Things to do in London this week

On Friday, the Paris will host what promises to be an epic Olympics opening ceremony along the Seine, before two weeks of world-class sporting competitions. If you’ve failed to snag tickets, don’t worry – London is a dab hand at showing sporting antics on the big screen, and plenty of locations will be popping up across the city where you can (hopefully) bask in the sun and catch everything from diving to curling. Here’s our pick of the best. 

Jerry Herman and Michael Stewart's midlife musical romcom is a goofy love letter to Dolly, a widow who takes a train to Yonkers, fixes everyone else’s romantic problems and eventually her own. And ‘wow, wow, wow, fellas, look at the old girl now, fellas!’ - Imelda Staunton is making herself gloriously seen and heard in Dominic Cooke's lavish revival of ‘Hello, Dolly!’. Cooke's show is a big old-fashioned bells and whistles production with impressive hoofing choreography and the rare pleasure of a real orchestra. It’s a terrific old-fashioned show which audiences love, and it knows it. 

South Facing might still be a fledgling festival compared to some of the other events on the calendar, now only in its third year, but it's continuing a lineage of over 150 years at Crystal Palace Bowl. The venue has played host to some of music’s most legendary names, from Elton John and Bob Marley to Vera Lynn and the Sex Pistols. South Facing brings the same level of thrilling eclecticism with its line-ups, hosting its bill in a space that feels intimate. There’s a diverse mix of headliners for its 2024 run, including disco icon Grace Jones, indie auteurs Future Islands, dancehall legend Popcaan, hip-hop pioneers The Roots, amapiano trailblazers Major League DJz, London jazz luminary Yussef Dayes, pop queen Jess Glynne, and reggae royalty Damian Marley.

Prepare to be taken on a journey around the Amalfi Coast by devouring Six by Nico Fitzrovia’s new menu which is inspired by “La Dolce Vita” – the sweet life. Dishes are insired by the postcard-perfect towns of Sorrento and Positano to the sweeping beaches of Capri. Or if you are dreaming of Greece, the Canary Wharf branch has created a Greek-Mediterranean tasting menu that transports you to the sun-soaked country.

Save up to £29 on this six-course tasting menu at Six by Nico, only through Time Out Offers. 

On Saturday, Trafalgar Square will turn pink and blue as London Trans+ Pride celebrates its sixth year. The event is a vital coming together for trans people in the city, giving space to resist the encroaching threats on trans rights around the world, and come together to celebrate the community in the capital. So bring a sign, cover yourself in glitter and join the parade, which will wend its way through central London, culminating at Hyde Park Corner’s Wellington Arch.

FKABAM’s tattooed ruler Lee Tiernan might resemble a one-man Dirty Sanchez x The Bear crossover episode, but under the inky skin and camo print throbs the brain and heart of an elite chef. It’s obvious in every dish: Tiernan and his team want every ingredient to count and every mouthful to mean something. The restaurant’s devoted fanbase know the drill: one tasting menu, four courses for two people, £59 each. The dishes change every few weeks, but the lack of choice is alluring, not limiting. If it’s on the menu, it’s been perfected. Like genetically enhanced super soldiers, FKABAM’s dishes are the result of hundreds of hours of experimentation, innovation and refinement. If you like bold combinations, wild ideas and exquisite cooking you will love this hectic meat-mad fun box. 

Gordon Ramsay’s Heddon Street Kitchen is a suave, intimate spot in Picadilly with a rich menu full of perfectly-cooked takes on classic British dishes and other popular plates from dining destinations around the world. Head along to sink back a complimentary cocktail along with a two or three-course dinner.

Eperience one of Gordon Ramsay's restaurants with a complimentary cocktail, only with Time Out Offers.

With their second feature I Saw the TV Glow, writer-director Jane Schoenbrun delivers a memorable, strange and satisfying teen horror-mystery. Owing much to Buffy the Vampire Slayer and plenty, if slightly less, to the wilder, weirder imagery of Twin Peaks, it’s a rare film that wears its influences on its sleeve while still feeling totally fresh. Schoenbrun, a trans, non-binary filmmaker, describes the film as being about ‘the egg crack’: the moment a person realises they’re trans after years of uncertainty and self-examination. It’s a vividly personal work, full of tough memories translated into neon nightmares. 

The first Deadpool movie was a refreshingly unserious counterblast to the superhero industrial complex dominating cinemas in the mid-2010s. With his gleeful pisstaking and fourth-wall breaking, Ryan Reynolds’ motormouth Wade Wilson felt like the wobbly brick in the machine-built Jenga tower that was pre-Endgame superhero cinema. Eight years on and Reynolds’ sweary superhero has evolved from plucky insurgent to the cornerstone of a potential Marvel revival. So when he refers to himself as ‘Marvel Jesus’ in this splashily violent, timeline-traversing quest, he’s not kidding. Deadpool & Wolverine is a franchise resurrection dressed as an odd-couple bromance, with a new version of Hugh Jackman’s grizzled Wolverine along for the ride. The plot is rather cumbersome plotting aside, but there’s enough gory mayhem and genuine zingers to make this a fun ride in a packed and up-for-it cinema.

Lightroom is back with another spectacle set to take your breath away. See this exciting Apollo Remastered collaboration with Tom Hanks, Christopher Riley and 59 Productions with an insight into the impending return of crewed surface missions by going behind the scenes of the Artemis programme, including interviews between Hanks and Artemis astronauts. With a musical score by Anne Nikitin, Lightroom’s powerful projection and audio technology will transport you to another world.

Get tickets to 'The Moonwalkers: A Journey with Tom Hanks' at Lightroom for £19, only through Time Out offers. 

The National Theatre’s River Stage has been back on the South Bank this month, entertaining tourists and Londoners alike with a jam-packed programme of live music, dance, performance, workshops and family fun courtesy of  The Glory, Greenwich + Docklands International Festival and Rambert. It closes for 2024 this week with a three-day bonanza of family-friendly entertainment courtesy of the National itself. Expect a lovely mish-mash of lmusic, theatre, dance and workshops with some tours of the iconic building being thrown in too. See the National Theatre website for more info

There are few things better than a crunchy, gooey, toasty hot grilled cheese. To celebrate the launch of Kitchen Provisions’ new Chef’s Press (which should make it even easier to achieve the gold standard in grilled cheeses), the store is hosting a special grilled cheese-off, judged by the product’s inventor, Bruce Hill. Grab a free ticket and watch chefs from Decatur, Rambutan, Supa Ya Ramen and Brother Marcus go head-to-head as they try and make the best melty sandwich going. There’ll also be plenty of food (grilled cheese, what else?), drinks and merriment to be had.

In American director Gordon Greenberg’s charming production of Joseph Stein and Stephen Schwartz’s 1989 musical there’s a lot more to ‘The Baker’s Wife’ than ‘Meadowlark’, its best-known song. For one thing, there’s a whole village in 1930s Provence seemingly addicted to bread. They’re practically salivating by the time the new baker, Amiable (Clive Rowe), arrives. This is followed by gossip about how much younger his wife, Genevieve (Lucie Jones) is. She quickly catches the eye of local heartthrob Dominique (Joaquin Pedro Valdes) and scandal among the sleepy café tables ensues. This particular show benefits from director-of-musicals extraordinaire Greenberg’s in-depth familiarity with it. Crucially, he understands that romance is only one strand of the story and that perhaps the most important ‘character’ is the village itself.

Never ending baskets of delicious dim sum. Need we say more? That means tucking into as many dumplings, rolls and buns as you can scoff down, all expertly put together by a Chinatown restaurant celebrating more than ten years of business. Taiwanese pork buns? Check. Pork and prawn soup dumplings? You betcha. ‘Supreme’ crab meat xiao long bao? Of course! And just to make sure you’re all set, Leong’s Legend is further furnishing your palate with a chilled glass of prosecco. Lovely bubbly.

Get 51% off bottomless dim sum at Leong's Legend only through Time Out Offers

One of London’s biggest dance music festivals is back to take over Boston Manor Park. If previous years are anything to go by, you can expect a careful balance of massive names and hotly-tipped up-and-comers across the weekend. This year you've got a stacked selection of house and techno juggernauts like Richie Hawtin, DVS1 b2b DJ Nobu, LSDXOXO Hot Since 82 and Kölsch live. They come alongside the likes of Barry Can't Swim, The Blessed Madonna, Honey Dijon, Joy Anonymous and The Martinez Brothers. Basically, it's the holy grail of raves.

What’s better than spending some quality time with your mates? And what better way to do it than to sing your heart out or play a game of bowling? Grab your crew and head to All Star Lanes for retro bowling lanes, luxury karaoke booths for groups of up to 14 people, cocktail bars and restaurants serving American comfort food!

Enjoy a karaoke or bowling session with prosecco and bottomless pizza at All Star Lanes from £10, only with Time Out Offers.

With its peppy cast, streamlined story and about a bazillion pixels’ worth of VFX cyclones to sweep you back in your seat, Lee Isaac Chung’s all-action film is a fun and refreshingly old-school night at the pictures. Normal People’s Daisy Edgar-Jones is a reined-in but sparky lead as meteorologist Kate Cooper, a Midwesterner with a groundhog’s ability to sniff out looming weather systems. And there are plenty of them – Twisters unleashes tornado after tornado; a visual effects splurge. Twisters gives you more than your money’s worth in mayhem. 

Fuerza Bruta, the Diqui James-led company, have returned to the Roundhouse for the first time in over a decade with ‘Aven’, billed as ‘the happiest show on Earth’. It’s essentially a series of spectacular setpieces with no plot, set to Gaby Kerpel’s pounding electronic score, staged largely around, and often above, the all-standing audience. The theatrical highs are fairly obvious: a gaggle of acrobatic performers running around the sides of a giant smoke-spitting globe; a man appearing to ‘swim’ through a huge tube filled with a vortex of confetti; at the climax a gigantic inflatable whale – controlled by two performers – swimming majestically through the Roundhouse’s towering vaults. It’s pretty much irresistible entertainment to anyone with a pulse.

It’s all material to Lonnie Holley, everything. Past traumas, trash found on a creek bed, shared histories, scrap metal, the news, old padlocks. All of it can be twisted into new shapes by him. Since the 1970s, he’s been at the forefront of a loose movement of Black American artists from the Deep South exploring the legacies of slavery and everyday injustice that shape their society. The recent work here continues his ongoing fascination with imbuing the scraps of life with meaning and narrative. Holley can tell stories that need telling. He reconstitutes and reconfigures the world around him, and the results feel powerful, necessary and often beautiful.

Polish-born, London-based artist Goshka Macuga has filled Bloomberg’s gallery with vast gleaming stalactites and stalagmites. They erupt from the floor, drip from the ceiling, glistening in pinks and browns and purples and blues. They look like ceramics, but they’re resin-coated foam, dominating the space with their bodily, physical, penile presences. There’s a lot of gloopy geological ceramic-y art out there, but it’s Macuga’s ideas that make this work. The cave as a concept symbolises safety, a metaphorical, prehistoric womb for humanity to crawl back to.