Reviews
The Real Ones, Bush Theatre review - engrossing, enjoyable and quietly inspiring
Friday, 13 September 2024
Platonic love should be simple — basically you’re best mates. And without the complications of sex, what could go wrong? Waleed Akhtar, whose big hit The P Word was also performed here at the Bush, takes this idea and complicates it — by making it about a gay boy and a straight girl.
Prom 71, Seong-Jin Cho review - refined Romantic journeys
Friday, 13 September 2024
Out of emergencies may come revelations. Sir András Schiff has broken his leg, and we wish him a super-speedy recovery. At the Proms, his promised Art of Fugue will have to wait. Korean pianist Seong-Jin Cho, a past winner of the Chopin Prize, stepped in yesterday with a late-night recital programme that at first glance could hardly have looked more alien to the austere grandeur of Bach’s contrapuntal epic.
Frang, LSO, Pappano, Barbican review - a concerto...
Friday, 13 September 2024
Hauntings, memories, echoes: Antonio Pappano has started his official tenure as chief conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra by looking back in...
The Perfect Couple, Netflix review - an...
Friday, 13 September 2024
Based on the novel by Elin Hilderbrand, The Perfect Couple is an expensively-dressed fable about a lavish wedding in Nantucket, the desirable island...
Lee review - shaky biopic of an iconic...
Friday, 13 September 2024
Anyone who has seen Lee Miller’s photographs – those taken of her in the 1920s when she was a dazzling American beauty, those she took as a...
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Our Country's Good, Lyric Hammersmith review - lively but patchy revival
Timberlake Wertenbaker's updated version takes particular aim at colonialism |
Why Am I So Single?, Garrick Theatre review - superb songs in Zeitgeist surfing show
Marlow and Moss are back with deeply personal exploration of how lives are lived today |
Reawakening review - a prodigal daughter returns, or does she?
Virginia Gilbert's gripping drama stars Jared Harris and Juliet Stevenson |
LSO, Pappano, Barbican review - singular adventures for a new era
A quick-change MacMillan premiere finds correspondences in singular Sibelius |
Prom 68, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Garsington Opera review - eerie beauty sometimes faintly glittering
Strong cast and top orchestra project as best they can in a fine company's first Proms visit |
The Mad Hatter's Tea Party, ZooNation, Linbury Theatre review - a joyous celebration of differentness
Kate Prince's hip hop take on Lewis Carroll is energetic, charming and moving by turns |
La traviata, Royal Opera review - a charismatic soprano in a serviceable revival
Richard Eyre's classic production looks great but lacks fizz |
Red Rooms review - the darkest of webs
Writer-director Pascal Plante has a cult hit on his hands with this skilful cyber-thriller |
Sambre: Anatomy of a Crime, BBC Four review - satisfying novelistic retelling of a French true crime saga
Compelling story of a rapist who hid in plain sight for 30 years |
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice review - a lively resurrection
Tim Burton gets the old gang back from the dead |
Starve Acre review - unearthing the unearthly in a fine folk horror film
Matt Smith and Morfydd Clark play a couple hexed by an ancient evil |
Proms 63-65, Choral Day review - from Harris to Handel/Mozart via Alabama, with love
British and American beauties crowned by a cornucopial 'Messiah' |
Album: Juniore - Trois, Deux, Un
Parisian trio showcase an elegant if deliberate retro-futurist garage-pop |
Music Reissues Weekly: Lee 'Scratch' Perry and Friends - People Funny Boy: The Upsetter Singles 1968-1969
Meticulous investigation of the early self-determined years of the eminent sonic architect |
Prom 62, Mahler's Sixth Symphony, Bavarian RSO, Rattle review - sound over momentum
Near-perfect playing, but something missing in the overall drama |
Ballet Nights #006, Cadogan Hall review - a mixed bag of excellence
Gala enterprise, 12 months on, will be a stayer if it keeps up this level of excitement |
Kaos, Netflix review - playing fast and profuse with the Greek myths
A rainbow of acting talent, but too many ideas thrown into the labyrinth |
The Allergies, Hare & Hounds, Birmingham review - funky hip-hoppers fire up the weekend
Breaks, funky basslines, horns and plenty of dancing |
The Silver Cord, Finborough Theatre review - Sophie Ward is compellingly repellent
Beautifully staged and acted revival of Sidney Howard’s century-old black comedy |
Prom 61, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Rattle review - Bruckner without tears
A lithe, smooth journey around a craggy masterpiece |
Gossip, SWG3, Glasgow review - powerhouse voice provokes only an intermittent party
Beth Ditto was on superb form, but her band's sound struggled to find a groove |
Firebrand review - surviving Henry VIII
Another of his marriages goes down the privy |
Art, Theatre Royal Bath review - Yasmina Reza's smash hit back on tour 30 years after Paris premiere
Male friendships buckle as egos clash, with a resonance for today's culture wars |
The Real Thing, Old Vic review - Stoppard classic keeps on giving
James McArdle is immense as Stoppard’s true romantic |
latest in today
The Real Ones, Bush Theatre review - engrossing, enjoyable a...
Platonic love should be simple — basically you’re best mates. And without the complications of sex, what could go wrong? Waleed Akhtar, whose big...
Prom 71, Seong-Jin Cho review - refined Romantic journeys
Out of emergencies may come revelations. Sir András Schiff has broken his leg, and we wish him a super-speedy recovery. At the Proms, his promised...
Frang, LSO, Pappano, Barbican review - a concerto performanc...
Hauntings, memories, echoes: Antonio Pappano has started his official tenure as chief conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra by looking back...
The Perfect Couple, Netflix review - an inconvenient death r...
Based on the novel by Elin Hilderbrand, The Perfect...
Lee review - shaky biopic of an iconic photographer
Anyone who has seen Lee Miller’s photographs – those taken of her in the 1920s when she was a dazzling American beauty, those she took as a...
Our Country's Good, Lyric Hammersmith review - lively b...
The latest Greatest Hit to land at the Lyric is Timberlake Wertenbaker’s 1988 award-winning play about a performance of Farquhar’s ...
Why Am I So Single?, Garrick Theatre review - superb songs i...
Going to the theatre can be a little like going to church. One communes on the individual level, one’s faith in the stories...
Reawakening review - a prodigal daughter returns, or does sh...
“I’d know her. Bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh. Would I know her? Would I?” John (a brilliant Jared Harris, who’s also an executive producer)...
Album: Floating Points - Cascade
I made a terrible mistake when I first got this LP: I played it on my laptop speakers. That’s not the straight up foolishness you might think,...
LSO, Pappano, Barbican review - singular adventures for a ne...
Somehow those of us required to translate the musical experience into words look for the moments which defeat us. One such was the extraordinary...