JOANNE SAVAGE looks at the bumper lineup on the 2012 arts calendar. Book early and often
SO, just what can we look forward to in the arts in 2012? By the looks of things a helluva lot.
The dreamy James Morrison plays at the Ulster Hall on January 28 and homegrown superstars Snow Patrol will thrill their hordes and hordes of fans at the Odyssey from January 23 to 25, their anthemic ballady numbers and nice-guy charm always making for a winning combination.
On January 25-26 boyband One Direction will (be allowed out past their curfew to) have teenage girls in fits of hysteria at the Waterfront Hall.
Enjoy The King and I and Marie Jones’ new black comedy Fly Me to the Moon which both begin at the Grand Opera House on January 31.
And - wait for it - Van ‘The Man’ Morrison will play a most hotly anticipated and long awaited gig on home turf at the Odyssey on February 3.
Mick Gordon will direct Brian Friel’s version of Chekov’s Uncle Vanya at the Lyric Theatre beginning February 4, with an excellent cast including Conleth Hill.
One of Northern Ireland’s best loved comedians, William Caulfield, will get audiences giggling at the Grand Opera House on February 5, while the ever popular Grease: The Musical begins at the venue on Valentine’s Day and runs until February 25.
Former Pussycat Doll Nicole Scherzinger, fresh from her stint on American Idol, will be at the Waterfront on February 15, while Oasis moody man Noel Gallagher and his High Fying Birds Tour arrives at the Odyssey on February 16.
The absolutely hilarious Sarah Millican does her standup show at the Waterfront on March 1, with Stewart Lee following suit on March 2.
Pamela Ballentine, Lynda Bryans and Olivia Nash will star in Eve Esler’s The Vagina Monologues at the Waterfront Studio on March 3 and it will be a risque, provocative and humourous celebration of ‘what it means to be a woman’.
Former X-Factor songstress Rebecca Ferguson, now vampy and coming into her own as an independent artist, will give a solo concert at the Waterfront’s main auditorium on March 5.
Jason Derulo and The Wanted will perform at the Odyssey on March 6 and March 8 respectively.
Awardwinning Belfast playwright Owen McCafferty’s Shoot the Crow, which follows the lives of some disgruntled tilers and is at once poignant, humourous, witty and philosophical - billed as a ‘hilarious and moving homage to the working man’ - will be staged at the Grand Opera House March 6-10, than at the Millenium Forum, Lononderry, March 15-16.
Madama Butterfly, one of Puccini’s most beautiful and expressive operas and a heart-rending story of the power of love, will be staged at the same venue by Lyric Opera accompanied by the RTE Concert Orchestra on March 13.
Meanwhile Chris Rea brings his Santo Spirito tour to the Ulster Hall on March 16 while British pop-punk outfit You Me at Six, famed for their buoyant melodies and crackling riffs, perform at Ulster Hall on March 14.
Novelist Glenn Patterson’s much anticipated new novel, The Mill to Grind Old People Young, set in 1830s Belfast and published by the prestigious Faber & Faber, hits the bookshelves on March 15 and a series of Literary Lunches at the Ulster Hall will feature a reading from Ulster writer Jennifer Jonston on March 28.
2010 X Factor winner Matt Cardle will soften hearts and tantalise eardrums with two gigs at the Waterfront on March 18 and 19 and the Moscow State Circus rolls into town March 23-24, promising all kinds of tampoline capers and clowns, gyrating, juggling performers and back-flipping Vaisilliovs.
Dundrum-born comedian Patrick Kielty - one of Ulster’s most acerbic and incisive comedians - will perform at the Millenium Forum, Londonderry April 6-7 and at the Odyssey Arena on April 21.
On April 22 The Mac (Metropolitan Arts Centre) will be officially opened in St Anne’s Square, Belfast. The new £17.7m building will be seven storeys high and will include three major visual art galleries, two theatres, a dance studio, education workshop and rehearsal spaces, offices for resident arts groups, resident artists and a café and bar.
Enjoy the City Of Derry Jazz Festival May 3 – 7, the plaintively wonderful Duke Special in concert on May 12 and six-time Grammy winners The Chieftains bringing their inimitable style of Irish traditional music to the Waterfront on May 30.
And we’re not short on even more quality comedy either. Funnyman Dara O’ Briain takes his ‘Craic Dealer’ tour to the Millenium Forum, Londonderry, March 12 and 14, and then to the Waterfront, April 16-18. Never Mind the Buzzcocks favourite Simon Amstell takes to the Waterfront stage on May 6, Dave Gorman arrives on June 15 and Jimmy Carr takes the stage on November 16 and 18.
On June 13 fulsomely-tattooed emo punksters Blink 182 bring their tour to Belfast’s Odyssey Arena and in August, an adaptation of Samuel Beckett’s Krapp’s Last Tape will be staged in Enniskillen as part of Happy Days, Enniskillen International Beckett Festival.
The latter event is part of the line-up of arts events which will take place June 21 - November 9 as part of the 2012 Cultural Olympiad, an opportunity to celebrate the Olympic Games here in Ulster. It will also see German artist Hans Peter Kuhn transform the Giants Causeway with flags randomly positioned along the trail and banks of the cliff face to create a novel outdoor spectacle.
Joan Armatrading will perform at the Grand Opera House on September 23 and, still looking ridiculously far ahead, the Belfast Festival at Queen’s, now in its 50th year, will run from October 19- November 3, the line-up guaranteed to be as jam-packed and eclectic as ever (we hope).
And, looking once more into our cultural crystal ball, the beautiful Katherine Jenkins is set to sing at the Odyssey Arena on December 16.
Cured of your January blues yet? Arts-wise 2012 is looks to be shaping up pretty nicely.
For tickets and booking information contact the relevant venues.
Grand Opera House, Belfast, www.goh.co.uk or 02890 241919; Odyssey Arena, Belfast, visit www.odysseyarena.com or call 02890 739074; Waterfont Hall or Ulster Hall, Belfast, www.waterfront.co.uk or call 02890 334455; Lyric Theatre, Belfast, www.lyrictheatre.co.uk or call 02890 381081; Millenium Forum, Londonderry, www.millenniumforum.co.uk or call 02871 264455.
For more information on the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad and Northern Ireland visit www.artscouncil-ni.org/olympiad.
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