theartsdesk com, first with arts reviews, news and interviews
Thomas H Green
Friday, 07 June 2024
Charli XCX has been making scrambled eggs of pop for a decade. She’s written songs for/with artists including, but far from limited to, Lady Gaga, Iggy Azalea, Giorgio Moroder,...
Ismene Brown
Thursday, 06 June 2024
Times change, people don't. Does a knighthood sit well on a man who shags anonymous strangers in the Blue Lion out of hours? Emlyn Williams played his own fruity lead when his...
Adam Sweeting
Thursday, 06 June 2024
New York in the 1980s is the setting for Abi Morgan’s new six-part drama, and it’s a city riddled with squalor, homelessness, racism and rampant crime. The Aids pandemic is also...
Mark Sheerin
Thursday, 06 June 2024
Two shows at Jupiter Artland, one in a barn, one in a ballroom, showcase two Scottish artists, whose work shares a sense of lightness and joy. The sun was out, there was happiness...
Liz Thomson
Thursday, 06 June 2024
Heavy Soul, the ninth studio album by British blues-rock singer-guitarist Joanne Shaw Taylor, is her first in two years, its 10 songs already released as singles. Produced by...
Thomas H Green
Wednesday, 05 June 2024
Towards the end of the encore, Deap Vally bring on their friend Solon Bixler. Frontwoman Lindsey Troy hands him her guitar. Despite this being their farewell tour, these two songs...
David Nice
Tuesday, 04 June 2024
Recreating Handel’s Egypt with a first-rate cast on the summer opera scene could have been the exclusive domain of...
Markie Robson-Scott
Tuesday, 04 June 2024
“Begin the mission and the funds will come,” says feisty, tubercular nun Francesca Cabrini (Christiana Dell’Anna; Patrizia...
Robert Beale
Monday, 03 June 2024
When it was first announced that Mark Elder was to become music director of the Hallé, I phoned a friend who knew him well...
Tim Cumming
Monday, 03 June 2024
At 91, Willie Nelson is about to tour the US with The Outlaws, AKA Minnesota youngster Bob Dylan, 83, the even younger...
Nick Hasted
Sunday, 02 June 2024
The Israel-Palestine conflict aptly infuses a haunted house in Muayad Alayan’s story of layered loss. The Shapiro family...
Kieron Tyler
Sunday, 02 June 2024
“We hope if you like it, you'll buy it,” says Paul McCartney. It’s 4 April 1963 and The Beatles are on stage and about to...
Adam Sweeting
Saturday, 01 June 2024
Maybe California-born Matthew Modine caught the movie bug courtesy of his father Mark, who used to manage drive-in theatres...
Kieron Tyler
Saturday, 01 June 2024
While some tracks on Marina Allen’s third album are country accented and a pedal steel is used a few times, it’s impossible...
Aleks Sierz
Friday, 31 May 2024
Faye is okay. Or, at least she says she’s okay. But is she really? And, if she really is, like really okay, why is she...
James Saynor
Friday, 31 May 2024
Adaptations of Henry James have often failed to click over the years. The author’s private, introspective works –...
Sarah Kent
Friday, 31 May 2024
Being a successful artist is not Judy Chicago’s primary goal. She abandoned that ambition six decades ago when the Los...
Joe Muggs
Friday, 31 May 2024
There’s a whole generation of singers who’ve risen to considerable fame on the back of the return of home-grown commercial...
Heather Neill
Thursday, 30 May 2024
Prolific playwright James Graham was born in 1982, the year Alan Bleasdale's unforgettable series was televised. From...
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disc of the day
Album: Charli XCX - Brat
One of Britain's most compelling pop stars fires out an intriguingly personal curveball
Subscribe to theartsdesk.com
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.
To take a subscription now simply click here.
And if you're looking for that extra gift for a friend or family member, why not treat them to a theartsdesk.com gift subscription?
tv
Eric, Netflix review - a fairytale of New York
Abi Morgan's drama is a strange mix of urban grime and magic realism
theartsdesk Q&A: Matthew Modine on 'Hard Miles', 40 years in showbusiness and safer cycling
An eventful journey from 'Full Metal Jacket' to 'Oppenheimer' and 'Stranger Things'
Tokyo Vice, Series 2, BBC iPlayer review - an exciting ride that stretches credibility
The return of Jake Adelstein, ace reporter
film
A House in Jerusalem review - a haunted house and country
A grieving British girl gleans buried traumas in a quietly humane Middle East tale
theartsdesk Q&A: Matthew Modine on 'Hard Miles', 40 years in showbusiness and safer cycling
An eventful journey from 'Full Metal Jacket' to 'Oppenheimer' and 'Stranger Things'
new music
Album: Charli XCX - Brat
One of Britain's most compelling pop stars fires out an intriguingly personal curveball
Deap Vally, Concorde 2, Brighton review - final blow-out before the rockin' duo quit
Los Angeles queens of the dirty riff are as magnificent as ever on their final go-round
classical
Hallé, Elder, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review - a fine and fitting finale for Sir Mark
An immediately attractive new choral-orchestral work from Sir James MacMillan
Murrihy, Martineau, Wigmore Hall review - poise, transformation and rainbow colours
A great Irish mezzo and Scottish pianist rise to Berlioz and surprise in Britten
St Martin's Voices, Earis, St Martin-in-the-Fields review - music from the beginning
Young singers explore traditional and more unusual settings of biblical creation narratives
opera
Giulio Cesare, Blackwater Valley Opera Festival review - characterful, lustrous Handel on parade
An infinitely various cast compels as the splendour falls on castle walls
Tosca, Opera Holland Park review - passion and populism
1800, 1968, 2024: a smart revival makes Puccini's evergreen shocker sing again
Die Zauberflöte, Glyndebourne review - cornucopia of visual inventiveness eclipses everything else
An operatic feast for the eyes doesn't translate into conceptual satisfaction
theatre
Accolade, Theatre Royal Windsor review - orgy-loving knight makes for topical pre-election drama
Vintage Emlyn Williams play asks pokey questions about private-public tolerance
Lie Low, Royal Court review - short sharp sliver of pain
Dublin Fringe Festival hit from 2022 comes to London’s main new writing theatre
Boys from the Blackstuff, National Theatre review - a lyrical, funny, affecting variation on a television classic
The legendary small-screen drama still resonates in a new medium
dance
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
All You Need Is Death review - a future folk horror classic
Irish folkies seek a cursed ancient song in Paul Duane's impressive fiction debut
MacMillan Celebrated, Royal Ballet review - out of mothballs, three vintage works to marvel at
Less-known pieces spanning the career of a great choreographer underline his greatness
comedy
Punt and Dennis, The Marlowe, Canterbury review - satire and sketches
Double act back on the road after a decade
DVD/Blu-ray: Billy Connolly - Big Banana Feet
The comic caught on the cusp of his fame as he tours Ireland in 1975
Clinton Baptiste, Touring review - spoof clairvoyant on great form
Character has life beyond 'Phoenix Nights'
Books
Extract: Pariah Genius by Iain Sinclair
A form-defying writer explores the troubled mindscape of a Soho photographer
Jonn Elledge: A History of the World in 47 Borders review - a view from the boundaries
Enjoyable journey through the byways of how lines on maps have shaped the modern world
Lisa Kaltenegger: Alien Earths review - a whole new world
Kaltenegger's traverses space in her thoughtful exploration of the search for life among the stars
visual arts
Laura Aldridge / Andrew Sim, Jupiter Artland, Edinburgh review - lightness and joy
Two Scottish artists explore childhood and play
Judy Chicago: Revelations, Serpentine Gallery review - art designed to change the world
At 84, the American pioneer is a force to be reckoned with
Now You See Us: Women Artists in Britain 1520-1920, Tate Britain review - a triumph
Rescued from obscurity, 100 women artists prove just how good they can be
latest comments
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Enjoyable machvellian series well cast and like...
Season 8? Just horrible. I blame the writers...
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