipman and one of those Nancys in it. You'll recognise that "send in the clowns" number. More kid-friendly is the Potted Potter: The Unauthorised Harry Experience from Dan and Jeff at the Trafalgar Studios, which also kicks off today.

London goes dance-crazy this week, as the Christmas ballets and alternative dance shows sashay onto the scene. The Sleeping Beauty is brought back to life by the English National Ballet at the London Coliseum from today and The Snowman opens at the Peacock Theatre. Also opening today is Miss High Leg Kick and Boogaloo Stu's School of Dance at the Barbican. A flirty celebration of Latin American dancing, you say? Where do we sign?!

Then, Matthew Bourne's Edward Scissorhands (currently in previews) snips open at Sadler's Wells on Tuesday.

Last Chance To See

Friday is your last chance to see Natassia Page's funky installation in The Merchant Centre. It's a blurring of art and office life, apparently. Sunday sees your last opportunity to catch Robin Rhode: Who Saw Who at The Hayward.

The fantastic-but-flawed The Tragedy of Thomas Hobbes at Wilton's Music Hall closes on Saturday.

Finally, if you were worried that time was running out for you to catch Damon Albarn's Monkey: Journey to the West at The O2, you're in luck. They announced this morning that they're extending the run until 4 January.

Image shows the dreamy David Tennant (Hamlet) after Casper David Friedrich's The Wanderer Above The Sea Of Fog. Photographer: Jillian Edelstein.

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Londonist: Arts Ahead 26 November-3 December

With Christmas creeping up on us, London's arts and theatre scene begins to slide into festive mayhem. Don't worry; your Londonist Fairy Godmother enters in a cloud of glitter stage right, to sort the handsome princes from the ugly sisters.

If you can't stand panto, take the little ones to see The Gruffalo at the Duchess Theatre instead. It opens today. If you can't beg, borrow or steal a kid, head to the very adult, very black comedy, August: Osage County which also opens today at the National. Our friends loved it on Broadway; it has five Tony Awards and a Pulitzer to its name.

From tomorrow, you can check out the Young Vic's Christmas offering: Amazonia. Brazilian and British theatre artists bring a unique and, we're told, "sensory" festive show.

Tired of theatre? Film fans are in with a treat this week, as not one but three film festivals come to our fair city. There's the German Film Festival from Friday, the London African Film Festival from Saturday, and the tail-end of the Children's Film Festival until Sunday.

Artswise, check out Future Map 08 at David Roberts Art Foundation Fitzrovia on Friday. Future Map showcases 12 of the best new talents from University of the Arts London, and is sure to be funky.

Also on Friday, badge fans should pop into Museum of London from 3pm, to have a look at a range of badges relating to London's history. The badges on show include political, cultural, radical and comical ones. Take your own along too, to take part in the Wearing your heart on your sleeve event. Badges: not just for Boosh fans.

If you were in any doubt about the unstoppable slide towards sleigh bells, Cinderella opens at the Lyric on Friday; Mother Goose is at the Hackney Empire from Saturday, and Hansel and Gretel opens at the Barbican on Monday. We'll bring you a more comprehensive Panto round-up once December's properly started.

Last Chance to See

Only one show to rush for this week: Footsbarn's Midsummer Night's Dream in that tent in Victoria Park closes on Sunday. Great reviews, but we're glad they're done. We can't be writing about outdoor theatre and dreaming of midsummer while there's dames, glass slippers and mulled wine in the air.

Boris' Cultural Strategy for London

This was yesterday's news, but what with work and needing to see the lovely Lesley in Carousel in the evening (plus Spooks), I didn't get a chance to write about it, either here or on londonist.

So, here's Boris' plan for the future of London's culture.

Happily, there's talk about getting people out to the Boroughs, the continuation of the funky Fourth Plinth plan, and a nice idea about a musical instrument amnesty (backed by everyone from Time Out to Julian Lloyd Webber, it seems) to encourage instrument playing for the young. Never a bad thing.

Lindsey from londonist was quick to point out that it's borough-based support that's got Boris where he is today (next door, not queueing for lunch).

The Guardian and many others focus on the "less hip hop, more high culture" line, which I supposed makes better headlines for the papers.

I guess I'm just pleased it's being talked about.

The London Film Day sounds good. The Story of London event sounds like it's going to mean a lot of work, but I do like the musical instrument amnesty idea.

Talking about making culture "better", whether that's cheaper, more varied, more representative, more accessible, or whatever has to be a good thing.

After however long of no-one hearing anything from City Hall on much at all, at least now we have something concrete from them. And if it's all that Munira Mirza's words (apart from the use of "funkapolitan" to describe our "museums of glass and steel", wherever they are; and "cosmopolitan, multilingual and polychromatic") and not from Mr J himself (can't bring myself to ever use the BoJo moniker, eugh), who cares?

And I'll back Charlotte Higgins as she writes:

"I also agree with the authors of the report when they write the following: "It is often presumed that young people will only like art that they can immediately relate to. Working-class students may be steered towards popular culture like hip-hop, new media and film, on the basis that they will find older art forms like opera or ballet irrelevant. This approach patronises young people and limits their horizons. With proper support and encouragement, arts organisations can play a big role in opening young people's minds, and deepening their appreciation of culture from any time or place." It's about time someone put that thought in black and white."

Fewer events in Trafalgar Square makes my job a little easier too...

Londonist: Arts Ahead 5-12 November

Arts Ahead, Londonist's sporadic(!) weekly guide to getting you cultured is back this week, with exciting events breaking out all over the city.

Openings in London this week:

We've seen a few happy endings over the last couple of days (Lewis, Barack, Steven).

Why not make a fourth with Mark Morris Dance Group's Romeo and Juliet which opens today at the Barbican? It's being performed as the composer, Sergey Prokofiev, originally intended complete with a happy ending where Juliet wakes up. Hurrah.

This week sees a chunk of diverse theatre shows raising their curtains. Alan Bennett's Enjoy with everyone's favourite costume-drama-mum, Alison Steadman, opens in Richmond on Friday. Previews of Lily's dad in Treasure Island also hobble, peg-legged into the Theatre Royal Haymarket on Friday. Saturday brings Damon Albarn and co's modern acrobatic opera Monkey: Journey To The West to Monkey's World at The O2.

On Tuesday, take your pick between the opening night of Gesthsemane by David Hare featuring Lawrence Award-winning, Black Books/Love Soup/Green Wing star Tamsin Grieg at the National, and Bill Bailey's Tinselworm at the Gielgud. We warned you it was a mixed bag.

In the art world, check out some lovely British impressionism at Sisley in England and Wales when it opens at the National next Tuesday. And fans of the British Museum's Statuephilia should check out their Statuephilia Late on Friday.

Last Chance:

In theatreland, Come Dancing closes on Saturday, so this is your last chance to see The Kinks' Ray Davies' musical about love set around the Ilford Palais in 1950s London. The critically acclaimed In The Red and Brown Water from American playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney also closes this weekend.

Finally, Rupert Goold's utterly astounding, teeth-clenchingly brilliant head-fuck of a show, Six Characters in Search of an Author is all over on Saturday.

Catch 'em while you can. Read the original post on londonist.

Image shows David Leventhal and Rita Donahue in Romeo and Juliet, On Motifs of Shakespeare. Photo credit Gene Schiavone.

Read the original post on londonist.