America
Lend Me a Tenor - The Musical, Gielgud TheatreWednesday, 15 June 2011
Acid prophecies of this show’s swift demise, as with that of the great Italian tenor whose supposed transformation from il stupendo to il stifferino results in the debut of a surpise new Otello at the "Cleveland Grand Opera", turn out to be greatly... Read more... |
Eliane Radigue/New London Chamber Choir, London Sinfonietta, James Weeks, Spitalfields MusicWednesday, 15 June 2011
What strange goings-on at this year's Spitalfields Music festival. One church is set ablaze by a female laptop trio; another is swamped by 17th-century collectivists; one man opens up a black hole with the back of his guitar; and a harpist becomes a... Read more... |
CD: Bon Iver - Bon IverMonday, 13 June 2011
Well, he’s certainly moved on from his log cabin. It’s three years since Justin Vernon’s group, Bon Iver, released For Emma, Forever Ago, the quietly powerful indie-folk album recorded during a bitter winter in his father’s remote Vermont cabin –... Read more... |
theartsdesk Q&A: Musician Seasick SteveSaturday, 11 June 2011
Seasick Steve Wold (b 1941) has achieved widespread popularity over the last five years with his raw, rootsy, blues-flavoured sounds. He's also renowned for his customised guitars, such as one featured on his new album, You Can't Teach an Old... Read more... |
tUnE-yArDs, ScalaThursday, 09 June 2011
Sometimes you hear something new and your perspective on music shifts seismically, making everything you were listening to previously sound safe and predictable by comparison. Inevitably, as one gets older and more musically knowledgeable, such... Read more... |
American Trade, Hampstead TheatreWednesday, 08 June 2011
Some theatre genres seem indestructible. One of these is the satirical city comedy, for which playwrights dip their pens in poison and spray their venom over the teeming mass of the shallow, the stupid and the successful. When they do this today,... Read more... |
DVD: True GritMonday, 06 June 2011
As shoes to fill go, John Wayne’s dusty cowboy boots are about as big as it gets. So when the Coen brothers decided to take their shot at True Grit – the Charles Portis novel that finally won Wayne his Oscar – the world sat back with folded arms to... Read more... |
Jerry Seinfeld, O2 ArenaSaturday, 04 June 2011
Jerry Seinfeld, acclaimed New York stand-up and star of the eponymous American sitcom co-created with Larry David, last performed in the UK 13 years ago. He’s currently doing a brief European tour and, while keen fans were quick to snap up tickets... Read more... |
DVD: 127 HoursTuesday, 24 May 2011
A young outdoorsman is shimmying through a canyon in Utah when a boulder falls and pins him by his arm. He is trapped for 127 hours before he severs the arm with a blunt knife and makes his way out. It’s a compelling scenario, but there are two... Read more... |
Sarah Palin's Alaska, Discovery Real Time/ Louis Theroux: Miami Mega Jail, BBC TwoSunday, 22 May 2011
Someone had moved in next door to the Palins. There was a camera shot of him, his face pixellated out. Apparently he was writing an exposé of the lady of the house. “I think it’s an invasion of our privacy and I don’t like it,” chirrupped Sarah... Read more... |
CD: Jim White - Sounds of the AmericansFriday, 20 May 2011
When I saw Jim White perform at the Jazz Café a couple of weeks ago, he rather undersold his new album. But take no notice of the wilfully perverse Southern American singer-songwriter. Even if White appears to view this collection of songs for an... Read more... |
The Monkees, Royal Albert HallFriday, 20 May 2011
The Monkees’ Head was their celluloid suicide note. They chanted that they were a manufactured band with no philosophy. The film caught an authentic psychedelic vision which came to life again last night. Post-interval, the show continued with a... Read more... |
