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Theartsdesk
Sunday, 01 December 2024
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...
Kieron Tyler
Sunday, 24 November 2024
For most of Canada’s listening public, their country-man Stefan Gnyś – pronounced G'neesh – wasn’t a concern. The 300 copies of his 1969 single didn’t make it to shops. There was...
Matt Wolf
Saturday, 23 November 2024
"No one mourns the wicked," we're told during the immediately arresting beginning to Wicked, which concludes two hours 40 minutes later with the words, "to be continued" flashed...
Jenny Gilbert
Saturday, 23 November 2024
London-born Akram Khan has come a long way in a 35-year career. He performed as a young teen in Peter Brook’s production of The Mahabharata, then progressed to dance training...
Sarah Kent
Saturday, 23 November 2024
Pema Tseden's final film Snow Leopard is a Chinese Tibetan-language drama that addresses wild animal preservation. It serves as a kind of allegory for the circumstances that...
Gary Naylor
Saturday, 23 November 2024
Cleveland is probably the American city most like the one in which I grew up. Early into the icy embrace of post-industrialisation, not really on the way to anywhere, but not a...
Graham Rickson
Saturday, 23 November 2024
Brahms: Piano Concertos 1 and 2, Solo piano works Igor Levit (piano), Wiener Philharmoniker/Christian Thielemann (Sony...
Joe Muggs
Saturday, 23 November 2024
The progress of Kim Deal has been one of the great delights of modern music. Much as one wishes Pixies well, they have never...
David Nice
Friday, 22 November 2024
From a privileged position in the Festival Hall stalls, I could see 97-year old Herbert Blomstedt’s near-immobile back as he...
Thomas H Green
Friday, 22 November 2024
London-based singer-songwriter Hannah Scott has warned her next song may reduce us to tears. It is, she says, inspired by...
Aleks Sierz
Friday, 22 November 2024
This Dickens classic is an annual treat, or a Christmas trial – depending on your point of view. At the Old Vic, it was...
Saskia Baron
Friday, 22 November 2024
The plight of persecuted minority groups around the world seems to be growing worse. As one form of response, a non-fiction...
Liz Thomson
Friday, 22 November 2024
Hard to believe it’s coming up to 30 years since “Love and Affection” put Joan Armatrading in the top 10, a track from her...
Rachel Halliburton
Thursday, 21 November 2024
How old were you when you first had an image of the Arctic? When you first had that image, what was it that most resonated?...
Mark Kidel
Thursday, 21 November 2024
FaithNYC is a vehicle for the singer and songwriter Felice Rosser, an original rooted in reggae,soul, punk and the New York...
Rachel Halliburton
Wednesday, 20 November 2024
When the Venezuelan Rafael Payare was appointed as conductor of the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal (OSM) two years ago,...
Jonathan Geddes
Wednesday, 20 November 2024
Props designed like flowers were scattered across the QMU stage for English Teacher's performance. A fitting choice given...
Veronica Lee
Wednesday, 20 November 2024
Kemah Bob is a regular on television and radio panel shows and well established on the comedy circuit, but Miss Fortunate is...
Gary Naylor
Wednesday, 20 November 2024
Not just a backstage musical, a backroom musical!In the 70s, Follies and A Chorus Line took us into the rehearsal room...
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Album: Kim Deal - Nobody Loves You More
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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.
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tv
Paris Has Fallen, Prime Video review - Afghan war veteran wreaks a terrible vengeance
Cynical politicians and amoral arms dealers feel the heat
Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light, BBC One review - handsome finale for Hilary Mantel adaptation
Mark Rylance is on top form as his Thomas Cromwell re-emerges after nine years
The Day of the Jackal, Sky Atlantic review - Frederick Forsyth's assassin gets a modern-day makeover
Eddie Redmayne shoots to kill in lavish 10-part drama
film
Wicked review - overly busy if beautifully sung cliffhanger
Musical theatre behemoth becomes an outsized film - and this is just part one
Snow Leopard review - clunky visual effects mar a director's swansong
Tibetan filmmaker Pema Tseden bows out with a confusing tale of a beautiful predator
Mediha review - a brutalised Yazidi teen comes of age with a camera
A documentary frames the video diary of a Yazidi girl who suffered horrific abuse
new music
Music Reissues Weekly: Stefan Gnyś - Horizoning
Folk-inclined Canadian’s brooding album emerges 55 years after it was recorded
Album: Kim Deal - Nobody Loves You More
Gems in the rough on the Pixie / Breeder's long-awaited solo debut
Hannah Scott, Worthing Pavilion Theatre Atrium review - filling an arctic venue with human warmth
Singer-songwriter brings moving, autobiographical songs to the freezing south coast
classical
Classical CDs: Vitamins, kings and magic spells
A neglected ballet score, romantic piano concertos and contemporary British music
Kavakos, Philharmonia, Blomstedt, RFH review - a supreme valediction forbidding mourning
Nonagenarian conductor provides the flow, his players the passion, in Mahler's Ninth
Perianes, Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, Payare, Barbican review - elegance and drama but not enough bite
Often dynamic Venezuelan conductor misses the darkness of the 'Symphonie fantastique'
opera
The Elixir of Love, English National Opera review - a tale of two halves
Flat first act, livelier second, singers not always helped by conductor and director
The Sound Voice Project, Linbury Theatre review - an art installation that has strayed into an opera house
A worthy project fails to ignite as art
theatre
Wicked review - overly busy if beautifully sung cliffhanger
Musical theatre behemoth becomes an outsized film - and this is just part one
King James, Hampstead Theatre review - UK premiere drains a three-pointer
LeBron James comes and goes, and comes back again to the Cavs
A Christmas Carol, Old Vic review - tidings of discomfort and noise
This venue’s annual festive classic is joyous, but its writing is frankly patronising
dance
Akram Khan, GIGENIS, Sadler’s Wells review - now 50, Khan returns to his roots
The dancer-choreographer goes epic in a show that unites South Asian dance styles
Maddaddam, Royal Ballet review - superb dancing in a confusing frame
Wayne McGregor's version of Margaret Atwood's dystopia needs a clearer map
comedy
Kemah Bob, Soho Theatre review - Thailand, massage and mental health
Texan's full-length debut is a personal story
Natalie Palamides: Weer, Soho Theatre review - a romcom of two halves
Comic plays male and female roles simultaneously
Books
Interview: rising star Chloe Savage on the Arctic, outer space, and igniting children's wonder for the unknown
Beautiful books take you to worlds that are intricately imagined and a feast for the eye
Jon Fosse: Morning and Evening review - after thoughts
Damion Searls thoughtfully translates the wise words of 2023’s Nobel Prize winner
visual arts
ARK: United States V by Laurie Anderson, Aviva Studios, Manchester review - a vessel for the thoughts and imaginings of a lifetime
Despite anticipating disaster, this mesmerising voyage is full of hope
Vanessa Bell, MK Gallery review - diving into and out of abstraction
A variation of styles as the Bloomsbury artist breaks free from Victorian mores
latest comments
She hooked us in at a minor festival on the...
A fabulous review and having followed Hannah for...
Did we see the same show? I was at the opening...
I felt exactly the same, I was sat facing the...
I admire your ability to interpret the lyrics,...
Excellent review, Mark! Makes me feel like I was...
Thanks for your appreciation of the concert and...
Beautifully written Mark... Had to check the...