Hay Fever
Judi Dench stars in Peter Hall’s revival of Noël Coward’s play, based on the life of the eccentric American actress Laurette Taylor. Dench takes the role of thespian Judith Bliss, who invites a selection of unwitting guests to her family home, with farcical consequences.
Theatre Royal Haymarket, SW1, from Apr 6 (0870 400 0858)
Icons and Idols: Commissioning Contemporary Portraits
The National Portrait Gallery is dusting down 25 years of commissioned portraits of “celebrated individuals” — and David Beckham. Many will no doubt flock to the gallery to see where the fine line between celebrity and idol lies, if line there is nowadays.
NPG, WC2, from Mar 2 (020 7312 2463)
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Sir John in Love
Vaughan Williams’s opera, based on The Merry Wives of Windsor, joins a juicy ENO line-up, with its was-to-have-been new musical director, Oleg Caetani, conducting. It stars Andrew Shore as Falstaff, with Marie MacLaughlin, Sally Burgess, Alastair Miles, Robert Tear and Jean Rigby.
Coliseum, WC2, from Mar 2 (0870 145 0200)
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Capote
Philip Seymour Hoffman has won an Oscar nomination for his turn as Truman Capote in Bennett Miller’s film, which follows the author as he writes In Cold Blood, about the slaying of a Kansas family, and befriends their accused killer.
From Feb 24