London Arts Now

Major retrospectives and contemporary art showcases; a Eugene O’Neill revival and symphonic premieres: Writer Mario Mercado shares the top exhibitions, West End productions and musical performances to catch this season in London.

At the Royal Academy of Arts

Entangled Pasts. 1768–Now: Art, Colonialism, and Change: In a watershed show, the Royal Academy brings together more than 100 historic and contemporary works that consider art and its role in the annals of empire, slavery, abolition, and colonialism. Alongside oeuvre by academy members J.M.W. Turner, Joshua Reynolds, and John Singleton Copley, are pieces by leading contemporary British artists of the African, Caribbean, and South Asian diasporas. The show includes paintings, sculpture, drawings, prints, and photographs by El Anatsui, Kerry James Marshall, Kara Walker, Betye Saar, among others. Through April 28, 2024

Summer Exhibition 2024: The highly anticipated and popular showcase of contemporary work—art in all forms, from paintings to films by open-submission artists and members of the Academy—is on display, and some available for purchase. June 18–August 18; royalacademy.org

At the British Museum

Michelangelo: The Last Decades: Michelangelo’s towering genius was matched by a seemingly prodigious energy. At age 59, he left his native Florence for Rome where he spent the last 30 years of life to take on papal commissions that included The Last Judgment fresco in the Sistine Chapel, rebuilding of St. Peter’s Basilica, and a series of wall paintings for the Pauline Chapel at the Vatican. The museum draws from its prized collections of Michelangelo’s monographs—studies, preparatory drawings, and architectural designs to shed light on his monumental achievement. May 2- July 28, 2024; britishmuseum.org

At the Tate Modern

Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind: The exceptional figure of the avant-garde receives a major retrospective at the Tate Modern that includes the participatory concept works for which Ono was known as well as the films and music she made both with and independent of John Lennon. February 15-September 1, 2024; tate.org

Editorial Director Annie Fitzsimmons shares two exhibitions she’s excited for this summer.

At V&A South Kensington

NAOMI: In Fashion: The light is shining again on the great supermodels of decades past (see The Super Models on Apple TV). This exhibit will cover the rise and influence of Naomi Campbell, a forever fascinating figure, from the past and today. From June 22, 2024; vam.ac

At the National Portrait Gallery

Six Lives: The Stories of Henry VIII’s Queens: If you haven’t seen Six the Musical, a 90-minute musical retelling of the lives of Henry VIII’s wives, book tickets as a nice complement to this show, which will include various interpretations of the wives, from historic portraits to modern photography. June 20-September 8, 2024; npg.org

Opening Night

Based on the acclaimed 1977 film by John Cassavetes, this new musical by Rufus Wainwright is directed by Ivo van Hove, who also wrote the book, and stars Sheridan Smith. At the Gielgud Theatre. openingnightmusical.com

An Enemy of the People

Matt Smith, known for television roles including Doctor Who, The Crown and House of the Dragon, portrays the protagonist Thomas Stockmann in Ibsen’s classic play about a man’s fidelity to truth and its potentially devastating consequences. Celebrated German stage director Thomas Ostermeier makes his West End debut in a production designed by Jan Pappelbaum with costumes by Natasha Jenkins. Premieres at the Duke of York Theatre. anenemyofthepeople.co.uk

Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York)

Last year’s breakout hit, a charming, romantic, smart, funny, two-character (one a savvy, slightly impatient New Yorker, the other a wide-eyed, sunny Brit in town for a wedding) chamber musical from London’s Kiln Theatre transfers to the Criterion Theatre in Piccadilly Circus. April 4–July 14, 2024. criterion-theatre.co.uk

Long Day’s Journey into Night

Jeremy Herrin stages this new production of Eugene O’Neill’s Pulitzer-Prize winning drama with Brian Cox (Succession) and Patricia Clarkson (House of Cards, Sharp Objects). Wyndham’s Theatre; March 19–June 8, 2024. wyndhamstheatre.co.uk

At the Southbank Centre

Since the post-war opening of the Southbank Centre, located between Waterloo Bridge and the London Eye, its performance venues, Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, and the Purcell Room, have emerged as a nucleus for imaginative programming and the world’s foremost performers. On April 27, conductor Vladimir Jurowski leads the London Philharmonic Orchestra, a starry cast and choruses in a concert performance of Götterdämmerung, the last opera in Wagner’s The Ring. Its three acts are performed in German with English surtitles. • On May 19, the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, led by Kirill Karabits, presents a series of three concerts: Voices from the East, dedicated to overlooked orchestral masterworks from Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Georgia, and Armenia, alongside premieres of works by Azerbaijani composer Franghiz Ali-Zadeh and Ukrainian Anna Korsun. • This season, American violinist Randall Goosby is one of Southbank’s Artists-in-Residence. He performs Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 3 with the London Philharmonic, led by Gemma New (March 22), and appears as part of the Renaissance Quartet, in works by Florence Price, Brahms, and [the European premiere] of String Quartet No. 1 (Love & Levity) by Daniel Hass. • On April 14, piano virtuoso Vadym Kholodenko offers a program of intriguing contrasts: an arrangement of Mozart’s Requiem by the 19th-century German pianist and composer Karl Klindworth and variations on The People United Will Never be Defeated! by contemporary American composer Frederic Rzewski. southbankcentre.co.uk

At the English National Opera

Simon McBurney, one of the founders of the British theater company Complicité, directs this captivating, bracing, and witty production of The Magic Flute at the London Coliseum. Imaginatively designed by Michael Levine, the production of Mozart’s last opera is led by conductor Erina Yashima; February 28–March 30, 2024. • Bartók’s alluring, suspenseful Duke Bluebeard’s Castle follows the unsettling journey of Judith as she unlocks the doors to the rooms in the castle of her new husband Duke Bluebeard, leading to revelations and horrors. The one-act opera, sung in Hungarian, with English surtitles, stars soprano Allison Cook (Judith) and bass John Relyea (Bluebeard). March 21-23; eno.org