reviews

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Wet Leg, O2 Academy, Glasgow review - more muscle, less personality

Jonathan Geddes |

Ballet Shoes, National Theatre review - stupendous theatrical entertainment

aleks.sierz
Hail the spirit of the dance. And of acting. And of driving and flying. At a time when new writing is clearly in decline, and the most successful…

Taylor, LPO, Gardner, RFH review - perfect pace in multifaceted Elgar

David Nice
Even top conductors can have difficulty with Elgar’s late romantic suppleness. Vasily Petrenko of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Santtu-Mattias…

The Beast in Me, Netflix review - power, corruption and lies on Long Island

Adam Sweeting
She’s still best remembered for her portrayal of Carrie Mathison in Homeland, but Claire Danes is an actor with plenty of moves up her sleeve. In…

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Watts, Fantasia Orchestra, Fetherstonhaugh, Smith Square Hall review - blooming versatility

David Nice
One great British soprano triumphs as late replacement for another

An Evening With The Fast Show, London Palladium review - nostalgic fun

Veronica Lee
Reunion of sketch show's creators

The Session Man review - Nicky Hopkins, the musician for all seasons

Adam Sweeting
Brilliantly gifted keyboardist who played with the rock'n'roll greats

The Ice Tower review - a chilling meta fairy tale

Graham Fuller
Lucile Hadžihalilović's exquisite fantasy about an orphan girl infatuated with a movie diva

Music Reissues Weekly: Eternity’s Children

Kieron Tyler
Smart new editions of the two albums by the late-Sixties American harmony pop outfit

Lambrini Girls, XOYO, Birmingham review - lairy Gen Z provocateurs blow the roof off

Guy Oddy
Punk really isn’t dead

Wayne Thiebaud: American Still Life, Courtauld Gallery review - luscious slices of reality

Sarah Kent
Painting as gluttony

Live at the EFG London Jazz Festival, various venues

Tim Cumming
Jazz meets world music at these four contrasting nights across the capital’s annual jazz celebration

All My Sons, Wyndham's Theatre review - ruthless reappraisal of early Arthur Miller

Matt Wolf
Ivo van Hove makes it three for three with Arthur Miller

End, National Theatre review - meditations on mortality and music

aleks.sierz
The final episode of David Eldridge’s emotionally strong trilogy is profoundly moving

Partenope, English National Opera review - endless pleasure, endless love

David Nice
Best of all possible casts fill every moment of Christopher Alden’s Handel cornucopia

Thin Lizzy, 74-75 - Night Life / Fighting: Expanding the parameters of Rock

johncarvill
Seven CD set tracks Thin Lizzy's evolution from good to great

Rebirth: London City Ballet review - pocket-sized company fulfilling its big ambitions

Helen Hawkins
Christopher Marney's revitalised company gains momentum with each appearance

Cabaret Voltaire, XOYO, Birmingham review - the Cabs revisit their glorious 80s purple patch

Guy Oddy
Bleeps and beats nostalgia more than tops expectations

Claire-Louise Bennett: Big Kiss, Bye-Bye review - a thousand conversations

Claudia Bull
Bennett’s virtuosic prose returns to ponder intimacy, but treads some old ground

Loop, Theatre 503 review - strongly written but a bit slender

aleks.sierz
New one-woman show about obsessive desire could be fuller and more detailed

Mélanie Pain’s solo album ‘How and Why’ stands apart from her involvement in Nouvelle Vague

Kieron Tyler
Dreaminess and frostiness from the Gallic singer-songwriter

Tim Key, Wilton's Music Hall review - the woes of hitting middle age

Veronica Lee
Storytelling that playfully wrongfoots the audience

Music Reissues Weekly: Leisure Process - The Complete Epic Recordings

Kieron Tyler
The hit-free early Eighties electropop duo which should have ignited the charts

Porn Play, Royal Court review – poor script saved by star casting

aleks.sierz
New play about porn addiction is rather superficially imagined and lacks drama

Nuremberg review - history's worst criminals go on trial

Justine Elias
How a US Army psychiatrist came face to face with evil

After Sunday, Bush Theatre review - powerfully authentic, but not fully satisfying

aleks.sierz
Cooking therapy in a secure hospital makes for an uncertain mix of comedy and cruelty

La Nuova Musica, Bates, St Martin-in-the-Fields review - period of passion

Boyd Tonkin
Drama and drive in Mozart's great unfinished mass

Joy Gregory: Catching Flies with Honey, Whitechapel Gallery review - a quiet resistance

Sarah Kent
Photography used to question who and what is worth recording

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latest in today

'We are bowled over!' Thank you for your messages of love and support
We are bowled over! We knew that theartsdesk.com had plenty of supporters out there – we’ve always had a loyal readership of arts…
Wet Leg, O2 Academy, Glasgow review - more muscle, less personality
According to legend, Glasgow can be a tough place for a support band a crowd do not warm to. Therefore brotherly duo Faux Real were perhaps…
Ballet Shoes, National Theatre review - stupendous theatrical entertainment
Hail the spirit of the dance. And of acting. And of driving and flying. At a time when new writing is clearly in decline, and the most…
Taylor, LPO, Gardner, RFH review - perfect pace in multifaceted Elgar
Even top conductors can have difficulty with Elgar’s late romantic suppleness. Vasily Petrenko of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and…
Life affirming tunes from Blue Note saxman Dave McMurray on 'I Love Life Even When I’m Hurting'
Detroit musician, Blue Note artist and expressive saxophonist Dave McMurray’s fourth album for the label, I Love Life Even When I’m Hurting…
The Beast in Me, Netflix review - power, corruption and lies on Long Island
She’s still best remembered for her portrayal of Carrie Mathison in Homeland, but Claire Danes is an actor with plenty of moves up her…
theartsdesk Q&A: Musician Jimmy Cliff
Jimmy Cliff (b 1948) is one of Jamaican music’s biggest names. Raised in the countryside, he went to Kingston in his teens and persuaded…
Watts, Fantasia Orchestra, Fetherstonhaugh, Smith Square Hall review - blooming versatility
Bah-humbuggers like me are happy to pass over seasonal fare, maybe excepting a Messiah or Christmas Oratorio, and look ahead to the birds…
An Evening With The Fast Show, London Palladium review - nostalgic fun
It’s good to have the old gang back together in An Evening With The Fast Show, more than 30 years since The Fast Show debuted on the BBC.…
Rufus Wainwright's 'I’m a Stranger Here Myself' - Wainwright Does Weill, in his own inimitable fashion
Rufus Wainwright has long expressed his admiration for “pop music with an operatic sensibility, the profane with the divine”, inspired by…