From female art trailblazers to playful performance fests, a ridiculous funk wannabe to a clubby Argentinian dance spectacular, our critics pick the arts events that will light up your summer

National Treasures
Twelve museums across the UK, closing dates vary
Turner’s The Fighting Temeraire visits Tyneside, Artemisia Gentileschi shows at the Ikon in Birmingham and Caravaggio goes to Belfast in this epic tour of paintings from the National Gallery. The revered London museum has collected art for the nation since 1824 and this celebration sees its masterpieces more widely spread than ever. Jonathan Jones

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© Illustration: Thomas Burden/The Guardian

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© Illustration: Thomas Burden/The Guardian

Directors Jared Hess and Lynn Wang craft a solid piece of family fun with the tale of a pony aiming for success in disguise

Thelma the Unicorn, a new Netflix animated family movie, has plenty of successful tricks aimed at kids: glitter and cotton-candy pink, a pile of manure jokes, a mini-album of catchy original songs, an endearing hero in its titular singing pony-turned-unicorn. But perhaps its greatest asset is its parable of fame, easy enough for young minds reared on phones to grasp, but winking to those who understand a matching-double-denim-outfits on the red carpet reference.

I have to imagine that it is bewildering to grow up aware of or aspiring to viral fame – Instagram celebrities, TikTok trends, overnight Youtube stars –before you even really know yourself. In the grand tradition of kids movies peppered with adult references and talking donkeys, Thelma the Unicorn, directed by Lynn Wang and Napoleon Dynamite’s Jared Hess, offers up plenty of glitterified, thoroughly silly fun over a decent, sunny message on staying true to yourself in the spotlight.

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© Photograph: Courtesy of Netflix

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© Photograph: Courtesy of Netflix

Apollo theatre, London
John Cleese’s transposition of his TV sitcom to the theatre has pitch perfect performances, but it never quite becomes a play

What should we hope for when TV hits of yesteryear are revived onstage? Director Caroline Jay Ranger insists in the programme notes that her Fawlty Towers cast “not only provide the essence of the roles required [but also] offer something fresh and unique”. But do they? And is anyone actually here for fresh and unique? I’m not so sure. If the performances in this revamp of the Torquay hotel sitcom aren’t impersonations per se, they’re near as dammit. But they’re very good ones, and audiences who already love the material (most of them, let’s face it) will not be disappointed.

That’s no mean achievement. The danger in trying to recreate the original, as Ranger’s production (of an adaptation by John Cleese) does, is that the performances of Cleese, Prunella Scales, Andrew Sachs and co cannot, at least as far as fans are concerned, be bettered. So why not just watch the DVD? This revival makes the answer self-evident. Cleese and Connie Booth’s series had its roots in theatrical farce, so its frantic comings and goings, its slapstick and mounting chaos feel at home onstage. And the DVD wouldn’t afford you the pleasure, a very keen one, of seeing Adam Jackson-Smith in the Basil role, as astonishing an act of mimicry-cum-resurrection as you’re ever likely to encounter.

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© Photograph: Hugo Glendinning

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© Photograph: Hugo Glendinning

Ryan Reynolds leads an all-star cast in a sweet, if a little messy, tale of imaginary friends reconnecting with the grown-ups who once bid them goodbye

If, the new kids comedy from John Krasinski, has all the elements of a family friendly hit: a healthy dose of sentimentality, a heavy emphasis on the power of a child’s imagination and a prerequisite of tragedy undergirding on a girl’s journey. Also, an expensive mix of live-action and animation and an all-star cast of voice actors – among them, George Clooney, Jon Stewart, Amy Schumer, Bradley Cooper, Maya Rudolph and Krasinski’s wife, Emily Blunt – playing a roster of Imaginary Friends (Ifs) forgotten by their grown-up creators and companions.

On paper, Krasinski’s first kids film as a writer-director checks the boxes, though in practice it’s not quite as cuddly as Blue, the giant purple bear hug of an If hammily voiced by Steve Carell, looks. There’s an underlying, perfunctory sweetness to this tale of a girl who, in the midst of family turmoil, can suddenly see everyone’s former imaginary friends. But If doesn’t fully conjure the magic that has elevated such family classics featuring sentient non-human companions as Toy Story 3 and Paddington 2.

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© Photograph: Courtesy of Paramount Pictures

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© Photograph: Courtesy of Paramount Pictures

A comedian's only responsibility is to make the audience laugh. If you're not making the audience laugh, then you're failing at your job. You want to speak truth to power, you want to make a political statement, you want to be confessional—none of that is more or less valid than doing ventriloquism or doing an impression of Christopher Walken. They're all equal, so long as they make people laugh. If it's more important to you to do something that doesn't make the audience laugh, fine, but it's not comedy. It's something else. from Two Guys Walk into a Bar: Kliph Nesteroff on the Evolution of American Comedy [The Sun Magazine]

Jay Foreman and Mark Cooper-Jones, an English comedian with an interest in geography and a former geography teacher who's also very funny, are the Map Men ("...Map Men, Map Map Map Men Men" ), whose highly entertaining YouTube channel is chock full of educational cartographic goodness. Try any of their (27) videos at random, or all of them—even the ads are worth watching. Their recent episodes on undersea internet cables and country codes wouldn't be a bad place to start for the extremely online.

And when you're done with those, there's Jay Foreman's 15 episodes of Unfinished London and 8 episodes of Politics Unboringed (for UK definitions of "unboringed"). Hours of fun! (N.B. Approximately 6 hours and 36 minutes of fun.)

Chris Biggs' shorts on 80s classics - oh the memory of cigarettes and Strawberry Shortcake!