1930s
Blu-ray: Thieves Like UsTuesday, 22 August 2023
Thieves Like Us, Robert Altman’s 1974 evocation of 1930s Mississippi, wasn’t a commercial hit on its original release, even though Pauline Kael called it a masterpiece.This Depression-era tale of a trio of hapless bank-robbers was shot on... Read more... |
Osborne, BBC Philharmonic, Glassberg, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review - energy and virtuosityMonday, 19 June 2023
The BBC Philharmonic ended its 2022-23 season in Manchester with a programme that might have been chosen as a showpiece for virtuosity.There was orchestral virtuosity in the form of Rachmaninov’s Symphonic Dances, pianistic virtuosity in the shape... Read more... |
42nd Street, Sadler's Wells review - musical extravaganza will knock your socks offThursday, 15 June 2023
There are better musicals in town, but can you find me a more spectacular show in a more comfortable theatre? I doubt it. Not that Jonathan Church's new production at Sadler's Wells is flawless. It's a 90-year-old blockbuster so, for all its... Read more... |
Yours Unfaithfully, Jermyn Street Theatre review - resonant debate about open marriage from 1933Thursday, 08 June 2023
Miles Malleson, known as an inter-war character actor who popped up in numerous small roles on stage and screen, was also a surprisingly prolific writer and adaptor. Mint Theatre Company of New York love truffling out work like his Yours... Read more... |
Prohaska, Hallé, Bloxham, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review - a sure hand at the helmFriday, 05 May 2023
Getting on for 27 years ago, Thomas Adès’ These Premises Are Alarmed was one of the pieces commissioned by the Hallé for a premiere in the opening series of concerts at the new Bridgewater Hall, conducted by Kent Nagano.Now that Adès, then their... Read more... |
A different angle on the Anne Frank story in 'A Small Light'Wednesday, 03 May 2023
The Diary of Anne Frank became a Broadway play and has formed the basis of a lengthy catalogue of films and TV series, but the name of Miep Gies is rather less well-known. Yet without Gies the Anne Frank story might never have reached the wider... Read more... |
Lapwood, Hallé, Niemeyer, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review - light and fiery Poulenc concertoFriday, 28 April 2023
“Let the organ thunder!” is the sentiment a lot of us will associate with an orchestral concert featuring the king of instruments. The Hallé’s programme with Anna Lapwood as soloist (repeating, from her BBC Proms debut with them in 2021, the Saint-... Read more... |
Dancing at Lughnasa, National Theatre review - largely ravishing Brian Friel revivalMonday, 24 April 2023
It's saying a lot when a production lives up to its gasp-inducing set. That's the happy case with Josie Rourke's loving revival of Dancing at Lughnasa, which returns Brian Friel's modern-day classic to the building, the National, where this Olivier... Read more... |
Private Lives, Donmar Warehouse review - Coward revival cuts to the quickFriday, 21 April 2023
It's not often with Private Lives that you feel Amanda and Elyot are one step away from a visit to A&E. But such is the startling force of Michael Longhurst's Donmar Warehouse revival of arguably Noël Coward's most durable play that... Read more... |
Things to Come, LSO, Strobel, Barbican review - blissful visions of the futureMonday, 27 March 2023
Last night at the Barbican was my first experience of a film with live orchestra, which has become a big thing in the last few years. The film in question was Alexander Korda’s extraordinary HG Wells adaptation Things to Come, from 1936, imagining a... Read more... |
Hewitt, BBC Philharmonic, Davis, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review - the classical styleMonday, 13 February 2023
Two intriguing themes and two great guest artists were offered by the BBC Philharmonic to their Saturday night audience in the Bridgewater Hall: the themes were what “classicism” really is, and the variety of music inspired by (or written for) dance... Read more... |
DVD: Babylon Berlin, Season FourTuesday, 07 February 2023
It’s coming up for two years since some of us watched the first three seasons of what’s increasingly coming to seem like television’s greatest dramatic triumph. Babylon Berlin. So we might be excused for being in a bit of brainwhirl when it comes to... Read more... |
