theartsdesk com, first with arts reviews, news and interviews
Tom Birchenough
Friday, 14 November 2025
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...
Robert Beale
Monday, 06 October 2025
Turning Handel oratorio into opera can be a rewarding enterprise. Charles Edwards’ presentation of Joshua, over 15 years ago, for instance, was very effective for Opera North in...
David Nice
Monday, 06 October 2025
One miracle of musical performance is that a work you’ve loved for years can be revealed as never before in an outstanding interpretation. That happened to me last week at the New...
Thomas H Green
Monday, 06 October 2025
Pop Will Eat Itself deserve to be more celebrated. The Stourbridge outfit were one of the first 1980s bands to realise the potential of smashing punky indie-rockin’ into hip hop...
Kieron Tyler
Sunday, 05 October 2025
The reappearance of These Were The Earlies for its 21st-anniversary is a surprise. Although The Earlies' debut LP received a maximum-marks review from NME on its 2004 release –...
Demetrios Matheou
Saturday, 04 October 2025
The National’s latest production of Hamlet opens with a bang: a sureness of style, atmosphere and refreshing comedic effect, accompanied by a performer, Hiran Abeyeskera (The...
Boyd Tonkin
Saturday, 04 October 2025
Even in the 21st century, it may not take that long for an outlandish literary experiment to jump genres and become an...
Like Water for Chocolate, Royal Ballet review - splendid dancing and sets, but there's too much plot
Helen Hawkins
Saturday, 04 October 2025
Christopher Wheeldon has mined a new seam of narrative pieces for the Royal Ballet, having started out as a supreme...
Sarah Kent
Saturday, 04 October 2025
Tate Britain’s Lee Miller retrospective begins with a soft focus picture of her by New York photographer Arnold Genthe dated...
Rachel Halliburton
Saturday, 04 October 2025
It’s truly thrilling to see the Barbican embracing big concept long-form theatre again, seeking out productions that are as...
Gary Naylor
Saturday, 04 October 2025
Like fellow New Yorker, Lee Miller, Lee Krasner changed her given name, the better to be accepted into what she called "The...
Mark Kidel
Saturday, 04 October 2025
The revival of Robert Carsen’s production of Handel’s Ariodante at the Opéra Garnier in Paris under the direction of Raphaël...
Graham Rickson
Saturday, 04 October 2025
Corelli/Handel: Sonatas Michaela Koudelková (recorders), Monika Knoblochová (harpsichord), Libor Mašek (...
Joe Muggs
Saturday, 04 October 2025
It’s funny: people say a lot online that what you’re allowed to like and dislike in music is bounded by age, gender and so...
Adam Sweeting
Friday, 03 October 2025
Rockin’ vicar the Rev Richard Coles is not only a C of E priest and former member of Bronski Beat and The Communards, but...
Bernard Hughes
Friday, 03 October 2025
Schubert’s Fifth Symphony is one of those pieces whose existence in the modern world hangs on the most tenuous of threads....
Demetrios Matheou
Friday, 03 October 2025
Urchin feels like a genuine moment in British cinema. Thematically, it offers a highly original, thoughtful, affecting...
Robert Beale
Friday, 03 October 2025
Kahchun Wong’s second Bridgewater Hall concert of the new season was partly an introduction to the Hallé’s artist-in-...
Gary Naylor
Friday, 03 October 2025
An opening video montage presents us with a rogues' gallery of powerful men who have done bad things. Plenty of the usual...
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?
disc of the day
Pop Will Eat Itself's 'Delete Everything' is noisy but patchy
Despite unlovely production, the Eighties/Nineties unit retain rowdy ebullience
The future of Arts Journalism
You can stop theartsdesk.com closing!
We urgently need financing to survive. Our fundraising drive has thus far raised £49,000 but we need to reach £100,000 or we will be forced to close. Please contribute here: https://gofund.me/c3f6033d
And if you can forward this information to anyone who might assist, we’d be grateful.
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
Murder Before Evensong, Acorn TV review - death comes to the picturesque village of Champton
The Rev Richard Coles's sleuthing cleric hits the screen
Black Rabbit, Netflix review - grime and punishment in New York City
Jude Law and Jason Bateman tread the thin line between love and hate
The Hack, ITV review - plodding anatomy of twin UK scandals
Jack Thorne's skill can't disguise the bagginess of his double-headed material
film
Urchin review - superb homeless drama
Frank Dillane gives a star-making turn in Harris Dickinson’s impressive directorial debut
Mr Blake at Your Service review - John Malkovich in unlikely role as an English butler
Weird comedy directed by novelist Gilles Legardinier
theartsdesk Q&A: musician Warren Ellis recalls how jungle horror and healing broke him open
The Bad Seed explains the cost of home truths while making documentary Ellis Park
new music
Pop Will Eat Itself's 'Delete Everything' is noisy but patchy
Despite unlovely production, the Eighties/Nineties unit retain rowdy ebullience
Music Reissues Weekly: The Earlies - These Were The Earlies
Lancashire and Texas unite to fashion a 2004 landmark of modern psychedelia
Odd times and clunking lines in 'The Life of a Showgirl' for Taylor Swift
A record this weird should be more interesting, surely
classical
Scott, Irish Baroque Orchestra, Whelan, RIAM, Dublin review - towards a Mozart masterpiece
Characteristic joy and enlightenment from this team, but a valveless horn brings problems
France, LPO, Gardner, RFH review - the sound of other worlds
From a snowbound contemporary classic to Mahler's folk-tale heaven
Classical CDs: Voice flutes, flugelhorns and froth
Baroque sonatas, English orchestral music and an emotionally-charged vocal recital
opera
Susanna, Opera North review - hybrid staging of a Handel oratorio
Dance and signing complement outstanding singing in a story of virtue rewarded
Ariodante, Opéra Garnier, Paris review - a blast of Baroque beauty
A near-perfect night at the opera
Cinderella/La Cenerentola, English National Opera review - the truth behind the tinsel
Appealing performances cut through hyperactive stagecraft
theatre
Hamlet, National Theatre review - turning tragedy to comedy is no joke
Hiran Abeyeskera’s childlike prince falls flat in a mixed production
Rohtko, Barbican review - postmodern meditation on fake and authentic art is less than the sum of its parts
Łukasz Twarkowski's production dazzles without illuminating
Lee, Park Theatre review - Lee Krasner looks back on her life as an artist
Informative and interesting, the play's format limits its potential
dance
'We are bowled over!' Thank you for your messages of love and support
Much-appreciated words of commendation from readers and the cultural community
Like Water for Chocolate, Royal Ballet review - splendid dancing and sets, but there's too much plot
Christopher Wheeldon's version looks great but is too muddling to connect with fully
iD-Reloaded, Cirque Éloize, Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury review - attitude, energy and invention
A riotous blend of urban dance music, hip hop and contemporary circus
comedy
'We are bowled over!' Thank you for your messages of love and support
Much-appreciated words of commendation from readers and the cultural community
Nick Helm, Touring review - brash comic shows his vulnerable side
Matters of the heart and heavy metal
Kerry Godliman, G-Live review - she's livid but delivers the laughs
Perimenopause provides rich seam of gags
Books
'We are bowled over!' Thank you for your messages of love and support
Much-appreciated words of commendation from readers and the cultural community
Justin Lewis: Into the Groove review - fun and fact-filled trip through Eighties pop
Month by month journey through a decade gives insights into ordinary people’s lives
Joanna Pocock: Greyhound review - on the road again
A writer retraces her steps to furrow a deeper path through modern America
visual arts
'We are bowled over!' Thank you for your messages of love and support
Much-appreciated words of commendation from readers and the cultural community
Lee Miller, Tate Britain review - an extraordinary career that remains an enigma
Fashion photographer, artist or war reporter; will the real Lee Miller please step forward?
Kerry James Marshall: The Histories, Royal Academy review - a triumphant celebration of blackness
Room after room of glorious paintings
latest comments
Thank you for those kind words.I look forward to...
Deeply grateful for this thoughtful review—it's a...
What an enjoyable and perceptive read. I am now...
I don't think we can edit your comment. You have...
Please correct the dates concerning the...
Thanks for that thorough background, Jan. I was...
You wouldn't have got Netrebko, because this was...
I am very glad the London audiences were given...