theartsdesk com, first with arts reviews, news and interviews
Russ Coffey
Thursday, 19 September 2019
Liam Gallagher's 2017 solo debut, As You Were, took everybody by surprise. Not only did it show Gallagher Jnr to be still capable of capturing the public's imagination, but...
Adam Sweeting
Wednesday, 18 September 2019
Connoisseurs of gnarly Boston-based crime sagas like The Town, The Departed and Black Mass will quickly find themselves at home in this sleaze-ridden new show, made by Showtime...
Jessica Duchen
Wednesday, 18 September 2019
Goethe’s Die Leiden des junges Werthers (The Sorrows of Young Werther) was a vital spark in the ignition of the German romantic movement. The story of a young man driven to...
Demetrios Matheou
Wednesday, 18 September 2019
Three women decide to take over their husbands’ criminal activities, proving more than a match for the men who dominate the underworld. If this outline of The Kitchen ...
Matt Wolf
Wednesday, 18 September 2019
The work isn't finished on Big, if this stage musical of the beloved 1988 Tom Hanks film is ever to, um, make it big. A Broadway flop in 1996 where it was among the last shows...
Adam Sweeting
Wednesday, 18 September 2019
This new legal comedy is based on a well-received book by Alex McBride, but the transition from print to the BBC Two screen hasn’t been an unalloyed success. It stars Will Sharpe...
Tom Birchenough
Wednesday, 18 September 2019
Alexander Zeldin continues his devastating analysis of modern Britain in this culminating play of a (very loose)...
Adam Sweeting
Wednesday, 18 September 2019
If you’re a farmer who works round the clock to feed sheep, milk cows and so forth, how on earth do you make time to find a...
Thomas H Green
Wednesday, 18 September 2019
Renée Zellweger already has strong musical cinema form, Her role as Roxie Hart in Chicago garnered her second Oscar...
Gavin Dixon
Tuesday, 17 September 2019
Kasper Holten left a mixed bag of productions behind at Royal Opera when he left in 2017, but the best of them - though not...
Veronica Lee
Tuesday, 17 September 2019
Rob Brydon, Lee Mack and David Mitchell are the host and team captains respectively of Would I Lie to You?, the long-running...
Ellie Porter
Monday, 16 September 2019
You might think that being first on the bill with a half-hour slot at 1.15pm would be an affront to a band who’d had a 12-...
Jessica Duchen
Monday, 16 September 2019
While the Proms were ringing out the old season, the Wigmore Hall ushered in the big celebration of 2020: the 250th...
David Nice
Monday, 16 September 2019
Any festival would be proud and honoured to end with the great Elisabeth Leonskaja playing the last three Beethoven piano...
Katie Colombus
Monday, 16 September 2019
For a band mostly known as a brilliantly ludicrous cocktail of other’s people’s sound-styles, the Simulation Theory tour is...
Gavin Dixon
Monday, 16 September 2019
Simon Rattle has a knack for unearthing large-scale orchestral works that pack a punch. Olivier Messiaen’s Éclairs sur l’Au-...
Nick Hasted
Monday, 16 September 2019
Pere Ubu are much like The Fall in their dauntless explication of one man’s vision, and commitment to an individual, primal...
Mark Kidel
Monday, 16 September 2019
It is a truth perhaps not quite but almost universally accepted that Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, beloved of GSCE...
Thomas H Green
Monday, 16 September 2019
One question springs immediately to mind on hearing that Romesh Ranganathan’s new stand-up show, The Cynic’s Mixtape, is...
disc of the day
CD: Liam Gallagher - Why Me? Why Not.
The songs may remain the same, but the delivery has plenty of charm
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 10,000 pieces, we're asking for £3.95 per month or £30 per year. We feel it's a very good deal, and hope you do too.
To take an annual 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
City on a Hill, Sky Atlantic review - power, corruption and larceny in 1990s Boston
The cast is strong, the action is brisk and the politics are poisonous
Defending the Guilty, BBC Two review - trials and tribulations of a trainee barrister
New legal comedy struggles to get off the ground
Love in the Countryside, BBC Two review - reaping a harvest of marital bliss?
Sara Cox's dating game for rural singletons is more fun than it ought to be
film
The Kitchen review – more gangsters' molls taking over the reins
Melissa McCarthy, Tiffany Haddish and Elizabeth Moss star in female-led crime thriller
For Sama review - besieged, bombed, and defiant in Syria
A young mother's video diary captures the daily horror of the civil war
Phoenix review - Norwegian family tragedy with an autobiographical slant
Mesmerising child performers but Camilla Strøm Henriksen's debut doesn't quite deliver
new music
CD: Liam Gallagher - Why Me? Why Not.
The songs may remain the same, but the delivery has plenty of charm
BBC Radio 2 Live in Hyde Park review – Pet Shop Boys, Westlife and Status Quo deliver the hits
Cheery nostalgia is the name of the game at this annual crowdpleaser
classical
Beethoven Festival Weekend, Wigmore Hall review 1 - sparkle and charisma versus creative overkill
A peerless opening recital is followed by some curatorial oddities
Beethoven Festival Weekend, Wigmore Hall review 2 - total mastery in tone and depth
Perfect sonorities from ensembles, profundity from the peerless Elisabeth Leonskaja
LSO, Rattle, Barbican Hall review – visions of the beyond
Serene meditations from Messiaen, energised by the joyous sound of birdsong
opera
Werther, Royal Opera review - shadows and sunsets from an unreconstructed romantic
Massenet's opera shines bright, notwithstanding a slightly clunky hero
Don Giovanni, Royal Opera review - laid-back Lothario
Revival cast variable, but Erwin Schrott delivers as the would-be seducer
theatre
Big the Musical - sweet if wildly overstretched
Onetime Broadway flop has more charm in London but still needs work
Faith, Hope & Charity, National Theatre review - a grim compassion
Rich in empathy, dramatically raw, Alexander Zeldin's bleak study of society on the edge
Pride and Prejudice* (*sort of), Bristol Old Vic review - Jane Austen as shallow romcom
A tongue-in-cheek take on the beloved classic misfires
dance
Alvin Ailey, Programme C review - black, beautiful, brilliant
America's No.1 rounds off its triumphant visit with a diddly-doo-wop
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, Sadler's Wells review - Still more Revelations
America's favourite dance ticket shows us how it's done
Matthew Bourne's Romeo and Juliet, Sadler's Wells review - heart-stopping drama
The plot isn't perfect, but this bad romance still packs a punch
comedy
Brydon, Mack and Mitchell, Portsmouth Guildhall review - family-friendly fun
'Would I Lie to You?' team on the road
Romesh Ranganathan, Brighton Dome review - transgressive, edgy and very likeable
The TV favourite hits the ground running at the start of his Cynic's Mixtape tour
gaming
Rage 2 review – garish but great post-apocalyptic shooter
Challenge The Authority in this 'Mad Max on mushrooms' renegade romp
Win a Luxury Weekend for Two to Celebrate Brighton Festival!
An eclectic line-up spanning music, theatre, dance, visual art, film, comedy, literature and spoken word could be yours with boutique hotel and exquisite meals included
World War Z review - bloodthirsty fun with the zombie apocalypse
Chainsawing the brain-eaters as you battle against the tide of the undead
visual arts
Foragers of the Foreshore - London's mudlarks on show
The director of Totally Thames introduces this year's festival, including an exhibition of mudlarks and their finds
Artists in Amsterdam, Dulwich Picture Gallery review - a slight but evocative sketch
Amsterdam was Europe's economic hub in the 17th century, a fact reflected in its art
Edinburgh Festival 2019 reviews: Below the Blanket / Samson Young: Real Music
Two Edinburgh shows meld music, sound and visual art to beguiling effect
latest comments
Now that you mention it, the Epilogue might have...
I'm curious about the fate of the Epilogue. When...
The review is incorrect about the return of the...
Can't agree either with the statement that this...
I have not seen the play, and so perhaps the acid...
heard the LSO with Rattle do Eclairs @ the...
why can't I get a dvd or blu ray disc of the...
This is a fantastic documentary. And I'm in a...