Reviews
Steve Earle, Royal Festival Hall
Thursday, 23 May 2013
Steve Earle is country music's great polymath - short story writer, playwright, novelist, activist, actor, oh yes, and singer and songwriter of some of the most acutely intelligent and literate songs in contemporary country. He's adept at evoking the human cost of American history, American politics and the lay of the promised land, and on his latest album, The Low Highway, the first song takes a long, slow panning shot of the body politic. It’s not in great condition. Happily, though, Steve...
Rob Newman, Little Angel Theatre
Thursday, 23 May 2013
There's a quite a contrast between the 12,000-seat Wembley Arena in 1993 where, with the help of his erstwhile writing and performing partner David Baddiel, Rob Newman “invented” comedy as rock 'n' roll, and tonight's venue, a bijou children's puppet theatre seating 100 patrons. But then Newman - Robert Newman to those who buy his novels - is doing rather different comedy these days.That Wembley show was a collection of monologues and sketches (most famously History Today) with characters that...
Disgraced, Bush Theatre
Thursday, 23 May 2013
There’s one big problem about being an Asian actor in America — you just don’t get the big parts. So the multitalented Ayad Akhtar put acting on hold...
Something in the Air
Wednesday, 22 May 2013
Cinema sometimes seems to have left the Age of Aquarius behind. The filmmakers who came of age in the Sixties have long since said what they needed...
The Kite Runner, Theatre Royal Brighton
Wednesday, 22 May 2013
The absolute loyalty of a little boy to his under-deserving friend is what swells The Kite Runner’s heart and fuels its tragedy. So you can’t really...
The King of Marvin Gardens
Wednesday, 22 May 2013
Melancholy meets irrational optimism in Bob Rafelson's New Hollywood classic |
Relatively Speaking, Wyndham's Theatre
Tuesday, 21 May 2013
Early Ayckbourn play fizzes anew 46 years on |
Sylvie Guillem, 6000 Miles Away, Sadler's Wells Theatre
Tuesday, 21 May 2013
Guillem weaves her game-changing magic in Forsythe and Ek |
Limbo, Southbank Centre
Tuesday, 21 May 2013
London Wonderground's erotic circus bumps and grinds |
Lubomyr Melnyk, Village Underground
Tuesday, 21 May 2013
The pioneer of continuous music astonishes while Bon Iver’s preferred artist Gregory Euclide paints live, on stage |
Helen Chadwick, Richard Saltoun
Tuesday, 21 May 2013
Her obsession with death and decay was leavened by a wicked sense of humour |
Case Histories, BBC One
Monday, 20 May 2013
The brooding private detective is back |
Falstaff, Glyndebourne Festival Opera
Monday, 20 May 2013
Comedy is king in a Falstaff revival which is consistently enjoyable but could be a little less nice |
The Man Who Shot Beautiful Women, BBC Four
Monday, 20 May 2013
The welcome return of the legacy of photographer Erwin Blumenfeld |
Ariadne auf Naxos, Glyndebourne Festival Opera
Sunday, 19 May 2013
Strauss's opera reluctantly enters the Battle of Britain courtesy of a young German director |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Scott Walker
Sunday, 19 May 2013
Easy listening and continental European intellectualism combine on the early albums from pop’s wilful auteur |
Say It With Flowers, Sherman Theatre, Cardiff
Sunday, 19 May 2013
New play about tragic Welsh diva Dorothy Squires misses the real story |
Mariele Neudecker, Regency Town House, Brighton
Sunday, 19 May 2013
The German artist plays with notions of the Romantic sublime |
CD: Jamie Cullum - Momentum
Sunday, 19 May 2013
Stylistic mash-ups of album number six result in perfect pop |
The Liability
Saturday, 18 May 2013
Brit crime caper hits new lows, despite strong cast |
La donna del lago, Royal Opera
Saturday, 18 May 2013
Joyce DiDonato, Juan Diego Flórez and Michael Spyres triumph over adversity |
Rock ‘n’ Roll Britannia, BBC Four
Saturday, 18 May 2013
The entertaining tale of the protracted birth of a British rock scene which took America on at its own game |
Bullet Catch, Spiegeltent, Brighton
Friday, 17 May 2013
The classic shock trick provides the core for a surprisingly philosophical show |
Propaganda: Power and Persuasion, British Library
Friday, 17 May 2013
A thought-provoking exhibition looking at ways in which the state seeks to wield its influence |
The Victorian in the Wall, Royal Court Theatre Upstairs
Friday, 17 May 2013
Will Adamsdale's new musical comedy-drama is touching, quirky and deliciously daft |
The Stoker
Friday, 17 May 2013
Nihilism stared down in Alexei Balabanov's bleak look-back to Russia in the Nineties |
Carmageddon
Friday, 17 May 2013
A car crash of a racing game |
The Great Gatsby
Thursday, 16 May 2013
Baz Luhrmann's Fitzgerald-spawned epic is busy and brash and big - but great? No, except for Leo |
Albert Herring, Opera North
Thursday, 16 May 2013
Britten in the round is a comic treat fit for a May Fair |
latest in today
Steve Earle, Royal Festival Hall
Passion and politics as country's great polymath tours a powerful new...
Disgraced, Bush Theatre
Pulitzer Prize-winning drama examines cultural identity with insight and in...
The Kite Runner, Theatre Royal Brighton
A story-centric stage adaption of Khaled Hosseini's sentimental best-s...
The King of Marvin Gardens
Melancholy meets irrational optimism in Bob Rafelson's New Hollywood c...
CD: British Electric Foundation - Music of Quality and Disti...
Resurrected after 22 years, does this covers project still work?
Sylvie Guillem, 6000 Miles Away, Sadler's Wells Theatre
Guillem weaves her game-changing magic in Forsythe and Ek
most read
Falstaff, Glyndebourne Festival Opera
Comedy is king in a Falstaff revival which is consistently enjoyable but co...
10 Questions for Artist Michael Landy
On the eve of a new exhibition of his kinetic saints, the artist talks abou...
The King of Marvin Gardens
Melancholy meets irrational optimism in Bob Rafelson's New Hollywood c...
Lubomyr Melnyk, Village Underground
The pioneer of continuous music astonishes while Bon Iver’s preferred artis...
