Reviews
MobLand, Paramount+ review - more guns, goons and gangsters from Guy Ritchie
Friday, 04 April 2025
A year ago Guy Ritchie brought us the Netflix series The Gentlemen, and now here he is on Paramount+ with his latest romp through the verdant pastures of criminal low-lifery. It seems that top thespians are queueing up to bag a slice of Ritchie-world, and an impressive cast includes Pierce Brosnan, Tom Hardy and Helen Mirren.
Ed Atkins, Tate Britain review - hiding behind computer generated doppelgängers
Friday, 04 April 2025
The best way to experience Ed Atkins’ exhibition at Tate Britain is to start at the end by watching Nurses Come and Go, But None For Me, a film he has just completed. It lasts nearly two hours but is worth the investment since it reveals what the rest of the work tries hard to avoid openly confronting – grief.
The Importance of Being Oscar, Jermyn Street...
Thursday, 03 April 2025
It’s a greater accolade than a Nobel Prize for Literature – one’s very own adjective. There’s a select few: Shakespearean; Dickensian and Pinteresque...
Stiletto, Charing Cross Theatre review - new...
Wednesday, 02 April 2025
That friend you have who hates musicals – probably male, probably straight, probably not seen one since The Sound of Music on BBC 1 after the Queen’s...
Misericordia review - mushroom-gathering and...
Wednesday, 02 April 2025
“Be careful what you wish for, you might get it.” The Aesop-ian maxim roughly applies to Jérémie Pastor (Félix Kysyl) in Alain Guiraudie's...
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Owen Wingrave, RNCM, Manchester review - battle of a pacifist
Orpha Phelan brings on the big guns for Britten’s charge against war |
Apex Predator, Hampstead Theatre review - poor writing turns horror into silliness
New play about motherhood and vampirism is disappointingly incoherent |
Balanchine: Three Signature Works, Royal Ballet review - exuberant, joyful, exhilarating
A triumphant triple bill |
Howard Amos: Russia Starts Here review - East meets West, via the Pskov region
A journalist looks beyond borders in this searching account of the Russian mind |
A Working Man - Jason Statham deconstructs villains again
A meandering vehicle for the action thriller star |
Connolly, BBC Philharmonic, Paterson, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review - a journey through French splendours
Magic in lesser-known works of Duruflé and Chausson |
This City is Ours, BBC One review - civil war rocks family cocaine racket
Terrific cast powers Stephen Butchard's Liverpool drug-ring saga |
Album: Erlend Apneseth - Song Over Støv
Norwegian musical impressionist’s journey into the centre of a vortex |
Music Reissues Weekly: Yeah Man, It's Bloody Heavy
The ne plus ultra of British heavy rock |
Biss, National Symphony Orchestra, Kuokman, NCH Dublin review - full house goes wild for vivid epics
Passionate and precise playing of Brahms and Berlioz under a dancing master |
Alfred Hitchcock Presents: The Musical, Theatre Royal Bath review - not a screaming success
1950s America feels a lot like 2020s America in this portmanteau show |
Verdi Requiem, Philharmonia, Muti, RFH review - new sparks from an old flame
Discoveries on a veteran maestro's epic journey |
Wilko: Love and Death and Rock'n'Roll, Southwark Playhouse review - charismatic reincarnation of a rock legend
Johnson Willis captures the anarchic energy and wit of the late guitarist |
The End review - surreality in the salt mine
Unsettling musical shows the lengths we go to avoid the truth |
Playhouse Creatures, Orange Tree Theatre review - jokes, shiny costumes and quarrels, but little drama
April De Angelis’s 1993 play is a delightful if sketchy account of Restoration female actors |
La finta giardiniera, The Mozartists, Cadogan Hall review - blooms in the wild garden
Mozart's rambling early opera can still smell sweet |
La Cocina review - New York restaurant drama lingers too long
Struggles of undocumented immigrants slaving in a Times Square kitchen |
Batsashvili, Hallé, Wong, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review - a star in the piano universe
The Georgian pianist brings precision and freedom to Liszt’s warhorses |
Der fliegende Holländer, Irish National Opera review - sailing to nowhere
Plenty of strong singing and playing, but the staging is static or inept |
The Potato Lab, Netflix review - a K-drama with heart and wit
Love among Korean potato-researchers is surprisingly funny and ideal for Janeites |
Lauren Mayberry, Barrowland, Glasgow review - solo star stays too close to the day job
The Chvrches singer mixed some great tunes with an overly heavy sound. |
Album: Toria Wooff - Toria Wooff
Assured but too measured debut album from Americana-inclined singer-songwriter |
Music Reissues Weekly: Too Far Out - Beat, Mod & R&B From 304 Holloway Road 1963-1966
Maverick producer Joe Meek’s maximum-impact approach to the beat-group scene |
Naumov, SCO, Egarr, Queen's Hall, Edinburgh review - orchestral magic rescues some punishing music
Hard-driven Beethoven, monotonous Eötvös, some light from Kernis |
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It all started on 09/09/09. That memorable date, September 9 2009, marked the debut of theartsdesk.com.
It followed some...
MobLand, Paramount+ review - more guns, goons and gangsters...
A year ago Guy Ritchie brought us the Netflix series The Gentlemen, and now here he is on Paramount+ with his latest romp through the...
Ed Atkins, Tate Britain review - hiding behind computer gene...
The best way to experience Ed Atkins’ exhibition at...
Album: Miki Berenyi Trio - Tripla
I saw the Miki Berenyi Trio play a warmly received sold out set at the Lexington last autumn, at which many of the songs now coming out on ...
The Importance of Being Oscar, Jermyn Street Theatre review...
It’s a greater accolade than a Nobel Prize for Literature – one’s very own adjective. There’s a select few: Shakespearean;...
Album: Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs - Death Hilarious
Pigsx7 have hardly got a reputation for penning tender and soulful ballads, but Death Hilarious is a particularly aggressive and...
Stiletto, Charing Cross Theatre review - new musical excess
That friend you have who hates musicals – probably male, probably straight, probably not seen one since The Sound of...
Misericordia review - mushroom-gathering and murder in rural...
“Be careful what you wish for, you might get it.” The Aesop-ian maxim roughly applies to Jérémie Pastor (Félix Kysyl) in Alain Guiraudie's...
Owen Wingrave, RNCM, Manchester review - battle of a pacifis...
It’s quite ironic that the Royal Northern College of Music should have invited, as director of this,...
Apex Predator, Hampstead Theatre review - poor writing turns...
Motherhood is a high stress job. Ask any woman and they will tell you the same: sleepless nights, feeding problems and worry. Lots of worry. Lots...