Can U2 make it a lucky 13th album and will 12 Years A Slave wash up at the Oscars? Event critics gaze into their crystal ball for 2014

Author: Event Critics
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By Event Critics

PUBLISHED: 17:00 EST, 4 January 2014 | UPDATED: 17:23 EST, 4 January 2014

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Will the X Factor musical get the judges’ vote? And can that really be Lady Sybil in Jamaica Inn? Event predicts the hits (and misses) of the year

by Matthew Bond

Events of the year

Event of the year: Steve McQueen's 12 Years A Slave (released January 10) and the Coen brothers' Inside Llewyn Davis (January 24) are highly recommended
Event of the year: Steve McQueen's 12 Years A Slave (released January 10) and the Coen brothers' Inside Llewyn Davis (January 24) are highly recommended
Steve McQueen’s 12 Years A Slave(released January 10) and the Coen brothers’ Inside Llewyn Davis (January 24) are highly recommended, but I’m looking forward to catching some of the other leading contenders for the awards season, including Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf Of Wall Street with Leonardo DiCaprio (January 17); August: Osage County with Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts (January 24); and Dallas Buyers Club (February 7) with Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto.   Further ahead, I really like the look of Wes Anderson’s comedy The Grand Budapest Hotel (March 7). Ralph Fiennes leads a star-studded cast (including Jude Law and Owen Wilson) as a larger-than-life hotel concierge.
I really like the look of Wes Anderson's comedy The Grand Budapest Hotel (March 7). Ralph Fiennes leads a star-studded cast (including Jude Law and Owen Wilson) as a larger-than-life hotel concierge
I really like the look of Wes Anderson's comedy The Grand Budapest Hotel (March 7). Ralph Fiennes leads a star-studded cast (including Jude Law and Owen Wilson) as a larger-than-life hotel concierge

Trends of the year

Maybe it’s the Gravity effect, but science fiction seems to be back in vogue for 2014. Two hotly awaited films address the subject of artificial intelligence, with Joaquin Phoenix excelling as a man who falls in love with his computer, voiced by a sultry-sounding Scarlett Johansson, in Spike Jonze’s Her (out February 14), while Johnny Depp and Kate Mara confront the possibility of computers becoming cleverer than human beings in Transcendence (out April 25).
Elsewhere, it’s outer space that beckons with some warming to the Flash Gordon-sounding appeal of Guardians Of The Galaxy. But I’ll probably prefer Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar (out November 7), with Matthew McConaughey, Jessica Chastain and Anne Hathaway exploiting a wormhole to explore the boundaries of space travel, and Jupiter Ascending (out July 25) from maverick film-makers Andy and Lana Wachowski, who made the Matrix films and now posit a universe where human beings are very much at the bottom of the evolutionary scale.

Ones to watch

Keep an eye on British talent and British films in 2014, especially if Chiwetel Ejiofor and Steve McQueen can get things off to a flying start by picking up the Oscars for Best Actor and Best Director for the brilliant 12 Years A Slave. As things currently stand, they have a decent chance of landing what would be an extraordinary double.
Then look out for David Mackenzie’s grim prison drama, Starred Up (out March 21),  featuring an outstanding performance from its young star, Jack O’Connell. It isn’t a lot of fun but will be one of the best British films you’ll see all year.
And while director Lone Scherfig may be Danish, she’s already demonstrated with An Education that she’s completely at home with British institutions and behaviour. So, come autumn, we could be in for a treat with Posh (out September 19), her take on Laura Wade’s play of the same name about two well-bred young men who join a notorious Oxford dining club, the sort of institution that David Cameron and George Osborne frequented in their youth. Might just determine the outcome of the next Election.

What I’d like to see in 2014

The end of actors who mumble… Marlon Brando was wrong on this, guys: it’s not cool and it’s not clever.

I have a bad feeling about…

Noah (out March 28) with the likes of Russell Crowe, Emma Watson and Anthony Hopkins taking on the biblical epic under the directorial guidance of the unpredictable Darren Aronofsky. Brings to mind the words of a traumatised Lew Grade after he’d made  the similarly watery Raise The Titanic: ‘It would have been cheaper to lower the Atlantic.’

If I could buy only one ticket…

Surely it’s got to be Paddington (scheduled for release on November 28). Colin Firth provides the voice of Peru’s best-known small bear, while Hugh Bonneville and Sally Hawkins are Mr and Mrs Brown, the couple who take him in when they find him at Paddington Station. With Nicole Kidman co-starring in this big-screen adaptation of Michael Bond’s novels, expect marmalade galore.by Georgina Brown

Events of the year

Starry revivals of dramatic classics include Juliet Stevenson in Samuel Beckett's Happy Days
Starry revivals of dramatic classics include Juliet Stevenson in Samuel Beckett's Happy Days
The first candle-lit theatre for centuries, the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, opens later this month at Shakespeare’s Globe in London, with Gemma Arterton as the Duchess Of Malfi. Will it – or the idea – catch fire?
In March, at the London Palladium, I Can’t Sing will get behind the X Factor microphones in Harry Hill’s musical. But is The X Factor beyond parody?
There will be a ‘welcome back’ and ‘happy 25th anniversary’ this year for Miss Saigon, Boublil and Schönberg’s legendary musical adaptation of Madam Butterfly, complete with helicopter. Another revival of a popular musical, Fings Ain’t Wot They Used T’Be, with Jessie Wallace from EastEnders taking the part that launched the career of Barbara Windsor. Gary Kemp plays Fred, the loveable rogue who comes out of prison to discover he is no longer king of the manor. It opens on May 14 at Stratford East, then tours nationally.
As a Marc Bolan fan, I’m embarrassingly excited by 20th Century Boy, which sets off on a national tour, starting in Inverness in April.
The same goes for Sunny Afternoon, a new musical with, you’ve guessed it, Ray Davies’s songs telling the story of his rise to stardom with The Kinks, directed by Ed Hall at home in his Hampstead Theatre.
Starry revivals of dramatic classics include Juliet Stevenson buried up to her neck in sand in Samuel Beckett’s surreal masterpiece Happy Days, at London’s Young Vic later this month.
Janie Dee and Charles Edwards will bring their cut-glass accents when they join Angela Lansbury, who is reprising her Tony award-winning Broadway performance as Noël Coward’s clairvoyant Madame Arcati in Blithe Spirit at London’s Gielgud Theatre from March 1.
Simon Russell Beale is taking on King Lear at the National Theatre later this month for Sam Mendes, with Anna Maxwell Martin as one of his vicious daughters.
In April, Sir Antony Sher pads up for Shakespeare’s disgraceful Sir John Falstaff in his partner Greg Doran’s revival of Shakespeare’s wonderful history plays, Henry IV, parts One and Two, at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon.
And Gillian Anderson plays faded beauty Blanche DuBois in Tennessee Williams’s A Streetcar Named Desire, in June at the Young Vic.

Trends of the year

There seems to be a continuation of last year’s tsunami of movies made into musicals: the song-and-dance version of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, a hit on Broadway, is being reworked by Jerry Mitchell with Robert Lindsay, Rufus Hound, Katherine Kingsley and Samantha Bond attempting to upstage the 1988 film. It starts at Manchester in February, then to Aylesbury and on to London’s Savoy Theatre in March.

Ones to watch

Kate O’Flynn was outstanding in Simon Stephens’s Stockport-set play Port last year. She returns to the National to play the shy, gauche 17-year-old living with her alcoholic mother (Lesley Sharp) in Shelagh Delaney’s 1950s piece A Taste Of Honey. Simon Stephens’s new play, Birdland, at London’s Royal Court, has Sherlock’s Andrew Scott playing a rock star. Also at the Court, young John Donnelly’s play about a couple of footballers on the up, The Pass, is directed by the brilliant John Tiffany.
WHAT I'D LIKE TO SEE IN 2014: Many more super-fit men (such as Tom Hiddlestone in Coriolanus)
WHAT I'D LIKE TO SEE IN 2014: Many more super-fit men (such as Tom Hiddlestone in Coriolanus)

What I’d like to see in 2014

No more characters strung up by their feet (as they have been recently in Coriolanus, Let The Right One In and Mojo); many more super-fit men (such as Tom Hiddlestone in Coriolanus and Matt Smith in American Psycho) showering with their shirts off; and proper stage lighting at Shakespeare’s Globe.

I have a bad feeling about…

The yuckily titled Urinetown was a hit in America a decade ago. Jamie Lloyd, director of the very disappointing production of The Commitments, is staging this tale of corruption in low places at the St James Theatre from February.

If I could buy only one ticket...

I would see The Mistress Contract, Abi Morgan’s retelling of the true story of a woman who agreed to become the ‘sexual property’ of a rich man, at the Royal Court. The arrangement has continued for decades. He is now 93, she is 88.by Ben Felsenburg
Fleming is the story of the wartime exploits and busy love life of James Bond's creator, Ian Fleming
Fleming is the story of the wartime exploits and busy love life of James Bond's creator, Ian Fleming

Events of the year

The BBC’s lavish Jamaica Inn sees Jessica Brown Findlay (Downton’s Lady Sybil) in Daphne Du Maurier’s historical mystery; while Fleming (Sky Atlantic, early 2014), starring Dominic Cooper as Ian Fleming, is the story of the wartime exploits and busy love life of James Bond’s creator. World War I’s centenary is being marked by 2,500 hours of BBC programmes (over four years), starting with Jeremy Paxman’s landmark history series Britain’s Great War (early 2014).
On ITV John Simm is back with the force for the first time since Life On Mars. Prey has him as a detective falsely accused of a violent crime, and Olivia Colman returns for series two of bleak but compelling Broadchurch after her gripping, heart-breaking performance last year. Meanwhile, devoted fans should brace themselves for the return of Game Of Thrones (Sky Atlantic, early 2014), and Jack’s back in 24: Live Another Day (Fox, April).

Trends of the year

There’s a profusion of costume drama, from Wolf Hall’s Tudors to the WWI nurses of BBC’s The Ark and the last days of the Raj in Channel 4’s epic Indian Summers. The Hollywood A-list migration to the small screen reaches a new peak. Frank Darabont, maker of The Shawshank Redemption, gives us a brilliant new crime drama Mob City (Fox TV), and Sam Mendes enlists Josh Hartnett and Eva Green for horror series Penny Dreadful (Sky Atlantic).
Swooningly handsome Tom Hughes will be seen with Brian Cox in 1970s spy thriller The Game
Swooningly handsome Tom Hughes will be seen with Brian Cox in 1970s spy thriller The Game

Ones to watch

Two promising actors we’ll see more of are the swooningly handsome Tom Hughes, with Brian Cox in 1970s spy  thriller The Game, while highly regarded Nico Mirallegro stars in Jimmy McGovern’s searing new drama Common.

What I’d like to see

Would it be asking too much for the same effort to go into the script as the casting for some big name sitcoms – Vicious (ITV), we mean YOU!

I have a bad feeling about...

Poldark was a classic of its era – but can the torrid Cornish saga succeed without those 1970s sideburns in the remake?

If I could watch just one show...

Most of all I can’t wait for True Detective. Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson are cops on the trail of a serial killer in a scintillating, epic noir thriller that promises to be the one show you can’t miss this year.by Tim de Lisle
An arena tour from Miley Cyrus is followed by an arena tour from Katy Perry, then One Direction
An arena tour from Miley Cyrus is followed by an arena tour from Katy Perry, then One Direction

Events of the year

Elbow’s sixth album could be the event of this year. With their masterpiece, The Seldom Seen Kid from 2008, Guy Garvey’s band of big-hearted blokes from Bury finally reached the top after 18 years together. The follow-up, Build A Rocket Boys!, was intriguing but modest; the next one, out on March 10, is more ambitious. Garvey has played me four unfinished tracks – all of them rousing, literate, emotional and unmistakably Elbow. At this summer’s festivals, arms will sway.

Trends of the year

I hope to be wrong about this one, but the big trend looks like being plastic pop. In May there will be little else. An arena tour from Miley Cyrus is followed by an arena tour from Katy Perry, which is followed by an arena tour from One Direction. But, with a bit of luck, an antidote – something real and heartfelt – will burst on to YouTube from nowhere and grab the world’s attention. In May, ideally.

Ones to watch

Holly Palmer is a soulful singer-songwriter from Los Angeles who made one of the most satisfying albums of the 2000s, I Confess. After taking a break to be a mum, she is now recording with Pete Glenister, a London producer who used to work with Kirsty MacColl. At least one of their new tracks is a classic. Palmer also has a band, the Goods, who are like the Andrews Sisters rewritten by Tina Fey: their five-track EP The Tapdancer, which can be downloaded from Bandcamp for £3, was the wittiest record I heard last year.

What I’d like to see in 2014

A pop radio station that is grown-up, open-minded, and not tucked away on digital, like the best one we have –  BBC 6 Music.

I have a bad feeling about….

Five years on from the widely forgotten No Line On The Horizon, and just rocked by the retirement of long-term manager Paul McGuinness, U2 have to return to form. Their 13th studio album is expected in April
Five years on from the widely forgotten No Line On The Horizon, and just rocked by the retirement of long-term manager Paul McGuinness, U2 have to return to form. Their 13th studio album is expected in April
U2. Five years on from the widely forgotten No Line On The Horizon, and just rocked by the retirement of long-term manager Paul McGuinness, U2 have to return to form. Their 13th studio album is expected in April. We know from Ordinary Love, their song for the film Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom, that they still have a sense of melody and urgency. But do they still have the ear of the public?

If I could buy only one ticket…

I’d go to Glastonbury, even though the only certainties on the bill are Arcade Fire and Lily Allen. Hot tips include Dolly Parton, Prince and Daft Punk, though organiser Michael Eavis seems to have quashed rumours that Fleetwood Mac would appear. Failing that, Arctic Monkeys in Finsbury Park, London, May 23-24. Their new sound, halfway from young Elvis Costello to the serious side of Black Sabbath, is a fine setting for Alex Turner’s lyrics. by David Mellor

Events of the year

EVENTS OF THE YEAR: Joseph Calleja (pictured), the Maltese tenor, is in Gounod's Faust, and Jonas Kaufmann is in Manon Lescaut in June. Kaufmann is also doing a Schubert recital there in April
EVENTS OF THE YEAR: Joseph Calleja (pictured), the Maltese tenor, is in Gounod's Faust, and Jonas Kaufmann is in Manon Lescaut in June. Kaufmann is also doing a Schubert recital there in April
The world’s two greatest young tenors are both at Covent Garden in the spring. It’s a mouthwatering prospect which, at a cinema near you, can be shared with people who haven’t got £200 for a ticket. Joseph Calleja, the Maltese tenor, is in Gounod’s Faust, and Jonas Kaufmann is in Manon Lescaut in June. Kaufmann is also doing a Schubert recital there in April. And Schubert will be the focus of a festival of his songs in Oxford in the autumn. Luvvly jubbly.

Trends of the year

I love the fact that Covent Garden productions (sadly even the bad ones) are now going out to more than 1,000 cinemas worldwide. 

Ones to watch

The Chinese pianist Yuja Wang is at London’s Barbican in February with the LSO playing Beethoven, Prokofiev and Rachmaninov. She has everything: looks, talent, a spectacular technique and, most of all, real musical depth.

What I’d like to see

In every one of our opera houses and concert halls there should be more pressure to improve quality and reduce prices. In concert halls, there should be less predictable programming, and more effort made to bring in younger people; in our opera houses, new productions that have imagination and flair, but are faithful to the creators’ intentions. There’s been too much directorial self-indulgence this year.

I have a bad feeling about...

Russell Watson on tour in the spring? Not one for me. But then maybe I should lay off him now that his publicists no longer seem to be describing him as an opera singer, which he never was, and never could be.

If I could buy only one ticket...

On March 5 at King’s College Chapel, Cambridge, the 50th anniversary concert for Sir John Eliot Gardiner’s Monteverdi Choir is held. Few organisations have done more to promote the creation of great music in this country and the rediscovery of old masterpieces.by Mark Wareham

Events of the year

Monty Python are re-forming. You may have heard? Ten money-spinning nights are booked at London’s O², but there may be more to come elsewhere.

Trends of the year

Online comedy is set to proliferate. And what’s this? Comedy tribute acts! Lee Lard is Peter Kay! Ian Jones is Lee Evans! Pass the 12-bore…

Ones to watch

After Bridget Christie won the Edinburgh Comedy Award, could it be time for the rise of the female comic? Aisling Bea, Luisa Omielan, Kerry Godliman and Adrienne Truscott are the names in the frame.

What I’d like to see in 2014

The end of arena gigs. Please! Plus, U.S. sensation Bo Burnham touring here. And more veteran comics taking a leaf from Joan Rivers’ book. If she can do the Quick… Before They Close The Lid tour, surely Ken Dodd’s people can have a word about the eternal Happiness tour. Doddering On, anyone?

I have a bad feeling about…

John Bishop’s Supersonic tour hits stadiums in October, but is his chummy man-of-the-people act with tales of showbiz hilarity starting to grate? Yes.

If I could buy only one ticket…

Ireland’s Tommy Tiernan is playing 12 dates at the Soho Theatre. I hesitate to use the words ‘comic genius’, but…  
by Philip Hensher
There are exhibitions of Russian abstractionist Malevich and of Matisse's late, paper cut-outs
There are exhibitions of Russian abstractionist Malevich and of Matisse's late, paper cut-outs

Events of the year

Martin Creed’s work is infuriating but full of imaginative life, even when it seems quite desultory. A survey of his work at the Hayward Gallery in London from January 29 ought to make up our minds either way. The National Gallery goes back, too, to what it does best in March, with a Veronese show, the most glittering of Venetian painters.

Trends of the year

Could 2014 be the year of austere simplicity? There are exhibitions of Mondrian, of Russian abstractionist Malevich and of Matisse’s late, paper cut-outs – and that’s just at the Tate galleries in London and Liverpool. With the gloomy German angst-merchant Anselm Kiefer moving into the Royal Academy in the autumn, you wonder how it will play if there’s an upswing in the national mood.

Ones to watch

Not exactly a new name – he’s 72 – but the American artist Richard Tuttle is making his first real impact on British galleries this year. He’s supplying a project for Tate Modern’s Turbine  Hall and an exhibition for the Whitechapel Gallery.

What I’d like to see

I would really love to see a ban on the Turner Prize for a year. First, art isn’t a competition. It starts to look as if there aren’t enough top-quality artists to supply four nominees, every year, year after year. There was only one really good one in the 2013 show. We could come back in 2015 with a much more rewarding list, and much more interest.

I have a bad feeling about…

The Victoria & Albert Museum’s historical survey of wedding dresses, which starts in May, sets my teeth on edge, although I know some people are going to love this – 13-year-old girls, mostly. One white dress after another! Frills and furbelows and immense trains! What a simply ghastly idea for an exhibition. Anyway, if you feel differently, nothing I can say is going to put you off, I know.

If I could see only one show...

The Vikings are coming to the British Museum in March. That’s all you need to know. I don’t think I could love anyone who didn’t love the idea of the Vikings. I’m reduced to an eight-year-old boy at the thought of horned helmets, longships, Odin and all the rest of it. It’s an irresistible prospect. eby Rupert Christiansen

Events of the year

Look out for Scott Ambler's adaptation of Golding's novel Lord Of The Flies
Look out for Scott Ambler's adaptation of Golding's novel Lord Of The Flies
David Bintley and Birmingham Royal Ballet will tackle the challenge of moulding Benjamin Britten’s exotic score for The Prince Of The Pagodas into drama (Birmingham Hippodrome, from February 25), while at the Royal Opera House (from April 10), Christopher Wheeldon will turn to The Winter’s Tale for inspiration. Look out too for Scott Ambler’s adaptation of Golding’s novel Lord Of The Flies, which will be toured nationally by Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures, opening at the Lowry, Salford on April 2.

Trends of the year

World War I is the big one. Among productions marking the centenary of the war’s outbreak is Lest We Forget at London’s Barbican Centre (April 2-12), where English National Ballet’s programme of short new works by Akram Khan, Russell Maliphant and Liam Scarlett will honour aspects of the conflict and its devastation in ways promised to be both uplifting and surprising.

Ones to watch

With its top ranks looking depleted, the Royal Ballet is fast-tracking striplings such as Beatriz Stix-Brunell, Claudia Dean, Valentino Zucchetti and Dawid Trzensimiech into leading roles. Stars in the ascendant?

What I’d like to see in 2014

A temporary ban on all performances of Swan Lake and The Nutcracker. Over-familiar masterpieces in need of a little rest and reassessment.

I have a bad feeling about...

Strictly Come Dancing: The Live Tour, opening at the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham on January 17 and featuring Ben Cohen, Natalie Gumede and Mark Benton. A winter warmer or just the same tired old moves?

If I could buy only one ticket…

It would be for sensational American tap star Savion Glover at Sadler’s Wells, April 3-6. He takes his feet to places Fred Astaire never dreamed of.