awards
Matilda the Musical, Cambridge TheatreFriday, 25 November 2011WC Fields once famously cautioned against working with children or animals. He might very well have gone crazy had he been involved with the RSC’s hit musical production Matilda, which started out in Stratford-upon-Avon last November, garnering... Read more... |
theartsdesk Q&A: Singer Gregory PorterSaturday, 19 November 2011Born in Los Angeles, raised by his mother in Bakersfield, and now living in the Bedford-Stuyvesant area of Brooklyn, Gregory Porter's resonant baritone is one of music's wonders. Porter's Grammy-nominated debut album, Water, has earned him praise... Read more... |
Hall family and Wales shine in nationwide stage awardsMonday, 31 October 2011Port Talbot’s staging of The Passion with Michael Sheen won the highest accolade at the Theatre Management Association Awards yesterday, which honour the best of work touring Britain beyond London during the 2010-11 season.The adventurous Welsh... Read more... |
West Side Story 50 Years On: The MovieThursday, 15 September 2011When West Side Story won 10 Academy Awards, that was back in a Hollywood era during which movie musicals regularly garnered such acclaim. Gigi, My Fair Lady, The Sound of Music and Oliver! all bookended the 1961 film adaptation of the landmark... Read more... |
CD: Laura Marling - A Creature I Don't KnowSunday, 04 September 2011The music-buying public must sometimes get tired of critics declaiming that modern songwriting is as good as ever. As good as The Stones, or Al Green, or Joni Mitchell? Really? Laura Marling’s first two albums do a lot to shore up the critics’ case... Read more... |
Edinburgh Comedy Awards winnersSaturday, 27 August 2011The winners of the 2011 Foster's Edinburgh Comedy Awards have been announced. The main award, worth £10,000, went to Adam Riches for his anarchic and intensely physical show Bring Me the Head of Adam Riches; the best newcomer award, worth £5,000,... Read more... |
Edinburgh Fringe: Chris Ramsey/ Thom TuckThursday, 25 August 2011Chris Ramsey, Pleasance Courtyard ****It's easy to see why the Edinburgh Comedy Awards panel shortlisted South Shields comic Chris Ramsey. He's personable, very funny, has a well-constructed show - and is destined for a big television career... Read more... |
Ghost the Musical, Piccadilly TheatreTuesday, 19 July 2011Death means learning to say "I love you" in the woozy world of Ghost, the 1990 film that has become a breathlessly vapid musical sure to keep hen parties happy for some while to come (especially now that Dirty Dancing has closed and Flashdance... Read more... |
2011 Barclaycard Mercury Music Prize nominations announcedTuesday, 19 July 2011The nominations for the 2011 Barclaycard Mercury Music Prize were announced earlier today. Beyond PJ Harvey and Elbow having won before, nothing wildly surprising cropped up.Here they are: Adele: 21Anna Calvi: Anna CalviJames Blake: James BlakeElbow... Read more... |
Just One More Thing: Peter Falk, 1927-2011Tuesday, 28 June 2011A few years ago I chanced upon something truly surreal. I was driving along a track in New Zealand. The way you do. There was a field on the left. In it there was a man sitting on a portable chair, a sketchpad in his lap, a pencil in his hand.... Read more... |
DVD: The FighterMonday, 20 June 2011It’s an accepted flouting of reality that in films “based on a true story”, the first betrayal of the truth is in the casting. The reveal over the closing credits of The Fighter tells you just how well its two main characters have done out of... Read more... |
BBC Cardiff Singer of the World, St David's HallMonday, 20 June 2011The Cardiff Singer of the World may or may not be (as several of this year’s competitors seemed to think) the most important voice competition in the universe, but it must surely be the nicest. The Welsh really do believe, perhaps rightly, that they... Read more... |