Reviews
Primal Scream, Brighton DomeFriday, 16 December 2016
Like the sex life of a long-married couple, it’s not every night that a band who’ve been around for over three decades will catch the unfettered frisson of their wildest moments. For the first half of their set, despite frontman Bobby Gillespie... Read more... |
Rogue One: A Star Wars StoryThursday, 15 December 2016
Whether you use its optional subtitle A Star Wars Story or not, Rogue One arrives with a diminutive air. Filling in some infamous but minor dopiness in the original Star Wars – why build the Death Star with such a fatal design flaw? – it’s... Read more... |
Dreamgirls, Savoy TheatreThursday, 15 December 2016
It’s taken almost four nail-biting decades for Dreamgirls to evolve from the germ of an idea to the most anticipated musical never to have quite made it, lock, stock, and smoking barrel across the Atlantic. The germ of an idea – the tale of a... Read more... |
Cinderella, London PalladiumThursday, 15 December 2016
What a joy it is to have pantomime back at the Palladium, the first at this glorious theatre in 29 years. And the producers of Cinderella have pulled out the stops; a star-studded cast, a large ensemble, fabulous costumes and a live orchestra make... Read more... |
Ireland with Ardal O'Hanlon, More4Thursday, 15 December 2016
There has been an abundance of celebrity travelogues of late and with each one comes a new USP. Speaking just of Ireland, train enthusiast Michael Portillo nabbed the Victorian Bradshaw's rail guides, while the adventurous Christine Bleakley... Read more... |
Love, National TheatreWednesday, 14 December 2016
For a play that ends with 15 minutes of breath-stopping, jaw-dropping theatre that is surely as powerful as anything the departing year has brought us, Alexander Zeldin’s Love has a challenging relationship to the concept of drama itself. For the... Read more... |
theartsdesk on Vinyl: Volume 23 - Kate Bush, Elton John, Black Sabbath and moreWednesday, 14 December 2016
The big news as this year closes is that vinyl sales have brought more money in than downloads. They made £2.4 million compared to the £2.1 million from digital, the eighth consecutive year of growth in vinyl sales. Of course, to a large degree,... Read more... |
St Lawrence String Quartet, Wigmore HallWednesday, 14 December 2016
John Adams, let's face it, was the reason many of us came to hear the St. Lawrence String Quartet. Their performances and recordings as dedicatees of his labyrinthine First String Quartet and Absolute Jest, in which the four players function as... Read more... |
The Eagle HuntressWednesday, 14 December 2016
Thirteen-year-old Aishopan desperately wants to be an eagle hunter. The problem is, she’s a girl. And in the traditional Mongolian nomadic community where she lives, rearing a golden eagle chick to hunt foxes for their fur is very much the preserve... Read more... |
Hedda Gabler, National TheatreTuesday, 13 December 2016
Theatre conventions are a funny thing. Today, it’s actually quite difficult to see a modern classic dressed in the clothes and performed on the set of its specific historical period. It has to be in contemporary dress. And in a contemporary setting... Read more... |
Monteverdi Choir, English Baroque Soloists, Gardiner, BarbicanTuesday, 13 December 2016
Add three natural trumpets, flawlessly wielded, to chorus and standard period-instrument orchestra, and the seasonal spirit will flow no matter the context. It's true that Bach's Magnificat is not that common a visitor at this time of year -... Read more... |
Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, NetflixTuesday, 13 December 2016
Dirk Gently’s shtick as a detective is interconnectedness. Everything happens for an incalculable reason, there’s no such thing as chance, and all neural pathways lead randomly to the correct outcome. It's a philosophy paper gussied up as a... Read more... |
