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Theartsdesk
Friday, 31 January 2025
It all started on 09/09/09. That memorable date, September 9 2009, marked the debut of theartsdesk.com.It followed some hectic and intensive months when a disparate and eclectic...
Helen Hawkins
Wednesday, 15 January 2025
Into a world of grooming gangs, human trafficking and senior prelates resigning over child abuse cases comes Oliver!, Lionel Bart’s masterly musical. Is its grim tale of...
Adam Sweeting
Wednesday, 15 January 2025
In the late Eighties and Nineties, Tony Slattery became one of the most ubiquitous faces on television, appearing regularly on Whose Line Is It Anyway? and Have I Got News For You...
Ibi Keita
Wednesday, 15 January 2025
Ethel Cain’s Perverts is a dark and experimental follow-up to her debut album, Preacher’s Daughter. It takes listeners on a haunting journey through unsettling soundscapes that...
Boyd Tonkin
Tuesday, 14 January 2025
Forthright and upright, powerful and lucid, the frank and bold pianism of Leif Ove Andsnes took his Wigmore Hall audience from Norway to Poland (or rather, Paris and Majorca) with...
Adam Sweeting
Monday, 13 January 2025
It seems The Osmonds may not have been the worst outrage perpetrated on an unsuspecting public by the Mormons. American Primeval is set in the 1850s, and is based around the real-...
Robert Beale
Monday, 13 January 2025
Top Brownie points for the BBC Philharmonic for being one of the first (maybe the first?) to celebrate the birth centenary...
Gary Naylor
Monday, 13 January 2025
There are two main reasons to revive classics. The first is that they are really good; the second is that they have...
Veronica Lee
Monday, 13 January 2025
Europe's biggest comedy festival, which showcases established stars, works in progress, workshops and competitions, kicks...
Thomas H Green
Monday, 13 January 2025
Rooted in South African electronic styles such as kwaito, amapiano and gqom, the music of Moonchild Sanelly also shows a...
Sebastian Scotney
Sunday, 12 January 2025
Can any line from The Second Act be taken at face value? Not really. “I should never have made this film,” confides Florence...
Kieron Tyler
Sunday, 12 January 2025
Yeti Lane’s second album The Echo Show was released in March 2012. The Paris-based duo’s LP was stunning: holding together...
Graham Rickson
Saturday, 11 January 2025
Paavo Järvi: The Complete Erato Recordings (Erato)Big box sets celebrating great conductors are piling up thick and...
Guy Oddy
Saturday, 11 January 2025
Phoebe Lunny and Lilly Macieira are furious. Livid with the rapist cops, sleazy men, gentrifying landlords, nepo babies and...
Adam Sweeting
Friday, 10 January 2025
As Bono once commented about Luciano Pavarotti, “the opera follows him off stage”. Legendary soprano Maria Callas would have...
Gary Naylor
Friday, 10 January 2025
This Celine Dion jukebox musical has been a big hit in New York, but crossing The Atlantic can be perilous for any...
Tom Carr
Friday, 10 January 2025
Travel back in time to the mid 2000s and you would be hard pressed to escape "Take Me Out" by Franz Ferdinand on the air...
Helen Hawkins
Thursday, 09 January 2025
Babygirl starts with the sound of sex, piped in over the credits. There's a lot of it on our screens at the moment, from...
Markie Robson-Scott
Thursday, 09 January 2025
Iris (Laure Calamy) and her husband Stéphane (Vincent Elbaz) haven’t had sex for four years. Waiting at school for the...
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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.
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tv
What's the Matter with Tony Slattery?, BBC Two review - absorbing but troubling search for answers
RIP TONY SLATTERY How mental illness cut short a brilliant showbusiness career
American Primeval, Netflix review - nightmare on the Wild Frontier
Peter Berg's Western drama is grim but gripping
Lockerbie: A Search for Truth, Sky Atlantic review - Colin Firth stars in gruelling dramatisation of the 1988 terror attack
Will we ever hear the full story of what happened to Pan Am Flight 103?
film
The Second Act review - absurdist meta comedy about stardom
French A-listers puncture their profession in a hall of mirrors
Maria review - Pablo Larraín's haunting portrait of an opera legend
Angelina Jolie puts body and soul into her portrayal of Maria Callas
Babygirl review - would-be steamy drama that only flirts with transgression
Nicole Kidman gets hot and bothered about a sexy intern’s power plays
new music
Album: Moonchild Sanelly - Full Moon
The rising South African sex'n'beats whirlwind is on ripe dancefloor-friendly form
Music Reissues Weekly: Celebrate Yourself! The Sonic Cathedral Story 2004-2024
With the help of a sympathetic label, shoegazing once again confirms its resonance
classical
Leif Ove Andsnes, Wigmore Hall review - colour and courage, from Hardanger to Majorca
Bold and bracing pianism in favourite Chopin and a buried Norwegian treasure
Chamayou, BBC Philharmonic, Wigglesworth, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review - Boulez with bonbons
Assurance and sympathy from Mark Wigglesworth for differing French idioms
Classical CDs: Antiphons, ale dances and elves
Big box sets, neglected symphonies and Norwegian songs
opera
La rondine, LSO, Pappano, Barbican review - sumptuous orchestral playing in an underrated score
Puccini's 100th anniversary celebrated in style
theatre
Oliver!, Gielgud Theatre review - Lionel Bart's 1960 masterpiece is Bourne again
An intimate staging and superb casting make this a superior West End production
The Maids, Jermyn Street Theatre review - new broom sweeps clean in fierce revival
Class, in its 21st century manifestation, colours much performed play
Titanique, Criterion Theatre review - musical parody sinks despite super singing
Affectionate piss-take set for cult status at best
dance
Nutcracker, English National Ballet, Coliseum review - Tchaikovsky and his sweet tooth rule supreme
New production's music, sweets, and hordes of exuberant children make this a hot ticket
comedy
Gala Preview Show, De Montfort Hall review - Leicester Comedy Festival nicely teed up
Europe's biggest comedy festival opens next month
Books
Best of 2024: Books
As 2024 comes to an end, we look back at the books that have thrilled and enthralled us
William J. Mann: Bogie & Bacall review - beyond the screen
Why we're still in love with Bogart and Bacall, and their legendary Hollywood romance
visual arts
Electric Dreams: Art and Technology Before the Internet, Tate Modern review - an exhaustive and exhausting show
Flashing lights, beeps and buzzes are diverting, but quickly pall
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