theartsdesk.com, first with arts reviews, news and interviews
Bernard Hughes |
Where the US President chose to mark the 250th anniversary of the founding of his country with a cage fight, the BBC stuck to music in this Prom of 20th century Americana.…
David Kettle |
QFWFQ, Summerhall ★★★★At first glance, an iconic post-modern novel (or, perhaps more accurately, "novel") by Italo Calvino might not seem like the most obvious starting point for…
Peter Culshaw |
Squint and you could be in 1968 - although this lot are rather better dressed and healthier than most hippies. I did see a bumper sticker “The Hippies Were Right”. But though it…
Graham Rickson |
Joan Littlewood’s stage production of Oh! What a Lovely War was a huge success when premiered at Stratford East in 1963. Loosely based on a documentary-style BBC radio musical, it…
Adam Sweeting |
Exactly how Ronnie Wood has reached the age of 79, after decades of rock’n’roll debauchery with the Faces and the Rolling Stones and surviving cancer twice, passeth all…
David Kettle |
Up: Violin vs Football, French Institute in Scotland ★★★★★Is it theatre? Is it music, or maybe dance? Or even some kind of circus, or simply sport? In truth, the impossible-to-…
Guy Oddy
Mastodon, to those who are unaware of these US rock behemoths, fill a similar musical space to Iron Maiden or perhaps Rush, if they had louder guitars. Their music is wholly…
Rachel Halliburton
Last year, Chineke! delivered one of the Proms’ more hard-hitting offerings, in a programme including Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 10, “50 minutes of brutality, despair and terror…
Simon Thompson
There can be few more cultivated ways to spend a morning than with the chamber music of Francis Poulenc. The Gallic wit that’s so evident in his larger scale work is even more…
David Kettle
The gag – and it’s about as pitch-black a gag as you could imagine – is there in the title. Three African American guys hang out, shoot the breeze, chew the fat, discussing…
Kieron Tyler
“The Laughing Gnome” was David Bowie’s second single for the Deram label. It was released on 14 April 1967. That same day, he was on stage at the Ludwick Youth Centre in Welwyn…
David Nice
In a moving short programme interview, the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra's Principal Guest Conductor Anja Bihlmaier sums up the essence of her miraculous way with Mahler's Das Lied…
David Kettle
If we get lost or confused in the story he’s about to tell us, writer/performer Sam Ward explains, we shouldn’t worry: it all comes together in the end. There’s an implicit…
Steve Burns
Hi. I’m Steve, creator of the solo show bearing my name on the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and I’d like to make something perfectly clear: I’m alive. I’m not dead.I’m nearly…
Thomas H. Green
At the Dot To Dot Festival in Nottingham, back in May, I noticed some of the most exciting bands I caught were marinated in grunge. One of them was Grandmas House. Their debut…
Sebastian Scotney
Miles Davis’s centenary this year has led to some fascinating work. The MILES play with Jay Phelps at Southwark Playhouse Borough in February – reviewed here – has been the most…
Simon Thompson
It has taken until halfway through this year’s Edinburgh International Festival before we got to the first string quartet in the Queen’s Hall’s chamber music series, but when it…
David Kettle
Linus Karp Was Hit With An Umbrella, Underbelly, Bristo Square ★★★★From hectic Princess Di parody Diana: The Untold and Untrue Story (back at the Fringe next week) to wicked…
Veronica Lee
Max Olesker: Making the Cut ★★★★Pleasance DomeMost Fringe fans will know Max Olesker as one half of sketch duo Max and Ivan, but this is his Fringe debut as a solo performer…
disc of the day
tv
The onetime 'Blue's Clues' TV host on doing battle with reports of his own demise
Alan Ritchson adds brain to brawn in the title role
John Hannah stars in smart and sun-drenched whodunnit
film
A knowing American horror parody that’s all-self-consuming
Dinosaurs hunt Anne Hathaway and Ewan McGregor through suburbia
new music
No alcohol, but music, fun and transformation in leafy Berkshire
Ron runs riot through his back pages
US prog metalheads regroup after the departure of Brent Hinds
classical
Lacklustre Copland and messy, misconceived Gershwin outweigh enjoyable Bernstein
Conductor Jonathon Heyward presided with style and élan over an uplifting programme
Arch wit and folksy strangeness from opposite ends of Europe
opera
Singers, and players, rise above some clunky moments in Strauss's meta-opera
Missy Mazzoli’s impressive new opera follows Wynton Marsalis' jazz symphony opening night
Michael Gallen's riveting music-theatre piece has committed performances all round
theatre
Two striking shows at Summerhall take oblique perspectives on Palestine
A striking collision between music and sport, and a moving exploration of care and need in two outstanding shows
Three lynched men shoot the breeze in Zora Howard's brief but potent play
dance
Matthew Bourne’s 2000 hit revs up again with impressive dancers and a witty score
Marianela Nuñez celebrates 28 years at the company
A test of stamina for the audience as well as the dancers
comedy
Larky cabaret; smart musical comedy; and a blast of a debut
Political gags; absurdist fun; and a personal update
books
This wide-ranging miscellany combines urban history and geography to nerdily entertaining effect
David Thomson explores the dark side of cinema, but still offers a flicker of hope
Joyce lurks in the margins of his own biography in a detailed history of Irish politics
visual arts
Great American photographers all in one place
Four artists' films and a computer game speculate on societal collapse
A wild imagination outlined in miniature
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