Reviews
Rebus, BBC One review - revival of Ian Rankin's Scottish 'tec hits the jackpot
Sunday, 19 May 2024
The previous incarnation of Ian Rankin’s Scottish detective on ITV starred, in their contrasting styles, John Hannah and Ken Stott.
Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, Sousa, St Martin-in-the-Fields review - Beethoven, younger than springtime
Sunday, 19 May 2024
Better (much better, indeed) late than never. The Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique should have given their cycle of Beethoven symphonies at St Martin-in-the-Fields in May 2020, after touring to Spain and the US. A lot has happened since. The pandemic scuppered the original timetable, while his own alleged actions – after he reportedly attacked a singer during rehearsals in France last year – have kept the ORR’s founder John Eliot Gardiner off the podium.
Music Reissues Weekly: Andwella - To Dream
Sunday, 19 May 2024
Original pressings of Love And Poetry sell for up to £2,800. Copies of the August 1969 debut album by Andwellas Dream can sometimes also be found for...
Bavouzet, Manchester Camerata, Takács-Nagy,...
Saturday, 18 May 2024
There’s a sense of cheerful abandon about Manchester Camerata’s Mozart concerts with Jean-Efflam Bavouzet and Gábor Takács-Nagy that is hard to...
Carmen, Glyndebourne review - total musical fusion
Friday, 17 May 2024
It’s what you dream of in opera but don’t often get: singers feeling free and liberated to give their best after weeks of preparation with a master...
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The Great Escape Festival 2024, Brighton review - a dip into day one and the elephant-in-the-room
An opening snapshot of Brighton's multi-venue showcase |
Fawlty Towers: The Play, Apollo Theatre review - lightning strikes twice
John Cleese's sitcom masterpiece makes seamless transition to the stage |
Laufey, Royal Albert Hall review - fans in heaven
The sequence of heartbreak songs sounded same-y |
Bermondsey Tales: Fall of the Roman Empire review - dirty deeds done dirt cheap
Michael Head's gangland drama is a bit of a dog's breakfast |
Dunedin Consort, Mulroy, Wigmore Hall review - songs of love old and new
First-rate chamber choir explore contemporary and Renaissance approaches to amour |
People, Places and Things, Trafalgar Theatre review - a scintillating shot in the arm
Duncan MacMillan’s riotous reflection on addiction and recovery returns |
Withnail and I, Birmingham Rep review - Bruce Robinson’s 1987 film makes for a theatrical hit
Withnail and Marwood fix up the Jag and head for Birmingham |
Jack Doherty, Soho Theatre review - warm and witty childhood memoir
Former chat show host on his David Bowie obsession |
Two Tickets to Greece review - the highs and lows of a holiday from hell
Laure Calamy, Olivia Côte and Kristin Scott Thomas star in a silly French comedy |
Hoard review - not any old rubbish
A star is born amid the muck and squalor of Luna Carmoon's ambitious directorial debut |
Hidden Door 10th Birthday Party, St James Quarter, Edinburgh review - going underground
Car park transformed into gallery/rave venue for multi-art celebration |
Coote, LSO, Tilson Thomas, Barbican review - the triumph of life
A great, ailing conductor rises to Mahler's mightiest challenge |
Conchúr White, St Pancras Old Church review - side-stepping the past to embrace the future
Northern Irish troubadour pushes forward |
Our Mothers review - revisiting the horrors of Guatemala's civil war
Hard-hitting first feature from director Cesar Diaz |
Rhod Gilbert, G-Live Guildford review - cancer, constipation and celebrity treatment
Finding the funny in illness |
Pop Will Eat Itself, Chalk, Brighton review - hip hop rockers deliver a whopper
Eighties/Nineties indie-tronic dance mavericks take the roof off |
Britten Sinfonia, The Marian Consort, Milton Court review - a journey around turbulent spirit Gesualdo
Contemporary homages among the works in this celebration of the Renaissance 'badass' |
Music Reissues Weekly: Little Girls - Valley Songs
Deserved tribute to the Los Angeles new wave popsters who failed to click |
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes review - a post-human paradise
A richly suggestive new era for the franchise reconnects with its 1968 start |
Sappho, Southwark Playhouse Elephant review - a glitzy celebration of sapphic love
Too much camp and not enough content in this tribute to the Greek poet |
Gomyo, National Symphony Orchestra, Kuokman, National Concert Hall, Dublin review - painful brilliance around a heart of darkness
A violinist for all facets of a towering Shostakovich masterpiece |
The Winter's Tale, Royal Ballet review - what a story, and what a way to tell it!
A compelling case for ROH's ballet-friendly rebrand |
Sansara, Manchester Collective, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review - sense of a unique experience
Three world premieres all respond to Feldman’s 'Rothko Chapel' |
La Chimera review - magical realism with a touch of Fellini
Josh O’Connor excels as an archaeologist turned graverobber in the Italian countryside |
latest in today
Rebus, BBC One review - revival of Ian Rankin's Scottis...
The previous incarnation of Ian Rankin’s Scottish detective on ITV starred, in their contrasting styles, John Hannah and Ken Stott. For this ...
Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, Sousa, St Martin-in...
Better (much better, indeed) late than never. The Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique should have given their cycle of Beethoven symphonies at...
Music Reissues Weekly: Andwella - To Dream
Original pressings of Love And Poetry sell for up to £2,800. Copies of the August 1969 debut album by Andwellas Dream can sometimes also...
Bavouzet, Manchester Camerata, Takács-Nagy, Stoller Hall, Ma...
There’s a sense of cheerful abandon about Manchester Camerata’s ...
Album: Barry Adamson - Cut to Black
Always looking dapper and always sounding cool, Barry Adamson is a man who nevertheless seems to be perpetually of another time. Giving off the...
Carmen, Glyndebourne review - total musical fusion
It’s what you dream of in opera but don’t often get: singers feeling free and liberated to give their best after weeks of preparation with a...
The Great Escape Festival 2024, Brighton review - a dip into...
Before reviewing The Great Escape, we must first deal with the elephant in the room. Or, in this case, the room that’s crushing the elephant, like...
Fawlty Towers: The Play, Apollo Theatre review - lightning s...
There are many definitions of bravery, and taking on the challenge of embodying John Cleese as Basil Fawlty in Cleese’s own stage...
Laufey, Royal Albert Hall review - fans in heaven
In many ways, Laufey’s emotionally charged, sold-out...
Bermondsey Tales: Fall of the Roman Empire review - dirty de...
What with the likes of Sexy Beast, Layer Cake, The Hatton Garden Job and the oeuvre of Guy Ritchie, the...