theartsdesk com, first with arts reviews, news and interviews
Tom Birchenough
Friday, 14 November 2025
We are bowled over! We knew that theartsdesk.com had plenty of supporters out there – we’ve always had a loyal readership of arts lovers and professionals alike – but the...
Helen Hawkins
Saturday, 26 July 2025
A new Giselle? Not quite: the production that Japan’s national company has brought over for its first British visit isn’t a radical Akram Khan-style makeover. What it offers is a...
Adam Sweeting
Saturday, 26 July 2025
You wouldn’t really want to belong to the Buckley family, a star-crossed dynasty who run their fishing business out of Havenport, North Carolina. As Bree Buckley (daughter of...
Robert Beale
Saturday, 26 July 2025
The Buxton International Festival this year was lavish in its smaller-scale productions in addition to Ambroise Thomas’s Hamlet, the heavyweight offer of the opera programme. And...
Graham Rickson
Saturday, 26 July 2025
Désiré-Émile Inghelbrecht: The Complete Erato Recordings (Erato)We’re fortunate that Désiré-Émile Inghelbrecht (1880-1965) actually got as far as making a career in music....
Veronica Lee
Saturday, 26 July 2025
There aren’t many comics like Eddie Pepitone any more – the veteran comic’s shtick harks to back an earlier age, pre-suitable for TV and Netflix specials. As the New Yorker says...
Thomas H Green
Saturday, 26 July 2025
Indigo de Souza, a singer from North Carolina, has established some reputation, mostly in the States, for combining indie,...
Demetrios Matheou
Friday, 25 July 2025
Despite the title of Matthias Glasner’s award-winning drama, and the death that swirls around its characters, dying isn’t...
Thomas H Green
Friday, 25 July 2025
There can be few musicians on the planet from a more storied musical dynasty than Mádé Kuti. He is the son of Femi, the...
Pamela Jahn
Thursday, 24 July 2025
Over a decade ago, a handful of Greek filmmakers set out to reinvent the national cinema amid the country's social and...
Thomas H Green
Thursday, 24 July 2025
Today gradually blossoms from unpromising beginnings. LouderUK’s On The Beach event series takes place throughout the summer...
Matt Wolf
Thursday, 24 July 2025
Michael Shannon's long legs reach to the stars – or perhaps one should say the moon – in the Almeida's hypnotic...
Guy Oddy
Thursday, 24 July 2025
Great (and not so great) bands reforming, either in the studio or in the live arena, is something of a trend at the moment....
Matt Wolf
Wednesday, 23 July 2025
"It all starts with a snap," or so we're told early in the decidedly un-snappy Burlesque, which spends three hours borrowing...
Robert Beale
Wednesday, 23 July 2025
At first sight, it seemed that Clonter Opera’s decision to tackle Tosca this year might be a leap too far. Its once-a-year...
Joe Muggs
Wednesday, 23 July 2025
Paul Weller occupies a strange place in the cultural sphere. Especially since he was adopted as an elder statesman of...
David Nice
Tuesday, 22 July 2025
It started like Sunday afternoon band concert on a seaside promenade, a massive ensemble playing it light. But while there...
Pamela Jahn
Tuesday, 22 July 2025
Having played Sherlock Holmes’s politically involved older brother Mycroft in the BBC’s hit crime series Sherlock, Mark...
Adam Sweeting
Tuesday, 22 July 2025
Following the success of its screen version of Michael Connelly’s veteran detective Harry Bosch, starring Titus Welliver,...
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disc of the day
Album: Indigo de Souza - Precipice
US singer's fourth ups the pop ante but doesn't sacrifice lyrical substance
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Subscribe to theartsdesk.com
Thank you for continuing to read our work on theartsdesk.com. For unlimited access to every article in its entirety, including our archive of more than 15,000 pieces, we're asking for £5 per month or £40 per year. We feel it's a very good deal, and hope you do too.
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tv
The Waterfront, Netflix review - fish, drugs and rock'n'roll
Kevin Williamson's Carolinas crime saga makes addictive viewing
theartsdesk Q&A: writer and actor Mark Gatiss on 'Bookish'
The multi-talented performer ponders storytelling, crime and retiring to run a bookshop
Ballard, Prime Video review - there's something rotten in the LAPD
Persuasive dramatisation of Michael Connelly's female detective
film
Dying review - they fuck you up, your mum and dad
Family dysfunction is at the heart of a quietly mesmerising German drama
theartsdesk Q&A: director Athina Rachel Tsangari on her brooding new film 'Harvest'
The Greek filmmaker talks about adapting Jim Crace's novel and putting the mercurial Caleb Landry Jones centre stage
new music
Album: Indigo de Souza - Precipice
US singer's fourth ups the pop ante but doesn't sacrifice lyrical substance
Album: Mádé Kuti - Chapter 1: Where Does Happiness Come From?
Lively new album from the third generation of Nigeria's first musical family
The Human League/Marc Almond/Toyah, Brighton Beach review - affable 1980s-themed seaside package
Retro pop extravaganza bolstered by a (mostly) balmy evening
classical
Classical CDs: Hens, Hamburg and handmaids
An unsung French conductor boxed up, plus Argentinian string quartets and baroque keyboard music
BBC Proms: McCarthy, Bournemouth SO, Wigglesworth review - spring-heeled variety
A Ravel concerto and a Walton symphony with depth but huge entertainment value
BBC Proms: First Night, Batiashvili, BBCSO, Oramo review - glorious Vaughan Williams
Spirited festival opener is crowned with little-heard choral epic
opera
Buxton International Festival 2025 review - a lavish offering of smaller-scale work
Allison Cook stands out in a fascinating integrated double bill of Bernstein and Poulenc
Tosca, Clonter Opera review - beauty and integrity in miniature
Happy surprises and a convincing interpretation of Puccini for today
Hamlet, Buxton International Festival review - how to re-imagine re-imagined Shakespeare
Music comes first in very 19th century, very Romantic, very French operatic creation
theatre
A Moon for the Misbegotten, Almeida Theatre review - Michael Shannon sears the night sky
Rebecca Frecknall shifts American gears to largely satisfying effect
Burlesque, Savoy Theatre review - exhaustingly vapid
Adaptation of 2010 film is busy, bustling - and bad
Don't Rock the Boat, The Mill at Sonning review - all aboard for some old-school comedy mishaps
Great fun, if more 20th century than 21st
dance
'We are bowled over!' Thank you for your messages of love and support
Much-appreciated words of commendation from readers and the cultural community
Giselle, National Ballet of Japan review - return of a classic, refreshed and impeccably danced
First visit by Miyako Yoshida's company leaves you wanting more
Quadrophenia, Sadler's Wells review - missed opportunity to give new stage life to a Who classic
The brilliant cast need a tighter score and a stronger narrative
comedy
'We are bowled over!' Thank you for your messages of love and support
Much-appreciated words of commendation from readers and the cultural community
Books
'We are bowled over!' Thank you for your messages of love and support
Much-appreciated words of commendation from readers and the cultural community
Tom Raworth: Cancer review - truthfulness
A 'lost' book reconfirms Raworth’s legacy as one of the great lyric poets
Ian Leslie: John and Paul - A Love Story in Songs review - help!
Ian Leslie loses himself in amateur psychology, and fatally misreads The Beatles
visual arts
'We are bowled over!' Thank you for your messages of love and support
Much-appreciated words of commendation from readers and the cultural community
Sir Brian Clarke (1953-2025) - a personal tribute
Remembering an artist with a gift for the transcendent
Emily Kam Kngwarray, Tate Modern review - glimpses of another world
Pictures that are an affirmation of belonging
latest comments
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A truly excellent review. It completely expressed...
Why is the opening song "infamous"?
The Beach Boys finally retired from touring as it...