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Adam Sweeting
Tuesday, 22 June 2021
It’s not easy to sum up Physical in a pithy soundbite, though “quasi-political misanthropic comedy” might be vaguely in the right ballpark. It’s set in San Diego, California in...
Daniel Baksi
Tuesday, 22 June 2021
Rounding out a decade of personal success – beginning with his Cannes Jury Prize-winning The Puppetmaster (1993), followed by a best director award for Good Men,...
David Nice
Monday, 21 June 2021
A massive musical hope for the future is what we all need right now, after 14 stop/semi-start months and a threatened decimation of the concert and opera scene, the danger of...
Guy Oddy
Monday, 21 June 2021
With a third wave of Covid-19 being widely predicted in the media and the UK live music scene still not back on its feet after the last one, audiences must take their gigs however...
David Nice
Monday, 21 June 2021
All 15 of Rimsky-Korsakov’s operas deserve to be seen and heard live at least once, though not all of them need staging. Veteran director David Pountney’s bold choice for Grange...
Tim Cumming
Monday, 21 June 2021
Hailing from Benin and based in Paris since she was 23, Angélique Kidjo can sing in five languages, has collaborated with an A-list festival line-up of global stars ranging...
Kieron Tyler
Sunday, 20 June 2021
Dungen’s October 2005 appearance on Late Night With Conan O'Brien was incongruous. Here was a Swedish band on an independent...
Jenny Gilbert
Saturday, 19 June 2021
“A tonic to the nation”. That was the hoped-for effect of the Festival of Britain in 1951, and its concrete legacy was the...
Roxanna Panufnik
Saturday, 19 June 2021
A month ago, I sat in St Martin-in-the Fields listening to London Mozart Players recording my orchestral version of Letters...
Veronica Lee
Saturday, 19 June 2021
What to make of Jimmy Carr? He’s a fantastic gag writer and experienced stand-up who has made a hugely successful career on...
Robert Beale
Saturday, 19 June 2021
Tabita Berglund is that rare species, an up-and-coming orchestral conductor attracting enough attention to secure repeated...
Graham Rickson
Saturday, 19 June 2021
One Movement Symphonies: Music by Barber, Scriabin and Sibelius Kansas City Symphony/Michael Stern (Reference...
Barney Harsent
Saturday, 19 June 2021
The first release that brought folk-pop duo Kings of Convenience to prominence outside of their native Norway was their Live...
Matt Wolf
Friday, 18 June 2021
The general uptick of late in film versions of stage musical hits continues apace with In the Heights, which, to my mind...
David Nice
Friday, 18 June 2021
Just when you thought you couldn’t take any more one- or two-handers, online or in the theatre, along comes the supreme...
David Nice
Friday, 18 June 2021
Whatever else happens on the country opera scene this summer, the golden rose award for sheer chutzpah goes to the ever-...
Joseph Walsh
Friday, 18 June 2021
Back in 2017, a non-speaking autistic teen, Naoki Higashida wrote and published The Reason I Jump. He hoped it would offer...
Thomas H Green
Friday, 18 June 2021
Broken Hearts and Beauty Sleep has been five years coming. It’s only a mini-album but is spiced with a range of guests, and...
Adam Sweeting
Thursday, 17 June 2021
After appearing in six of Marvel’s Avengers movies, Tom Hiddleston’s Loki (the God of Mischief) gets his own TV series....
tv
Physical, Apple TV+ review - too much pain, not enough gain
Dark comedy which could have been called 'never trust a hippy'
BBC Cardiff Singer of the World 2021 Final, BBC Four review – an embarrassment of vocal riches
This year’s choice wasn’t easy – but Korean baritone Gihoon Kim deserved the prize
Loki, Disney+ review - the God of Mischief gets his own TV series
Wacky time-bending adventures with Tom Hiddleston and Owen Wilson
film
In the Heights review - to life, Lin-Manuel Miranda-style
2008 Tony winning musical transfers joyously to the screen
The Reason I Jump review - compelling and controversial
Director Jerry Rothwell explores the lives of four non-speaking autistic people
new music
Young Pilgrims, Hare & Hounds, Birmingham review – raucous jazz rockers whip up a storm
Richard Foote’s brassy gang lift the roof for their home crowd
Reissue CDs Weekly: Dungen - Stadsvandringar
The Swedish sonic adventurer’s second album resurfaces under the new title ‘II’
classical
First Person: Roxanna Panufnik on a new version of her 'Letters from Burma' in aid of Myanmar refugees
The composer on why she expanded a chamber piece for London Mozart Players
Hallé, Berglund, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review - taking Beethoven seriously
A young conductor brings confidence and maturity to the fore
Classical CDs: Bassoons, brass and symphonic compression
20th century symphonies, romantic chamber music and some ingenious brass transcriptions
opera
BBC Cardiff Singer of the World 2021 Final, BBC Four review – an embarrassment of vocal riches
This year’s choice wasn’t easy – but Korean baritone Gihoon Kim deserved the prize
Ivan the Terrible, Grange Park Opera review - from tsar to Stalin in five lopsided scenes
David Pountney's fusion of two Rimsky-Korsakov cod-history lessons leaps the centuries
Der Rosenkavalier, Garsington Opera review - musical marvels, drama less often fulfilled
Classy singing, conducting and playing, directorial holes in bold shot at rococo Strauss
theatre
Happy Days, Riverside Studios review - memory, madness and melancholy
Lisa Dwan’s infinite variety guides us through Beckett’s timeless masterpiece
After Life, National Theatre review - thanks for the memories
Intriguing, inventive play from Jack Thorne and Headlong
Extract: David Lan's As If By Chance
Adventures in Palestine from the memoir of the former artistic director of the Young Vic
dance
Solstice, English National Ballet, RFH review - a midsummer treat
A grand summer picnic at the Southbank Centre
British Ballet Charity Gala, Royal Albert Hall review - a celebration of sorts
Darcey Bussell rallies all eight UK major dance companies to fete their survival
Balanchine and Robbins, The Royal Ballet review - style and substance
A dazzling company tribute to America's two greatest choreographers
comedy
Jimmy Carr, Palace Theatre review - rape gags and risible claims
The jokes are relentless, but so is the misogyny
Mark Thomas, Soho Theatre review - new state-of-the-nation show
Post-Brexit Britain under the spotlight
Books
Danielle Evans: The Office of Historical Corrections review - what happens when history comes knocking
Short fiction that summons the past to put the present to the test
Anna Neima: The Utopians review – after horror, six quests for the good life
A timely exploration of post-Great War bids to build heaven on earth
Victoria Mas: The Mad Women's Ball review - compelling plot meets disquieting history
Reimagining the lives of the women incarcerated in the Hôpital Pitié-Salpêtrière
visual arts
Pre-Raphaelites: Drawings & Watercolours, Ashmolean Museum review - a rich array
Some of Britain's most popular artists highlight the importance and beauty of drawing
Dark Days, Luminous Nights, Manchester Collective, The White Hotel, Salford review - a sense of Hades
Musicians and artists find out where the bodies are buried
The Making of Rodin, Tate Modern review - surrealist tendencies
The sculptor is recast as a proto-modernist in a show focused on works in plaster
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