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Thomas H Green
Tuesday, 26 May 2020
At the start of March an obscure alt-metal outfit called Cegvera released a concept album titled The Sixth Glare. The physical album featured the headline “DISEASE” alongside a...
Richard Macer
Tuesday, 26 May 2020
“That’s Marcelino Sambé, he’s wonderful,” said the artistic administrator of the Royal Ballet as I followed her down one of the many corridors that weave throughout the Royal...
Tom Birchenough
Tuesday, 26 May 2020
Czech director Alfréd Radok’s Distant Journey (Daleká cesta) has an unprecedented place in the history of cinema of the Holocaust. Initially released in March 1949, it has been...
Veronica Lee
Monday, 25 May 2020
You may have seen Desiree Burch, a Californian now living in London, on The Mash Report on BBC One. She's an engaging and energetic storyteller and Desiree's Coming Early, her...
Russ Coffey
Monday, 25 May 2020
In pop music, less is often more and it doesn't come much shorter-and-sweeter than Quickies, the new collection from New York songwriter Stephin Merritt. The tracks range in...
Marina Vaizey
Sunday, 24 May 2020
John Grisham is a brand, in the sense that the reader relies on some sense of what the product is going to be. He is well up in the millions of sales, along with other writers...
Kieron Tyler
Sunday, 24 May 2020
“Collector of the Light” is based around what sounds like a treated bass guitar. As the neck is moved up and down, multiple...
Daniel Baksi
Sunday, 24 May 2020
Over the years, the legend of The Apu Trilogy has been much-repeated. Now widely considered India’s greatest filmmaker,...
Adam Sweeting
Saturday, 23 May 2020
Since it debuted in November last year, Apple TV+ has barely made a dent in a market largely shaped by Netflix, but this...
Joseph Moog
Saturday, 23 May 2020
It can be found in any contract. Both artists, as well as promoters, are aware of it, but it used to be an exception so rare...
Owen Richards
Saturday, 23 May 2020
Don’t do drugs, kids. For the past 50 years, that’s been the consistent message. But how much of what we know about...
Graham Rickson
Saturday, 23 May 2020
Bizet: Carmen Suite No. 1, Symphony No. 1 in C, Gounod: Petite Symphonie Scottish Chamber Orchestra/François Leleux (...
Guy Oddy
Saturday, 23 May 2020
Word has been out for a while that EDM megastar Diplo has decided to throw a curve ball with his musical career, don a...
David Nice
Friday, 22 May 2020
What would have been the festival season starts around now. Some organisations are offering mementos of past glories; others...
Aleks Sierz
Friday, 22 May 2020
The National Theatre’s triumphant march through its archive of NT Live recordings continues this week with a glorious blaze...
Jill Chuah Masters
Friday, 22 May 2020
The second half of Mark Cousins’ documentary on films by women filmmakers starts with religion; it ends with song and dance...
Veronica Lee
Friday, 22 May 2020
A running gag in David Nicholls' novel The Understudy is that its main character is called Steve McQueen. Not that Steve...
Nick Hasted
Friday, 22 May 2020
The 1975’s career is about navigating ambition, and finding ways to be an interesting, worthwhile big band after the music...
Adam Sweeting
Thursday, 21 May 2020
In the late Eighties and Nineties, Tony Slattery became one of the most ubiquitous faces on television, appearing regularly...
tv
Defending Jacob, Apple TV+ review - does murder run in the family?
Chris Evans and Michelle Dockery impress in adaptation of hit novel
What's the Matter with Tony Slattery?, BBC Two review - absorbing but troubling search for answers
How mental illness cut short a brilliant showbusiness career
A Very British Hotel Chain: Inside Best Western, Channel 4 review - requiem for the hospitality industry?
Bizarre reality doc is entertaining for all the wrong reasons
film
Have a Good Trip, Netflix review - a breezy journey into the mind
Netflix doc focuses on the lighter side of psychedelics
new music
The Songs of Coronovirus and Lockdown Life
The pandemic has given a worldwide cross section of quarantined musicians plenty to write about
Reissue CDs Weekly: Keith Relf - All the Falling Angels
Confirmation that the face of The Yardbirds was a creative force in his own right
classical
'Artists' online rivalry feels stronger': pianist Joseph Moog on the difficulties of performing in lockdown
Fascinating interpreter of Liszt and others on where musicians find themselves now
Classical CDs Weekly: Bizet, Gounod, Liszt, Heinz Winbeck
French elegance, an epic piano sonata and a contemporary symphonic cycle
'In a country of marvellous communicators': violinist Katherine Hunka on life with the Irish Chamber Orchestra
The ICO's leader/sometime music director for 18 years shares the wonder of life in Ireland
opera
Classical Music/Opera direct to home 12 - partying at a distance
Festivals cope with live online events and past fare
The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh, Dutch National Opera, OperaVision review - fairy-tale good and evil made real
Rimsky-Korsakov's myth resonates in the highest musical and production standards
Avoiding meltdown from lockdown: Michael Chance on The Grange Festival's strategy for survival
The countertenor and mastermind of a major summer opera event weighs up the future
theatre
A Streetcar Named Desire, National Theatre at Home review - world on fire
NT Live recording of this classic Young Vic production is genuinely unmissable
The Understudy online review - entertaining adaptation of David Nicholls' novel
Nice in-jokes and smart observations about actors
Theatre Lockdown Special 6: A prolific playwright, a timeless play, and speeches galore
A popular American star vehicle and 'Alice in Wonderland' minute-by-minute figure among the cultural bounty during the week ahead
dance
'If they had been any closer my face would have misted up': filming 'Men at the Barre'
The director Richard Macer had exclusive access to the male stars of the Royal Ballet. He describes what he discovered
The Thread, Sadler's Wells Digital Stage review - Greek folk and contemporary unite
Russell Maliphant breathes fresh life into Hellenic tradition
Palermo, Palermo review - free to view Pina
The Pina Bausch Foundation releases the first in a projected series of digital recordings
comedy
Desiree Burch, Soho Theatre On Demand review - fantastical storytelling
California comic on Burning Man, sex, race – and LSD
Jerry Seinfeld, Netflix review - not bad for a swansong
US comic says this may be his last stand-up show
gaming
Rage 2 review – garish but great post-apocalyptic shooter
Challenge The Authority in this 'Mad Max on mushrooms' renegade romp
World War Z review - bloodthirsty fun with the zombie apocalypse
Chainsawing the brain-eaters as you battle against the tide of the undead
The Lego Movie 2 Videogame review - everything is not awesome
Few fresh ideas means this movie adaptation treads the same old ground
visual arts
Visual Arts Lockdown Special 3: gigapixel Rembrandt, magic mushrooms, and more
The best art online this week
Unto the Last: Two Hundred Years of John Ruskin, Watts Gallery–Artists' Village, review - a breath of fresh air
The former home of Victorian artists GF and Mary Watts is a restorative treat, even online
XXI presented by ARTCELS, HOFA Gallery review - art as investment
Jeff Koons, Damien Hirst, Banksy and more come together in a depressing investment portfolio
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