Reviews
'We are bowled over!' Thank you for your messages of love and support
Friday, 14 November 2025
We are bowled over!
Ragdoll, Jermyn Street Theatre review – compelling and emotionally truthful
Thursday, 16 October 2025
Oh yes, I actually do remember Patty Hearst. She was the American publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst’s granddaughter, who, at the age of 19, was kidnapped by the ultra-left Symbionese Liberation Army in 1974. Some months after her abduction, a bank’s surveillance video showed her participating in a robbery.
London Film Festival - from paranoia in Brazil...
Wednesday, 15 October 2025
Film festivals are a bran tub: what you find in them may be unexpected, and not always in a good way. Here are six I pulled out in my first week (...
Kempf, Brno Philharmonic, Davies, Bridgewater...
Wednesday, 15 October 2025
Dennis Russell Davies and his musicians from the Czech Republic’s second city began a UK tour last night with an enterprising programme and a large...
Albert Herring, English National Opera review - a...
Tuesday, 14 October 2025
Britten’s Albert Herring is one of the great 20th century comic operas; only Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi and Barry’s The Importance of Being Earnest...
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Iron Ladies review - working-class heroines of the Miners' Strike
Documentary salutes the staunch women who fought Thatcher's pit closures |
Solomon, OAE, Butt, QEH review - daft Biblical whitewashing with great choruses
Even a top soprano and mezzo can’t make this Handel paean wholly convincing |
The Woman in Cabin 10 review - Scandi noir meets Agatha Christie on a superyacht
Reason goes overboard on a seagoing mystery thriller |
Two-Piano Gala, Kings Place review - shining constellations
London Piano Festival curators and illustrious friends entertain and enlighten |
Music Reissues Weekly: Marc and the Mambas - Three Black Nights Of Little Black Bites
When Marc Almond took time out from Soft Cell |
Troilus and Cressida, Globe Theatre review - a 'problem play' with added problems
Raucous and carnivalesque, but also ugly and incomprehensible |
London Film Festival 2025 - crime, punishment, pop stars and shrinks
Daniel Craig investigates, Jodie Foster speaks French and Colin Farrell has a gambling habit |
I Swear review - taking stock of Tourette's
A sharp and moving tale of cuss-words and tics |
Clarkston, Trafalgar Theatre review - two lads on a road to nowhere
Netflix star, Joe Locke, is the selling point of a production that needs one |
Carmen, English National Opera review - not quite dangerous
Hopes for Niamh O’Sullivan only partly fulfilled, though much good singing throughout |
Ghost Stories, Peacock Theatre review - spirited staging but short on scares
Impressive spectacle saves an ageing show in an unsuitable venue |
R:Evolution, English National Ballet, Sadler's Wells review - a vibrant survey of ballet in four acts
ENB set the bar high with this mixed bill, but they meet its challenges thrillingly |
Trio Da Kali, Milton Court review - Mali masters make the ancient new
Three supreme musicians from Bamako in transcendent mood |
Giustino, Linbury Theatre review - a stylish account of a slight opera
Gods, mortals and monsters do battle in Handel's charming drama |
A House of Dynamite review - the final countdown
Kathryn Bigelow's cautionary tale sets the nuclear clock ticking again |
Echo Vocal Ensemble, Latto, Union Chapel review - eclectic choral programme garlanded with dance
Beautiful singing at the heart of an imaginative and stylistically varied concert |
Susanna, Opera North review - hybrid staging of a Handel oratorio
Dance and signing complement outstanding singing in a story of virtue rewarded |
Scott, Irish Baroque Orchestra, Whelan, RIAM, Dublin review - towards a Mozart masterpiece
Characteristic joy and enlightenment from this team, but a valveless horn brings problems |
Music Reissues Weekly: The Earlies - These Were The Earlies
Lancashire and Texas unite to fashion a 2004 landmark of modern psychedelia |
Hamlet, National Theatre review - turning tragedy to comedy is no joke
Hiran Abeyeskera’s childlike prince falls flat in a mixed production |
France, LPO, Gardner, RFH review - the sound of other worlds
From a snowbound contemporary classic to Mahler's folk-tale heaven |
Like Water for Chocolate, Royal Ballet review - splendid dancing and sets, but there's too much plot
Christopher Wheeldon's version looks great but is too muddling to connect with fully |
Lee Miller, Tate Britain review - an extraordinary career that remains an enigma
Fashion photographer, artist or war reporter; will the real Lee Miller please step forward? |
Rohtko, Barbican review - postmodern meditation on fake and authentic art is less than the sum of its parts
Łukasz Twarkowski's production dazzles without illuminating |
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