sun 19/05/2013

Reviews

Reissue CDs Weekly: Scott Walker

Kieron Tyler

Scott Walker: The Collection 1967-1970Few pop records possess a beauty taking them into the otherworldly, inexplicable realm where it’s impossible to understand the magic which coalesced in their creation. The Four Tops’ “Seven Rooms of Gloom”, Joy Division’s “Atmosphere”, Billy Fury’s “Halfway to Paradise”, ABBA’s “Dancing Queen”, Suicide’s “Dream Baby Dream”, Sigur Rós’ "Hoppípolla”: all channel something other, rapturously embracing the listener.Another such is Scott Walker’s “Boy Child”,...

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Say It With Flowers, Sherman Theatre, Cardiff

Gary Raymond

There is a glaring irony in that a play about an all-consuming obsession with one thing (fame) has no real idea of what it itself is supposed to be. Say It with Flowers, a purported biography of iconic lounge singer Dorothy Squires, teases at the sequins of the musical, the psychological drama, the tragi-comedy, the biopic, gritty realism, expressionism, and soap opera, but eventually falls between the cracks of all these. It makes for a frustrating two hours.The life of Squires was full of...

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CD: Jamie Cullum - Momentum

Peter Quinn

Jamie Cullum's sixth studio album is about as good a pop record as you'll hear all year. Newly signed to Island Records, the singer-songwriter has...

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The Liability

Tom Birchenough

The title says it all. Whatever John Wrathall’s script for The Liability might have promised is resoundingly undelivered in Craig Viveiros’s...

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La donna del lago, Royal Opera

David Benedict

I mean, really, what is the point of Rossini? That’s actually not as stupid as it sounds. No-one has ever mistaken any of his operas for taut music-...

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Rock ‘n’ Roll Britannia, BBC Four

Kieron Tyler

The entertaining tale of the protracted birth of a British rock scene which took America on at its own game

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Bullet Catch, Spiegeltent, Brighton

Thomas H Green

The classic shock trick provides the core for a surprisingly philosophical show

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Propaganda: Power and Persuasion, British Library

Fisun Güner

A thought-provoking exhibition looking at ways in which the state seeks to wield its influence

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The Victorian in the Wall, Royal Court Theatre Upstairs

Sam Marlowe

Will Adamsdale's new musical comedy-drama is touching, quirky and deliciously daft

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The Stoker

Tom Birchenough

Nihilism stared down in Alexei Balabanov's bleak look-back to Russia in the Nineties

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Carmageddon

Stuart Houghton

A car crash of a racing game

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The Great Gatsby

Matt Wolf

Baz Luhrmann's Fitzgerald-spawned epic is busy and brash and big - but great? No, except for Leo

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Albert Herring, Opera North

Graham Rickson

Britten in the round is a comic treat fit for a May Fair

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Knee Deep, Theatre Royal, Brighton

Thomas H Green

Australian acrobatic circus troupe are truly thrilling

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These Shining Lives, Park Theatre

Demetrios Matheou

London's new theatre makes a thrilling debut, albeit with a play a little less shiny

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The Pirates of Penzance, Scottish Opera, Theatre Royal, Glasgow

David Nice

Gilbert and Sullivan need a lighter director's touch in this musically strong new production

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Nina Conti, Soho Theatre

Veronica Lee

The ventriloquist gives a fresh take on an old art form

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Tomorrow's World, ICA

James Williams

Good things happen when one of Air collaborates with New Young Pony Clubber

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Frankie, BBC One

Jasper Rees

New primetime district nurse dispenses a spoonful of sugar

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Public Enemy, Young Vic

David Nice

The horrors of local politics still chime in Richard Jones's queasy production of an Ibsen masterpiece

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The Fall, BBC Two

Adam Sweeting

There's a serial killer on the loose. Do try to curb your enthusiasm

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An Evening for Hospices of Hope, Sadler's Wells Theatre

Ismene Brown

Nine leading men answer the call to ballerina Alina Cojocaru's gala

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Beware of Mr Baker

Graham Fuller

Documentary paints the legendary Cream drummer Ginger Baker as an irresponsible genius

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Daniel Kitson, Theatre Royal, Brighton

Thomas H Green

Comedian who eschews the usual routes to fame proves to be both incisive and decidedly different

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The Jim Jones Revue, The Sebright Arms

Garth Cartwright

Old school rockers mix Little Richard and The Cramps to pack a ferocious punch

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Eddie Izzard, Wembley Arena

Kate Bassett

A witty and surreal deconstruction of history from the scatty stand-up

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The Suspicions of Mr Whicher: The Murder in Angel Lane, ITV

Lisa-Marie Ferla

Could ITV be setting up a series with its returning 19th-century detective?

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British Academy Television Awards 2013, BBC One

Adam Sweeting

Annual gathering of the tellyocracy fails to set pulses racing

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Eska/Spiro, The Foundling Museum

Tim Cumming

Minimalism and systems music meets 18th-century folk and dance tunes

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