theartsdesk.com, first with arts reviews, news and interviews
theartsdesk |
We are bowled over! We knew that theartsdesk.com had plenty of supporters out there – we’ve always had a loyal readership of arts lovers and professionals alike – but the…
aleks.sierz |
This year the Royal Court is 70 years old. Yes, it’s that long since this premiere new writing venue staged its opening season, whose third play was John Osborne’s Look Back in…
Thomas H. Green |
Last time we heard from Blackburn heavy rockers Sky Valley Mistress, they were a four-piece who'd recorded their 2020 debut album in the Mohave Desert (strong hints at their…
Gary Naylor |
Scottie Fitzgerald, the sole offspring of F Scott Fitzgerald and Zelda, swigs from a hip flask where she shouldn’t (she inherited the transgression gene). She’s in the room that…
Saskia Baron |
This is a tasteful but somewhat unmoving adaptation of writer Helen MacDonald’s memoir, which in 2014 won the Samuel Johnson and Costa book prizes. MacDonald was an academic…
Markie Robson-Scott |
Lionel (Paul Mescal; played as a child by Leo Cocovinis) has perfect pitch and is able to name the note his mother coughs each morning. He can harmonise with the barking of the…
Robert Beale
It was a pleasure to see conductor Duncan Ward back in Manchester. His Hallé debut was by no means his first time in the city – he trained at the University of Manchester and the…
Gary Naylor
On a motorcycle, you have to slow down once you get that sinking feeling that there’s an accident on the road up ahead. Even if you’re not rubbernecking yourself, you don’t want…
Joe Muggs
It’s no coincidence that synth heavy 1980s AOR is one of the first genres to generate significant online hits. Not just because its structures are formulaic – every genre is to…
David Nice
Every visit by Vladimir Jurowski, the London Philharmonic Orchestra's former Principal Conductor and now Conductor Emeritus, is unmissable, and this fascinating programme outdid…
Helen Hawkins
To the rich but faintly melancholy strains of Mozart’s Piano Concerto no 23, the latest release from Korean director Park Chan-wook sets up its protagonists for us, a carefree…
Jenny Gilbert
No one divides opinion quite like Wayne McGregor, Sir Wayne since 2024. He’s the closest thing to Marmite on the ballet scene. Either you’re excited by the brave-new-world…
Liz Thomson
One of the many dispiriting things about the nine years that span Trumpino’s 2017 inaugural and today is how very few musicians have had the courage to put their heads over the…
Pamela Jahn
Kaouther Ben Hania's The Voice of Hind Rajab caused an international outcry at last year's Venice film festival – a fact that the Oscar-nominated Tunisian director prefers to play…
Jonathan Geddes
A new look and new vibe for Grant-Lee Phillips at this pared-back performance, part of the Celtic Connections festival that takes over Glasgow for a couple of weeks every January…
graham.rickson
Juraj Herz’s acclaimed dark comedy The Cremator proved too much for post-1968 censors, the film withdrawn from circulation in 1973 and banned until 1990. While several prominent…
David Nice
After the myriad intricacies and moodswings of Janáček's The Makropulos Case on Tuesday and Thursday - I was lucky to catch both performances, the second even more electrifying…
Veronica Lee
What a journey Jamie Eastlake’s play has had: his stage adaptation (which he also directs) of Jonathan Tulloch’s book The Season Ticket began life as a three-hander in 2022, when…
Robert Beale
Marketed as “City Noir” to begin with, this programme title was switched to “Beethoven Piano Concerto no. 4” closer to the off, perhaps because the more familiar of the two main…
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Thank you for continuing to read our work on theartsdesk.com. For unlimited access to every article in its entirety, including our archive of more than 15,000 pieces, we're asking for £5 per month or £40 per year. We feel it's a very good deal, and hope you do too.
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tv
Matt Damon and Ben Affleck reunite in fierce Miami crime drama
Sleek production of one of the author's lesser works
It's not so much who's guilty, but who isn't
film
Helen MacDonald's best-selling memoir is brought to the screen with mixed results
Oliver Hermanus's adaptation is beautiful but lifeless
Park Chan-wook has created a tragicomic everyman with timely resonance
new music
Deep-dipped in 1970s riffery but very much its own thing
The One Directioner's fourth album risks drowning out personal charm with 'woah woah's
Blue-collar righteousness from the Texas troubadour
classical
Award-winning pianist makes his mark with mystery and magic
Welcome return of one of the world's greatest conductors with a fascinating programme
A live-wire violinist in top form, and a programme contrasting mystery with good humour
opera
Marlis Petersen captures the infinite variety of Janáček's 337-year-old heroine
Emily D'Angelo shines as Handel's impetuous, besotted protagonist
theatre
New play about a devastating event is an excruciatingly powerful piece of new writing
One-pitch show has its heart in the right place
Updated 2013 production is a unique, moving, funny insight into a messy wedding day
dance
Much-appreciated words of commendation from readers and the cultural community
For all its ambitious range and scope, Wayne McGregor's big ballet is a big yawn
comedy
Much-appreciated words of commendation from readers and the cultural community
Some hits among the misfires
books
Much-appreciated words of commendation from readers and the cultural community
Writer Barry Joseph recounts his moments of clarity and connection with Stephen Sondheim’s lifelong love of puzzles
visual arts
Much-appreciated words of commendation from readers and the cultural community
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