Front Row - 18/09/2009

Kirsty Lang and critic Antonia Quirke discuss the world premiere of the live stage version of Ben Hur. With a cast of 400 humans and 100 animals, gladiator fights, a sea battle and a chariot race, this is a large-scale arena production of the classic tale. So how does it compare to the famous 1959 film version with Charlton Heston? The Southbank Centre's year-long celebration of the late American conductor and composer Leonard Bernstein is opening. The Berstein Project is curated by conductor Marin Alsop, a former student of the iconic figure. She discusses Berstein's ideology, how he inspired her to become a conductor and how she hopes the project will continue his legacy. Thomas Heatherwick's studio has designed an unfolding curled bridge by a canal in London, a concertina-like beachside café at Littlehampton, a series of artists' studios in Aberystwyth clad in crinkled stainless steel and the B of the Bang sculpture in Manchester. Following 18 years of research he unveils his latest design, a chair made from extruded polished aluminium which will eventually be 100 metres long. A new exhibition asks artists, writers and designers to choose a British work of art which they feel says something about their own identity. Musician and founding member of The Human League, Martyn Ware, and John Moore of The Jesus and Mary Chain and Black Box Recorder, explain their choices.