reviews

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theartsdesk |

We are bowled over! 

Mélanie Pain’s solo album ‘How and Why’ stands apart from her involvement in Nouvelle Vague

Kieron Tyler |

Strings swirl. A flute drifts like a bird floating on warm air.

Tim Key, Wilton's Music Hall review - the woes of hitting middle age

Veronica Lee
Tim Key, besuited and wearing a baseball cap, stands on stage as the audience files in, smiling sweetly as people take their seats. He’s on stage but…

Music Reissues Weekly: Leisure Process - The Complete Epic Recordings

Kieron Tyler
Leisure Process issued four singles between March 1982 and May 1983. Signed to Epic Records, the electropop-inclined duo was primed for success.…

Porn Play, Royal Court review – poor script saved by star casting

aleks.sierz
Did you know that women watch porn? That they wank? Shock. Horror. Dismay. If you really are surprised by this non-revelation then maybe you need to…

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Nuremberg review - history's worst criminals go on trial

Justine Elias
How a US Army psychiatrist came face to face with evil

After Sunday, Bush Theatre review - powerfully authentic, but not fully satisfying

aleks.sierz
Cooking therapy in a secure hospital makes for an uncertain mix of comedy and cruelty

La Nuova Musica, Bates, St Martin-in-the-Fields review - period of passion

Boyd Tonkin
Drama and drive in Mozart's great unfinished mass

Joy Gregory: Catching Flies with Honey, Whitechapel Gallery review - a quiet resistance

Sarah Kent
Photography used to question who and what is worth recording

Coven, Kiln Theatre review - more toil needed to rescue trouble with the book

Gary Naylor
Feminism to the fore as drama disappoints

The Hunger Games, Troubadour Canary Wharf Theatre review - are the odds in its favour?

Demetrios Matheou
Lavish adaptation of Suzanne Collins’ dystopian adventure

Dead Man Walking, English National Opera review - simply stunning

David Nice
Heggie’s Death Row opera has a superb cast led by Christine Rice and Michael Mayes

Anna Ancher: Painting Light, Dulwich Picture Gallery review - intimate gems

Sarah Kent
Light as a physical presence

Carice Singers, Parris, St Giles, Cripplegate review - 90th birthday concert also celebrates younger composer

Bernard Hughes
Music by Evelin Seppar highlights interesting intersection with Arvo Pärt’s holy minimalism

The Rolling Stones' 'Black & Blue' turns 50 with a new reissue

Tim Cumming
One of their best-sounding classic LPs comes with live sets, rare film and dodgy studio jams

theartsdesk at Britten Weekend 2025, Snape and Aldeburgh review - White Rose, red poppy

David Nice
Superbly sequenced memorials balancing anger and reflection

Moore, BBC Philharmonic, Schwarz, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review - rich rewards in heavyweight works

Robert Beale
A look back to the Covid experience in Dani Howard’s approachable and attractive Trombone Concerto

Christy review - Sydney Sweeney's ring of fire

Justine Elias
The traumatic private life of America's top woman boxer

Fatherland, Hampstead Theatre review - psychologically convincing, but lacking fullness

aleks.sierz
Debut piece of new writing is a meditation on responsibility and emotional heritage

Cooper, Hallé, Elder, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review - a taste of the slightly unexpected

Robert Beale
A trusted guide and an imaginative soloist charm the crowd

Anemone review - searching for Daniel Day-Lewis

James Saynor
The actor resurfaces in a moody, assured film about a man lost in a wood

theartsdesk on Vinyl 93: Led Zeppelin, Blawan, Sylvester, Zaho de Sagazan, Sabres of Paradise, Hot Chip and more

Thomas H. Green
The most extensive, wide-ranging record reviews in the galaxy

Suzanne Vega and Katherine Priddy, Royal Albert Hall review - superlative songwriters

Tim Cumming
Two brilliant voices fill the Royal Albert Hall

Train Dreams review - one man's odyssey into the American Century

Helen Hawkins
Clint Bentley creates a mini history of cultural change through the life of a logger in Idaho

Relay review - the method man

Nick Hasted
Riz Ahmed and Lily James soulfully connect in a sly, lean corporate whistleblowing thriller

Palestine 36 review - memories of a nation

Nick Hasted
Director Annemarie Jacir draws timely lessons from a forgotten Arab revolt

The Makropulos Case, Royal Opera - pointless feminist complications

David Nice
Katie Mitchell sucks the strangeness from Janáček’s clash of legalese and eternal life

Othello, Theatre Royal, Haymarket review - a surprising mix of stateliness and ironic humour

Heather Neill
David Harewood and Toby Jones at odds

Benson Boone, O2 London review - sequins, spectacle and cheeky charm

Katie Colombus
Two hours of backwards-somersaults and British accents in a confetti-drenched spectacle

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latest in today

'We are bowled over!' Thank you for your messages of love and support
We are bowled over!  We knew that theartsdesk.com had plenty of supporters out…
Mélanie Pain’s solo album ‘How and Why’ stands apart from her involvement in Nouvelle Vague
Strings swirl. A flute drifts like a bird floating on warm air. The melody is subdued, its tonality evoking The Smiths’ “Please, Please,…
Blu-ray: Object Z
Quite why this dialogue-heavy monochrome science fiction series was first broadcast in a teatime children’s slot is outlined in TV …
Tim Key, Wilton's Music Hall review - the woes of hitting middle age
Tim Key, besuited and wearing a baseball cap, stands on stage as the audience files in, smiling sweetly as people take their seats. He’s on…
Jason Gould's 'Where We Fall': all a bit bland
Barbra Streisand has given her blessing to Where We Fall (Backwards Dog Records), an album of six covers and five original songs. She wrote…
Music Reissues Weekly: Leisure Process - The Complete Epic Recordings
Leisure Process issued four singles between March 1982 and May 1983. Signed to Epic Records, the electropop-inclined duo was primed for…
Porn Play, Royal Court review – poor script saved by star casting
Did you know that women watch porn? That they wank? Shock. Horror. Dismay. If you really are surprised by this non-revelation then maybe…
Nuremberg review - history's worst criminals go on trial
It's hard to criticise a movie that opens with a shot of an Allied G.I. spitting and urinating on a Nazi insignia, but that moment of smug…
After Sunday, Bush Theatre review - powerfully authentic, but not fully satisfying
New writing for the theatre is good at taking us into the darkest of places – and there are few more painful environments than prisons and…
La Nuova Musica, Bates, St Martin-in-the-Fields review - period of passion
Mozart’s unfinished C Minor mass lacks a canonical completion of the sort that Süssmayr so famously – and still contentiously – imposed on…