Reviews
Macbeth, Almeida Theatre review – vivid, but much too long
Friday, 15 October 2021
Remembering the months of lockdown, I can’t be the only person to thrill to this play’s opening lines, “When shall we three meet again?”, a phrase evocative enough to be borrowed as the first line of this year’s Wolf Alice album, Blue Weekend.
Manic Street Preachers, Brighton Dome review - solid gig occasionally explodes to another level
Friday, 15 October 2021
There is a three song segment midway through Manic Street Preachers’ set which suddenly ramps everything up. For this brief while, the performance and response in the sold-out, nigh-on-2000-capacity venue, elevates the concert from another decent gig on another tour in front of a devoted fanbase, to something more memorable and truly electric.
Tamestit, LSO, Ticciati, LSO St Luke's...
Friday, 15 October 2021
Returning to LSO St Luke’s, formerly a beacon in the darkness of semi-lockdown for the lucky few allowed to feast upon the London Symphony Orchestra...
White Noise, Bridge Theatre review - provocative...
Friday, 15 October 2021
"I can't sleep": So goes the fateful opening line of White Noise, the Suzan-Lori Parks play disturbing enough to spark many a restless night in...
Romeo and Juliet, Birmingham Royal Ballet &...
Wednesday, 13 October 2021
Two households, both alike in dignity … and both launching their respective seasons with a production of Kenneth MacMillan’s Romeo and Juliet. For...
Maximo Park, Saint Luke's and the Winged Ox, Glasgow - indie veterans still have fire in their bellies
A new line-up and album seems to have rejuvenated the artful rockers |
Karine Polwart, Birmingham Town Hall Review: Expertly crafted modern folk
the Karine Polwart Trio return to Brum with a mix of old and new music |
Mary Wellesley: Hidden Hands review - passion in the parchment
Medieval manuscripts and their forgotten artist-authors come to life |
Don Pasquale, Glyndebourne Tour review - winning comeback for a sturdy veteran
Sweet spots abound in Donizetti's much-loved sugar-daddy romp |
The Velvet Underground review - Todd Haynes tunnels through band history
Ingeniously composed documentary portrait, with John Cale the definitive star |
Marcin Wicha: Things I Didn’t Throw Out review - the stories told by stacks of stuff
Connecting a mother's helpless love of things with questions of presence and personhood |
Jonathan Franzen: Crossroads review - can goodness ever be its own reward?
The first volume of Franzen's new family saga leaves you wanting more |
Two-Piano Gala, Kings Place review - five pianists, two pianos, too many pieces
Captivating Mozart and Schubert offset by note-heavy Ravel and Rachmaninov |
Jason Manford, London Palladium review - lockdown laughs and feelgood fun
Worth the wait for this Covid-affected tour |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Psychedelic Soul - Produced By Norman Whitfield
First-ever overview of the storied producer and songwriter |
Gabriela Montero, Kings Place review - improvising to a Chaplin classic is the icing on a zesty cake
Grabbing the audience and never letting go at the start of the London Piano Festival |
Sarah Hall: Burntcoat review - love after the end of the world
Beautiful lives of loss, in a pandemic close to our own |
Bavouzet, Manchester Camerata, Takács-Nagy, Stoller Hall, Manchester review - together again
A great partnership returns to public Mozart recording project |
The Midnight Bell, New Adventures, Sadler's Wells review - dance theatre at its most compelling
Matthew Bourne hits his stride in an engrossing picture of lovelessness in 1930s London |
The Mirror and the Light, Gielgud Theatre review - nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition
Third time round, Hilary Mantel self-adapts, and eviscerates, her novel on stage |
Metamorphoses, Sam Wanamaker Playhouse review - punchy, cleverly reworked classic
Any figure in Roman mythology today would be at the pointy end of cancel culture |
theartsdesk at the Two Moors Festival - birdsong, gongs and nocturnes in Dartmoor churches
In tune with the natural wonders of Devon's high places, musicians excel |
Yoko Ono, Mend Piece, Whitechapel Gallery review – funny and sad in equal measure
A sign of the times in broken crockery |
Wole Soyinka: Chronicles from the Land of the Happiest People on Earth review – sprawling satire of modern-day Nigeria
The Nobel Laureate ends a 48 year wait for his third novel |
Hamlet, Young Vic review - Cush Jumbo flares in a low-key production
Youthful Elsinore reflects life in present-day London |
Patti Smith, Royal Albert Hall review - a wild ride from a musical legend
A transcendental experience from the poet laureate of punk rock |
First Person: director Frederic Wake-Walker on Glyndebourne's new 'Fidelio'
Tracing the problems of staging Beethoven's only opera over five years |
Theaster Gates - A Clay Sermon, Whitechapel Gallery review - mud, mud, glorious mud
Ceramics as a religion and a way of life |
What If If Only, Royal Court review - short if not sweet
A beautifully staged reflection on the pain of confronting loss and the need to move on |
latest in today
Macbeth, Almeida Theatre review – vivid, but much too long
Remembering the months of lockdown, I can’t be the only person to thrill to this play’s opening lines, “When shall we three meet again?”, a phrase...
Manic Street Preachers, Brighton Dome review - solid gig occ...
There is a three song segment midway through Manic Street Preachers’ set which suddenly ramps everything up. For this brief while, the performance...
Tamestit, LSO, Ticciati, LSO St Luke's review - viola a...
Returning to LSO St Luke’s, formerly a beacon in the darkness of...
White Noise, Bridge Theatre review - provocative if not alwa...
"I can't sleep": So goes the fateful opening line of White Noise, the Suzan-Lori Parks play disturbing enough to spark many a restless...
Album: Coldplay - Music Of The Spheres
Chris Martin has talked, not for the first time, of this finally being the Coldplay era of “no rules or fear”. Swedish...
Album: Finneas - Optimist
This record is a heck of a metatextual experience to listen to. In releasing his debut album, 24 year old Finneas O’Connell is attempting to step...
Romeo and Juliet, Birmingham Royal Ballet & Royal Ballet...
Two households, both alike in dignity … and both launching their respective seasons with a production of...
Maximo Park, Saint Luke's and the Winged Ox, Glasgow -...
Time waits for no band, as Maximo Park’s lively singer Paul Smith opined early into his band’s set. “I am young and I am lost” he declared during...
Karine Polwart, Birmingham Town Hall Review: Expertly crafte...
With a few extra dates to her rescheduled UK tour, Scottish folk legend Karine Polwart returned to Birmingham Town Hall with some tunes from her...
Mary Wellesley: Hidden Hands review - passion in the parchme...
Outside Wales – even, perhaps, within it – few students will have...