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...
Adam Sweeting
Friday, 10 October 2025
Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out MysteryThe third of Rian Johnson’s Knives Out mysteries finds Daniel Craig reprising his role of the sly and knowing sleuth Benoit Blanc (now...
James Saynor
Friday, 10 October 2025
People sometimes go to the movies for the violence and maybe even for the sex, but until recently they didn’t particularly buy a ticket for the bad language. But British cinema...
Gary Naylor
Friday, 10 October 2025
If you’re a Gen Zer, you’ve probably heard of Heartstopper’s Joe Locke. I’m pretty sure ATG’s Gen Xers in the back office had also heard of him, as tickets are priced up to and...
Mark Kidel
Friday, 10 October 2025
Boz Scaggs rarely does a less than wonderful album. His latest is an exemplary collection of smooth and soulful standard and a few other choice items including a song he wrote for...
David Nice
Thursday, 09 October 2025
“Safe” is a word used far too often in ENO’s bizarre new version of a programme, full of uncredited articles, at least two of which look as if they’re AI generated. Everything...
Gary Naylor
Thursday, 09 October 2025
In the framing device, a professor (Jonathan Guy Lewis) stands at a lectern and asks if anyone has had a supernatural...
Joe Muggs
Thursday, 09 October 2025
The history of experimental musicians from Europe and North America adopting Japanese aesthetics is … patchy. It got...
Jenny Gilbert
Wednesday, 08 October 2025
As the new season opens, confidence is high at ENB, just as it should be given the roaring success of recent programmes...
Mark Kidel
Wednesday, 08 October 2025
Trio Da Kali are griots, and their traditional role in West Africa is to connect: to evoke the glories of the past and to...
Alexandra Coghlan
Wednesday, 08 October 2025
It’s a good year to be Handel-lover. No sooner have summer runs of Rodelinda (Garsington) and Saul (Glyndebourne) finished...
Thomas H Green
Wednesday, 08 October 2025
Hollie Cook was in the final line-up of post-punk groundbreakers The Slits. When singer Ari Up died in 2010 and the group...
Nick Hasted
Tuesday, 07 October 2025
Warren Ellis is Nick Cave’s wild-maned Bad Seeds right-hand man and The Dirty Three’s frenzied violinist. Justin Kurzel’s...
Nick Hasted
Tuesday, 07 October 2025
Armageddon is here again, as Kathryn Bigelow’s first film in eight years examines the minutes before a nuclear missile hits...
Pamela Jahn
Tuesday, 07 October 2025
Idris Elba has only just appeared as the British Prime Minister in the action comedy Heads of State (2025) – now he's...
Bernard Hughes
Tuesday, 07 October 2025
Echo Vocal Ensemble have their genesis in Genesis. Sarah Latto’s group were initially formed by a cohort of the Genesis...
Robert Beale
Monday, 06 October 2025
Turning Handel oratorio into opera can be a rewarding enterprise. Charles Edwards’ presentation of Joshua, over 15 years ago...
David Nice
Monday, 06 October 2025
One miracle of musical performance is that a work you’ve loved for years can be revealed as never before in an outstanding...
Thomas H Green
Monday, 06 October 2025
Pop Will Eat Itself deserve to be more celebrated. The Stourbridge outfit were one of the first 1980s bands to realise the...
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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
Murder Before Evensong, Acorn TV review - death comes to the picturesque village of Champton
The Rev Richard Coles's sleuthing cleric hits the screen
Black Rabbit, Netflix review - grime and punishment in New York City
Jude Law and Jason Bateman tread the thin line between love and hate
The Hack, ITV review - plodding anatomy of twin UK scandals
Jack Thorne's skill can't disguise the bagginess of his double-headed material
film
London Film Festival 2025 - crime, punishment, pop stars and shrinks
Daniel Craig investigates, Jodie Foster speaks French and Colin Farrell has a gambling habit
theartsdesk Q&A: musician Warren Ellis recalls how jungle horror and healing broke him open
The Bad Seed explains the cost of home truths while making documentary Ellis Park
new music
Emily A. Sprague realises a Japanese dream on 'Cloud Time'
A set of live improvisations that drift in and out of real beauty
Trio Da Kali, Milton Court review - Mali masters make the ancient new
Three supreme musicians from Bamako in transcendent mood
classical
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
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
France, LPO, Gardner, RFH review - the sound of other worlds
From a snowbound contemporary classic to Mahler's folk-tale heaven
opera
Carmen, English National Opera review - not quite dangerous
Hopes for Niamh O’Sullivan only partly fulfilled, though much good singing throughout
Giustino, Linbury Theatre review - a stylish account of a slight opera
Gods, mortals and monsters do battle in Handel's charming drama
Susanna, Opera North review - hybrid staging of a Handel oratorio
Dance and signing complement outstanding singing in a story of virtue rewarded
theatre
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
Ghost Stories, Peacock Theatre review - spirited staging but short on scares
Impressive spectacle saves an ageing show in an unsuitable venue
Hamlet, National Theatre review - turning tragedy to comedy is no joke
Hiran Abeyeskera’s childlike prince falls flat in a mixed production
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
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
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
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
Nick Helm, Touring review - brash comic shows his vulnerable side
Matters of the heart and heavy metal
Kerry Godliman, G-Live review - she's livid but delivers the laughs
Perimenopause provides rich seam of gags
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
Justin Lewis: Into the Groove review - fun and fact-filled trip through Eighties pop
Month by month journey through a decade gives insights into ordinary people’s lives
Joanna Pocock: Greyhound review - on the road again
A writer retraces her steps to furrow a deeper path through modern America
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
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?
Kerry James Marshall: The Histories, Royal Academy review - a triumphant celebration of blackness
Room after room of glorious paintings
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