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Precious is a new-style weepie but one that is much more bracing than depressing
Precious
Theatre
Ian McKellen is captivating throughout. He delights in the play’s gallows humour, yet is also maudlin and poignant
Waiting for Godot
Theatre
Slight quibbles notwithstanding, this will set the West End’s stock riding high
Enron
Utterly, utterly brilliant. You really are in for a treat
Though 'Trilogy' has won rave reviews, I personally found myself exasperated after about an hour
We went on a quiet sunday evening and the food was excellent, but the experience let down by the service and ambiance
London,
Sue Steward's rating
Reader rating
Phone: 020 7312 2463
Trains: Tube: Leicester Square; Rail: Charing Cross 
, Tube / Bus: 3, 6, 9, 11, 12, 13, 15, 23, 24, 29, 53, 77A, 88 
Icons of the Sixties: Tom Jones goes back to his roots with Tony Frank, 1967
Icons: Pink Floyd by Angus McBean, 1969
Original: David Bowie and Jeanette by Fiona Adams, 1965
The subtitle to this autumn blockbuster, “the 60s exposed”, carries a whiff of sex’n’drugs’n’ rock’n’roll revelations. In fact, it is a nostalgic, impressive documentary marking the rapid changes in pop, contemporary design and photography between 1960-69. A shot of press photographers in raincoats waiting for the Beatles at York Station, by Northern photo-journalist, Ian Wright, epitomises the generation gap.
Each year of the decade, occupies an exhibition space that includes a vitrine-decorated like a Sixties teenager’s bedroom with record covers, signed portraits and leading pop magazines, Rave and Fabulous. Opening pre-Beatles, the silk-suited, Elvis-quiffed Billy Fury, Cliff Richard and Adam Faith are still lodged in Fifties America then everything explodes into pop, psychedelia, rock, mods and soul boys, and the music industry discovers modern marketing, experimental typography and myriad photographic styles.
Old masters such as Norman Parkinson come on board (shooting the Beatles at Abbey Road in deck shoes and slacks), and Angus McBean is keyed into Modernism with hand-painted backdrops to his portraits. Publications chart the new psychedelic lettering and acid colours, designers imitating photographers such as David Bailey. His iconic portrait of Mick Jagger in a parka occupies his personal enclosure. The experimenters were at their peak: Gered Mankowitz making meticulously artfully composed pictures with The Rolling Stones, and Vic Singh experimenting with prism lenses to match the Pink Floyd’s psychedelic music.
Of the many now overlooked but outstanding photographers represented, Fiona Adams is best-known for the leaping silhouettes of the Beatles, and her lack of credit for the cover of their EP, Twist and Shout. Light years away, Tony Frank took Tom Jones back to the WelshValleys and produced the most lyrical shot in the show.
If you’re bored with the glut of Sixties exhibitions, think again: this magnificent collection draws the line under the era — until a new generation discovers it.
Until 24 January, 2010 (www.npg.org.uk, 020 7312 2463).
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
