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Theartsdesk
Friday, 31 January 2025
It all started on 09/09/09. That memorable date, September 9 2009, marked the debut of theartsdesk.com.It followed some hectic and intensive months when a disparate and eclectic...
Adam Sweeting
Friday, 17 January 2025
Being unknowable has been almost as much of a preoccupation for the erstwhile Robert Zimmerman as writing songs. Previously on film he has played the role of Alias in Sam...
Robert Beale
Friday, 17 January 2025
The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there. But in Love Life, Kurt Weill and Alan Jay Lerner’s musical from 1948, it’s all the same country. The couple whose...
Helen Hawkins
Friday, 17 January 2025
Another new release opens with the sounds of people in bed playing over the credits, but these are not Babygirl’s sighs of a woman faking sex but the angelic breathing of three...
Joe Muggs
Friday, 17 January 2025
Of the big UK indie bands of the 00s wave, Bloc Party were always the most austerely art-rockish. Where Arctic Monkeys, Klaxons, Franz Ferdinand all to some degree or other had a...
Rachel Halliburton
Thursday, 16 January 2025
Gustavo Dudamel and the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela took the Barbican by storm last night with a thrilling account of Mahler’s Third Symphony, his great...
David Nice
Thursday, 16 January 2025
This was always going to be Jakub Hrůša’s night, his first at the Royal Opera since performances of Wagner’s Lohengrin won...
Sebastian Scotney
Thursday, 16 January 2025
This concert was an effusion of pure joy. Billed as the German National Orchestra, the Bundesjugendorchester (Federal Youth...
Veronica Lee
Thursday, 16 January 2025
By all accounts Chris McCausland had to be persuaded to take part in the most recent series of Strictly Come Dancing, which...
Kieron Tyler
Thursday, 16 January 2025
Four of Humanhood’s 13 tracks are short, impressionistic mood pieces. Between 48 seconds and just-over a minute-and-a-half...
Helen Hawkins
Wednesday, 15 January 2025
Into a world of grooming gangs, human trafficking and senior prelates resigning over child abuse cases comes Oliver!, Lionel...
Adam Sweeting
Wednesday, 15 January 2025
In the late Eighties and Nineties, Tony Slattery became one of the most ubiquitous faces on television, appearing regularly...
Ibi Keita
Wednesday, 15 January 2025
Ethel Cain’s Perverts is a dark and experimental follow-up to her debut album, Preacher’s Daughter. It takes listeners on a...
Boyd Tonkin
Tuesday, 14 January 2025
Forthright and upright, powerful and lucid, the frank and bold pianism of Leif Ove Andsnes took his Wigmore Hall audience...
Adam Sweeting
Monday, 13 January 2025
It seems The Osmonds may not have been the worst outrage perpetrated on an unsuspecting public by the Mormons. American...
Robert Beale
Monday, 13 January 2025
Top Brownie points for the BBC Philharmonic for being one of the first (maybe the first?) to celebrate the birth centenary...
Gary Naylor
Monday, 13 January 2025
There are two main reasons to revive classics. The first is that they are really good; the second is that they have...
Veronica Lee
Monday, 13 January 2025
Europe's biggest comedy festival, which showcases established stars, works in progress, workshops and competitions, kicks...
Thomas H Green
Monday, 13 January 2025
Rooted in South African electronic styles such as kwaito, amapiano and gqom, the music of Moonchild Sanelly also shows a...
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disc of the day
Album: Kele - The Singing Winds Pt. 3
The road less travelled has led to a fantastically focused creative identity
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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
What's the Matter with Tony Slattery?, BBC Two review - absorbing but troubling search for answers
RIP TONY SLATTERY How mental illness cut short a brilliant showbusiness career
American Primeval, Netflix review - nightmare on the Wild Frontier
Peter Berg's Western drama is grim but gripping
Lockerbie: A Search for Truth, Sky Atlantic review - Colin Firth stars in gruelling dramatisation of the 1988 terror attack
Will we ever hear the full story of what happened to Pan Am Flight 103?
film
A Complete Unknown review - how does it feel?
Timothée Chalamet brings it all back home as Bob Dylan
Vermiglio review - a simple tale, simply but beautifully told
Maura Delpero’s award-winner salutes the world of her childhood as it ebbs away
The Second Act review - absurdist meta comedy about stardom
French A-listers puncture their profession in a hall of mirrors
new music
Album: Kele - The Singing Winds Pt. 3
The road less travelled has led to a fantastically focused creative identity
classical
Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra, Dudamel, Barbican review - an epic journey from gossamer-like intimacy to apocalyptic rage
An orchestra on top form in Mahler's Third Symphony despite swirling controversies
German National Orchestra, Marshall, Cadogan Hall review - sheer youthful exuberance
Teenagers on tour bring effusive music-making
Leif Ove Andsnes, Wigmore Hall review - colour and courage, from Hardanger to Majorca
Bold and bracing pianism in favourite Chopin and a buried Norwegian treasure
opera
Love Life, Opera North review - Lerner and Weill's blast into the past
Time-travelling tale of love and despair - the first 'concept musical' revived
Jenůfa, Royal Opera review - electrifying details undermined by dead space
Knife-edge conducting and singing, but non-realistic production is weaker in revival
theatre
Oliver!, Gielgud Theatre review - Lionel Bart's 1960 masterpiece is Bourne again
An intimate staging and superb casting make this a superior West End production
The Maids, Jermyn Street Theatre review - new broom sweeps clean in fierce revival
Class, in its 21st century manifestation, colours much performed play
Titanique, Criterion Theatre review - musical parody sinks despite super singing
Affectionate piss-take set for cult status at best
dance
Nutcracker, English National Ballet, Coliseum review - Tchaikovsky and his sweet tooth rule supreme
New production's music, sweets, and hordes of exuberant children make this a hot ticket
comedy
Chris McCausland, Winchester Theatre Royal review - Strictly winner as cheerfully cynical as ever
Back to the day job telling gags
Gala Preview Show, De Montfort Hall review - Leicester Comedy Festival nicely teed up
Europe's biggest comedy festival opens next month
Books
Best of 2024: Books
As 2024 comes to an end, we look back at the books that have thrilled and enthralled us
William J. Mann: Bogie & Bacall review - beyond the screen
Why we're still in love with Bogart and Bacall, and their legendary Hollywood romance
visual arts
Electric Dreams: Art and Technology Before the Internet, Tate Modern review - an exhaustive and exhausting show
Flashing lights, beeps and buzzes are diverting, but quickly pall
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