Eventim Apollo
Veronica Lee
Joe Lycett’s career was on an upward trajectory when he took on hosting duties on The Great British Sewing Bee, and the crafting show delivered a whole new audience for his live comedy. But anybody thinking that his sweet-natured wit was all there was to Lycett might be taken aback by some of his stand-up material.And so it proves in his new show, More, More, More! How Do You Lycett? How Do You Lycett? (a title he says was foisted on him by his agent), which was Covid-delayed and contains a section referencing a “giant donkey dick” – which some humourless person referred to the police, a Read more ...
Veronica Lee
Iliza Shlesinger is an American writer, performer and presenter whose film work includes roles in Pieces of a Woman and Good on Paper, the latter which she also wrote and produced. She's also an established stand-up comic, with five Netflix specials to her name. For her latest stand-up show, Back in Action, she was on a fleeting visit to London as part of an international 70-date tour, delayed by COVID, before she performs some dates in the US.From the off her performance was full of energy, with lots of adroit physical comedy – two standouts being how a woman taking off her bra looks like Read more ...
Liz Thomson
Elvis Costello is arguably – perhaps unarguably – the most enduring and genuine talent to emerge from the mid-Seventies pub and punk scenes, and his two-hour set on Friday night demonstrated that he’s still a compelling performer, full of energy and passion. The voice isn’t quite what it was, off-pitch at times, though it retains its distinctive timbre and vibrato.The artist formerly known as Declan MacManus had reinvented himself as Elvis just before Presley died, putting together one of the classiest bands of the day and proceeding to pour out a string of memorable songs which, for those of Read more ...
India Lewis
Big Thief’s show promised that particular brand of raw singing and perfect guitarmanship that only they can provide, something which they presented with a playful, earnest charm. Adrianne Lenker shared the stage with her three bandmates, two other guitar players and a drummer, all riffing off one another throughout the performance with an obvious love of the sound that they shared. This could sometimes seem perhaps a little indulgent, but the sound that they produced was so good that it was hard to dislike. There’s also something pretty satisfying about a woman performing an excellent solo, Read more ...
India Lewis
Angel Olsen’s show at the Eventim Apollo has been much hyped and publicised over the past weeks, an indie chanteuse reinventing herself, recasting herself with a darker, more rocky sound. Her set was clearly and obviously "rock", a sound and atmosphere that often detracted from her wonderful voice, with its brilliant mix of soft warmth and clear, piercing heights. There was something a little off, too, with the sound itself – it was too loud, and at times made both Olsen and her band appear a little sharp. It was a sound that would have worked well in a festival but could be jarring in an Read more ...
Jasper Rees
Is there anything Tim Minchin cannot do? He sings his own songs, plays hot bar-room piano and tells jokes about the existence of God. He composes musicals, performs in Lloyd Webber and Stoppard, writes a multimillion-dollar Hollywood cartoon which he is allowed to direct – until he isn’t. As he explains in this riveting new show, the sell-off of a chunk of DreamWorks, the consequent nixing of his Aussie animation Larrikins in 2017 and his retreat to Sydney, brutally slapped a glass ceiling on his manic multitasking.The film’s cancellation plunged Minchin into a period of morbid self-pity. The Read more ...
Veronica Lee
Jonathan Pie is a YouTube star, a spoof television news reporter (created by actor and comic Tom Walker), who is prone to gaffes. It was one of those on-screen gaffes that led to Pie being sacked as the BBC's Westminster correspondent, footage of which we see here on the onstage big screen alongside the highlights and lowlights of Pie's career – mostly the latter. The Fake News Tour is Pie salvaging what he can from his fame as he starts a lecture tour to explain how we got into this Brexit mess.The show is indeed mostly about Brexit, but Pie also takes aim at TV “celebrities”, social media Read more ...
Ellie Porter
"Would you mind if I jammed on my new... castanets?" We’re halfway through Eels’ triumphant set at Hammersmith's Eventim Apollo and this is the kind of question we’ve come to expect from frontman Mark Oliver Everett, AKA "E". Expect the unexpected, it appears, is the theme of the evening, which began with an entertaining set from the hilarious and hungover Robert Ellis, a deadpan Texan in white hat and tails who boasted a fine line in self-deprecation, heartbreak and comedy (remind you of anyone?).
Ellis warns the fully seated audience that Eels are going to shake the grand old Apollo up Read more ...
Liz Thomson
Whatever age you are, in whatever era you grew up – wherever you grew up – you will know, perhaps unknowingly, a large handful of songs by Burt Bacharach, almost all written with lyricist Hal David. The two men met in 1957 in New York’s celebrated Brill Building, where the creative talents positively jostled for attention.Some of the songs came from film soundtracks – Bacharach scored many major movies – and the songs have had many lives, Dionne Warwick and Dusty Springfield both enjoyed success with “Wishin’ and Hopin’” and “I Say a Little Prayer”, Warwick and Cilla Black with “Anyone Who Read more ...
Veronica Lee
A Jerry Seinfeld appearance in the UK is an event. For one thing it's rare (he was last here in 2011) and for another he's a comic hero to many for his eponymous sitcom, which he co-created with Larry David.Seinfeld's opening set piece is about wasting time. No bragging, but he has a lot of time to waste these days, and we might as well waste our time spending an evening with him, wasting time together. It's typical Seinfeld – lengthy, seemingly freewheeling storytelling but which is precision-honed as goes down various highways and byways to get back to his original point.His shtick is Read more ...
Veronica Lee
Most people in the UK know American actor and stand-up Aziz Ansari from Parks and Recreation, where he played the sarcastic and underachieving local government official Tom Haverford. Comedy fans will also know him as a successful club comic on both US coasts, and from his Netflix specials. But in truth, most people now know him for the #MeToo imbroglio he found himself in last year, where a woman accused him of sexual misconduct on a date, which he denies, saying the encounter was consensual.So there is an air of “will he, won't he” in the room as Ansari performs his new show, Road to Read more ...
Matthew Wright
There were no shouts of “You’re a genius!” from the Hammersmith crowd last night, as there have been earlier in Newsom’s tour. But there were the shrill gasps of astonishment and adulation you would usually find at a One Direction gig, or during a tense rally at Wimbledon, not from a mature, West London audience attending a recital of harp and song. Live, her voice is fresh, and the accompaniments clearer than on record, which allows the incredible range and ambition of her compositions to stand out.Newsom played mostly from the new album Divers, but there was enough from earlier releases to Read more ...