theartsdesk com, first with arts reviews, news and interviews
Adam Sweeting
Thursday, 01 December 2022
There was originally a plan to make Tokyo Vice a movie starring Daniel Radcliffe, but it has ended up as a TV series starring Ansel Elgort. It’s almost certainly the better for it...
Cheri Amour
Thursday, 01 December 2022
In 2016’s abrasive album opener, "Dead Weight", frontwoman Mish Barber-Way laments over multiple miscarriages as her biological clock ticks away like a malevolent metronome. How...
Gavin Dixon
Wednesday, 30 November 2022
There is no mistaking Christian Gerhaher. His voice is a light, agile baritone, and it is utterly distinctive. He is a very verbal singer, and is as happy delivering his lines in...
Barney Harsent
Wednesday, 30 November 2022
“You’re filmin’ a movie or something – can you explain this?” the radio DJ turns to Neil Young, a laugh underpinning his question and setting the scene: light, jovial.“We’re just...
Stephen Walsh
Wednesday, 30 November 2022
There are conductors, and then again there are choral conductors. I sang under David Willcocks in Tallis’s 40-part "Spem in alium" and remember vividly that long-armed semaphoring...
Guy Oddy
Wednesday, 30 November 2022
This Is What We Do is only Leftfield’s fourth album in a career that has lasted almost 35 years (on and off). But if there is a dance outfit that can demonstrate the worth of...
Rachel Halliburton
Tuesday, 29 November 2022
The elation in the queue was palpable as people stood laughing and chatting in the November cold waiting for the doors of...
Helen Hawkins
Tuesday, 29 November 2022
For his final bow as artistic director of the Orange Tree, Paul Miller has decided to go out with a bang, amid much giggling...
Mark Kidel
Tuesday, 29 November 2022
Justin Adams has been exploring music that produces trance or near-trance states for a number of years. Along with being...
Peter Culshaw
Tuesday, 29 November 2022
Welcome to the latest edition of Peter Culshaw’s occasional radio show, which normally has a global music focus. This week’s...
Peter Culshaw
Tuesday, 29 November 2022
Even those with the most tangential connection to pop music will be aware that K-Pop is all conquering, and the likes of BTS...
Graham Rickson
Tuesday, 29 November 2022
Son of the White Mare (Fehérlófia), a 1981 Hungarian animated epic, defies easy description, Marcell Jankovics’ film...
Mark Hudson
Monday, 28 November 2022
Looking back on the most exciting, atmospheric and musically challenging gigs I’ve seen to date, there are several...
Sarah Connolly
Monday, 28 November 2022
The decision of Arts Council England to withdraw funding from the English National Opera and force it to move out of London...
Matt Wolf
Monday, 28 November 2022
I bow to no one in my affection for Matilda the Musical onstage, which I've loved across multiple iterations, from Stratford...
Aleks Sierz
Monday, 28 November 2022
What is the best way of talking about the Middle East? Should plays take a documentary or verbatim approach, all the better...
Boyd Tonkin
Monday, 28 November 2022
Half a century ago, Michael Tippett’s A Child of our Time felt inescapable. For a youth-choir singer in the London of that...
Barney Harsent
Monday, 28 November 2022
“All of this music, it’s nothing to do with the listener,” Stormzy announced to Louis Theroux in a recent TV interview. “All...
Nick Hasted
Sunday, 27 November 2022
Rian Johnson’s Knives Out sequel is an even more brightly entertaining puzzle picture, revelling in the old-fashioned...
disc of the day
Album: White Lung - Premonition
White Lung honour their circle pit pulsing punk anthems with a fifth and final release
tv
Tokyo Vice, BBC One review - murder, extortion and corruption in the Japanese capital
Eager American reporter Jake Adelstein plunges into the murky world of the Yakuza
1899, Netflix review - Atlantic voyage turns into cosmic nightmare
Another mind-bending trip from the creators of 'Dark'
Blood, Sex & Royalty, Netflix review - yo, bros, get down with the GOAT, Henry VIII
Netflix aims a hip hop historical drama about Anne Boleyn at the Young Adult audience
film
Neil Young: Harvest Time review - a thrillingly intimate fly-on-the-wall documentary
Warm, celebratory, charming, and fun - was the making of Neil Young's 'Harvest' the making of the singer?
Matilda the Musical review - a dizzying, smartly subversive delight
Matthew Warchus's glorious stage show sparkles anew onscreen
new music
Album: White Lung - Premonition
White Lung honour their circle pit pulsing punk anthems with a fifth and final release
Album: Leftfield - This Is What We Do
Progressive House progenitors refuse to follow trends but show no drop in quality
Justin Adams & Mohamed Errebbaa, The Jam Jar, Bristol review - the African roots of rock'n'roll
A guitar maestro and a Gnaoua master heal with sound
classical
Christian Gerhaher, Gerold Huber, Wigmore Hall review - muted regret and distant longing
Distinctive tone and controlled emotions ideal for an all-Schubert programme
BBC National Chorus of Wales, BBC NOW, Jeannin, BBC Hoddinott Hall, Cardiff review - competent music-making, interesting choices
Stravinsky and Ravel interwoven with choral rarities
Sheku Kanneh-Mason and Harry Baker, Noisenight 13, Jazz Cafe review - distinctive and easygoing chemistry
A sense of witty, articulate experiment throughout
opera
An open letter from Dame Sarah Connolly and colleagues to Arts Council England
The mezzo is joined by an operatic who's who in a plea to save English National Opera
It’s a Wonderful Life, English National Opera review - Capra’s sharp-edged sentiment smothered in endless schmaltz
A committed company show, but Jake Heggie’s operatic musical is irredeemably shallow
The Rake's Progress, Royal Academy of Music review - Hogarth's Rake enters the digital age
Energy and ideas (so many ideas) from this playful production, but where's the emotion?
theatre
Arms and the Man, Orange Tree Theatre review - a rollicking take on Shaw's satirical classic
Absurdly romantic notions about love and war have never been funnier
Baghdaddy, Royal Court review - Middle-Eastern magic realism
New play about an Iraqi exile and his daughter is strong if a bit messy
Elf, Dominion Theatre review - hit musical revival slays it again
Buddy the Elf charms everyone on either side of the fourth wall
dance
English National Ballet: Ek, Forsythe, Quagebeur review - two masters, two marvels
ENB shows its range in a devastating new Rite of Spring from Mats Ek, and pop heaven from William Forsythe
Birmingham Royal Ballet: Into the Music, Sadler's Wells review - a visual and aural feast
Beethoven rules the day in a fine mixed bill, and an overlooked choreographic master belatedly takes a bow
Light of Passage, Royal Ballet review - a new full-evening work by Crystal Pite is eloquent and moving
Proof, once again, that ballet has the muscle to tackle big topics
comedy
Sara Pascoe, Assembly Hall, Tunbridge Wells review - motherhood and the perils of fame
The comic's most personal show to date
Helen Bauer, Soho Theatre review - rollicking show about how to be a modern woman
Feminism from a different angle, as 'Madam Good Tit' flies in from the Fringe
Books
Patti Smith: A Book of Days review - adding to Insta's debris
The punk legend's archive of selfies, birthday greetings, and apothegms
Derek Owusu: Losing the Plot review - the finest perfume
Smells and scent bind this poetic study of identity and diaspora
Science Fiction: Voyage to the Edge of the Imagination, Science Museum review - travel to a galaxy not so far away
The glitzy Science Museum show fails to impress, but its accompanying book inspires
visual arts
Magdalena Abakanowicz, Tate Modern review - a forest of huge and imposing presences
Smell the sisal and feel small in the company of giant hangings
Things, Musée du Louvre, Paris review - the still life brought alive
Monumental Paris art show asks questions about the nature of things
Donna Fleming: Apocalypse, The Pie Factory, Margate review - personal passions and intense feelings
Six years of work expressed through mercurial changes of medium
latest comments
Thoroughly enjoyed this book - not read any by...
I was also there, aged 16. Yes Wilko was amazing...
Beautifully directed , superb performances and a...
This is one of the most boring films I have seen...
Cracking and extremely perceptive review – biased...
You rock, Shelley!!
A good point well made. Now corrected.
Goodness me, make-up have done a remarkable job...