The Xtra Diary - Lunchtime performances at Cardinal Place on June 15

Published: 10 June, 2011

POP-UP venues are, erm, popping up all over the place... but what does the fashionable term mean? 

At their best, “pop-ups” turn derelict land into hip locations hosting music, dance or theatre – as exemplified by The Electric Hotel, a fly-by-night structure erected in the King’s Cross Railway Lands this time last summer. 

Cardinal Place, the swish complex of shops and offices close to Victoria station, hardly qualifies as derelict. 

But its backers have gotten in on the pop-up act, and who’s to quibble when that means you can enjoy sing-along excerpts from West End shows including Wicked  (pictured) and Billy Elliot for free? 

Lunchtime performances will take place in a temporary arena in the Cardinal Place roof garden, 76-98 Victoria Street, SW1, from 12.30pm-1.30pm on Wednesday June 15 as part of West End Live, City Hall’s summer entertainment showcase.

Other acts performing include the West End Gospel Choir and band The Gleeks.

French flair brought to Fitzroy Square

THIS week sees the launch of a new art dealership with the aim of “…bringing some of France’s most distinguished living artists to a British audience.”

Among the fine works currently on display in a Fitzrovia gallery are delicate bronze sculptures by Jean-Claude Mathieu. 

Trained in the classical tradition by one of Auguste Rodin’s pupils, Mathieu is currently working with France’s most distinguished sculptor François Cacheux on a series of 10 busts of major political figures for the city of Montpellier. 

Mathieu’s sculptures of nudes feature alongside more than 40 paintings by artists including Jacques Dominioni, who spent six years working with Pablo Picasso in the 1960s.

The three-day exhibition called A La Folie is by Genty Fine Art at The Georgian Group, 6 Fitzroy Square, W1. 

• Genty Fine Art was set up in France in 2005 and is now based in Kent. It is run by David and Helen Genty who are also planning a series of exhibitions across the UK.

• Genty Fine Art: A La Folie, at The Georgian Group, 6 Fitzroy Square, London W1, is open today (Friday) from 11am-8pm and tomorrow from 11am-4pm. Admission is free.

City Hall ‘looks into’ Soho bar bill

ANOTHER intriguing Freedom of Information request made public on website WhatDoTheyKnow.com catches Diary’s eye. 

This one relates to £1,000 paid by Westminster City Council to a Soho bar. The council says the funds were donated as part of a scheme to curb homelessness. 

Armchair auditors have asked to view any contract or business plan giving a breakdown of precisely how the money was spent, but City Hall has so far declined to co-operate, citing the “aggregated costs” involved. 

An internal review has been requested. We shall be watching closely to see how things unfold.

Bunnies and crabs on the menu 

HUGH Hefner, celebrity guests and scores of crustaceans attended the opening of the new Playboy club in Mayfair at the weekend. 

Diary was surprised to find this image of bucket-loads of prawns, crabs and other epicurean decapods amid the photos sent to us by the club’s public relations outfit. 

Then again perhaps it is more appropriate for publication than some of the other official pictures showing scantily clad bunny girls. 

The feminists who demonstrated outside the club in Old Park Lane – and who argue that Playboy degrades women – would certainly think so.