Hirst Spots Spread, Sheeran Warbles, Art Deals: London Weekend
January 20, 2012, 11:39 AM ESTBy Bloomberg
Preview by Farah Nayeri
Jan. 19 (Bloomberg) -- A New York banker who’d rather be a dancer heads for Nevada to foreclose on a mortgage.
The property turns out to be an abandoned theater that he decides to revive in “Crazy for You.” He falls in love with the borrower’s daughter, a tomboy in overalls who delivers mail.
A troupe of Broadway girls decamps to Nevada to perform with the local cowboys, who morph into dance gods. You end up with two-and-a-half hours of laughs and Gershwin tunes (“Embraceable You,” “I Got Rhythm”). Sean Palmer (of “Sex and the City”) is the remorseful financier.
Novello Theatre, 5 Aldwych, WC2B 4LD. Information: www.crazyforyouthemusical.com or +44-844-482-5171.
Saturday
The world is breaking out in spots.
The Gagosian Gallery is showing Damien Hirst spot paintings from 1986 to today at 11 global venues. Prove you’ve been to all 11, and you’ll get a signed Hirst print.
If you can just make it to one show, the Britannia Street venue has a good mix. Besides the wall-sized centerpiece, it features tiny, medium-sized and large canvases, with spots that come in all sizes, too. The main room is attractively hung, though it didn’t stir me the way art should.
For more explanation, see the pairs of early-90s canvases - - each with a square panel marked “Controlled Substances” that has letters next to the dots. They represent an alphabet of color with which a drug name is spelled out in the adjacent panel. The dots suddenly make a little more sense.
Gagosian is timing his show just before Tate Modern’s Hirst retrospective, and giving it a proper catalog. Still, there will be quite a few works on sale. For modest budgets, the shop has dotted key chains, skateboards and T-shirts.
Information: www.gagosian.com.
Rotunda bar and restaurant is a good place to stop off when visiting the Gagosian. It’s informal and friendly, and there’s an open terrace where the hardy (and the smokers) can watch the world go by on Regent’s Canal. The set lunch is 10 pounds ($15.37) this month.
Information: www.rotundabarandrestaurant.co.uk/ or +44-20-7014-2840.
Saturday Night
Ed Sheeran will show why he has been nominated for four BRIT awards when he plays the Brixton Academy on Friday and Saturday.
The 20-year-old, with just one album to his credit, already has gained fame in British pop with his single “The A Team,” one of the most-played songs of 2011.
While the concerts are sold out, some tickets are still available online.
Brixton O2 Academy, 211 Stockwell Road, SW9 9SL, Jan. 20 and 21. Information: www.o2academybrixton.co.uk or http://edsheeran.com and +44-844-477-2000.
Franco Manca, in Brixton Market, is a destination for pizza lovers from across London. The cooking time is 40 seconds and you’ll probably wait much longer than that for a table. Prices are low and the sourdough pizzas outstanding. Just leave yourself plenty of time before the Ed Sheeran concert.
Information: www.francomanca.co.uk/ or +44-20-7738-3021.
Sunday
The London Art Fair, which ends today, offers an attractive assortment of art that doesn’t cost millions.
The Sims Reed gallery has a visceral Francis Bacon triptych of a bullfight -- with his signature in pencil on each of the lithograph’s three parts. The booth also offers Andy Warhol cat prints (5,500 pounds a pop) and a David Hockney etching of a snoozing dog (7,280 pounds).
Upstairs at Tenderpixel, a robot will do a powerful Bic-pen sketch of your face for 30 pounds. It’s connected to a laptop programmed by the French artist Patrick Tresset, who got tired of drawing and decided to replace himself with a computer.
Information: www.londonartfair.co.uk or +44-8448- 480-136.
--With assistance from Mark Beech and Richard Vines in London. Editors: Jim Ruane, Catherine Hickley.
To contact the writer on the story: Farah Nayeri in London farahn@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Manuela Hoelterhoff at mhoelterhoff@bloomberg.net.
