Reviews
Colors performance stream on YouTube review: vocalists on lockdown
Tuesday, 07 April 2020
The Colors studio in Berlin has quietly created one of the biggest new brands in music from filming back to basics performances with laser-focused branding. From international megastars (Billie Eilish, Mac DeMarco) to up and comers, singers and occasionally rappers are filmed alone in a simple cube shaped stage with distinctive colour-cycling lighting.
theartsdesk on Vinyl Lockdown Special 1: Napalm Death, Brazilian jazz-pop, 1980s indie and more
Tuesday, 07 April 2020
For the duration of this C19 Lockdown, rather the the usual sprawling monthly epic, theartsdesk on Vinyl will be presented regularly in bite-sized editions, roving across the pile of releases we have already, since those incoming have been whittled down a trickle. Welcome, then, to a cross edition of plastic ranging from the beautiful to the bizarre. Dive in!Napalm Death Logic Ravaged by Brute Force/White Kross (Century Media)
It’s True, It’s True, It’s True, Breach Theatre...
Monday, 06 April 2020
Artemisia Gentileschi has definitely had a hard time. Although she was an outstanding Renaissance painter in the style of Caravaggio, and the first...
Ozark, Series 3 review, Netflix - money-...
Monday, 06 April 2020
While not the most headline-catching show on Netflix, Ozark has been steadily accruing critical accolades (including a couple of Emmys) and a devoted...
Classical Music/Opera direct to home 5 -...
Monday, 06 April 2020
Necessity has certainly been the mother of invention over the past three weeks, and orchestras especially, left in the dark with no means of...
Rumpelstiltskin, Sadler's Wells Digital Stage review - spins an engaging yarn for young audiences
balletLORENT provides a sunnier take on the the Brothers Grimm |
Rachel Fairburn, Go Faster Stripe review - smart and subtle gags
Feminism and unlikely heroes |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Hangman’s Beautiful Daughters
The ‘Smashed Full Of Wonder’ comp celebrates zeitgeist-sensitive Eighties Brit-combo |
One Man, Two Guvnors, National Theatre at Home review – bliss, utter comic bliss
NT Live version of this masterpiece of farce is now available for free |
The Platform review - timely, violent and effective
New Netflix high-concept horror skewers capitalism |
Lazy Susan, Soho Theatre On Demand review - sketch duo's ingeniously plotted show
Freya Parker and Celeste Dring examine male behaviour |
ReMastered: Tricky Dicky and the Man in Black, Netflix review - dynamic saga of music and politics
Riveting hour-long documentary about Johnny Cash's White House concert in 1970 |
The Turn of the Screw, Opera North, OperaVision review - claustrophobic visions of terror and beauty
Strongly-cast revival keeps the ambiguities of Henry James's ghost story in play |
Mark Kermode's Secrets of Cinema, BBC Four review - the undying allure of the spying game
A voyage through the secret world on celluloid |
Wild, Hampstead Theatre online review - timelier than anticipated
Mike Bartlett's 2016 play chimes with our topsy-turvy times |
Four Kids and It review – a family friendly yarn that needs more magic
Jacqueline Wilson’s contemporary update is a so-so Blytonesque adventure |
Oliver Craske: Indian Sun, The Life and Music of Ravi Shankar review - a master receives masterly treatment
Definitive biography of India's most influential musician |
Bacurau review – way-out western
Sonia Braga and Udo Kier star in a genre mash-up with lashings of spaghetti sauce |
The Trip to Greece, Series Finale, Sky 1 review - bittersweet swansong for the cantankerous comrades
Farce, vanity and profound seriousness somehow hang together |
Czech Philharmonic Benefit Concert online review – profound musicianship in sombre masked fundraiser
Three violinists, two cellists, four pianists and a harpist play superbly to an empty hall |
The Whalebone Box review - documentary through unreliable surrealism
A different kind of road trip with artist Andrew Kötting |
Pen15, Sky Comedy review - the horror of adolescent schooldays revisited
Thirty-somethings Maya Erskine and Anna Konkle revisit their Y2K pubescence |
The Steph Show, Channel 4 review - magazine show debuts from host's front room
Steph McGovern to the rescue |
Elton John’s iHeart Living Room Concert for America, YouTube review - the real star was a Mayo Clinic doctor named Elvis
Sir Elton John: this time we can't stand by |
The Croft, Original Theatre online review – give me the remote
Original Theatre’s tartan gothic thriller is complex but also a bit overwrought |
Christine and the Queens/Instagram review - musical missives during lockdown
French singer-songwriter's petits cadeaux for her fans |
Fitzcarraldo Editions wins Republic of Consciousness Prize
Jean-Baptiste Del Amo’s visceral tour de force scoops prize for outstanding fiction by a small press |
Batwoman, E4 review - can Bruce Wayne's female cousin fill his bat-costume?
Ruby Rose plays Batwoman, Gotham City's newest saviour |
Le nozze di Figaro, Garsington Opera, OperaVision review - natural comedy, musical sublimity
Durable period setting enshrines perfect characterisations. Plus a Handel special |
latest in today
Colors performance stream on YouTube review: vocalists on lo...
The Colors studio in Berlin has quietly created one of the biggest new brands in music from filming back to basics performances with laser-focused...
theartsdesk on Vinyl Lockdown Special 1: Napalm Death, Brazi...
For the duration of this C19 Lockdown, rather the the usual sprawling monthly epic, theartsdesk on Vinyl will be presented...
Blu-ray: Buster Keaton - Three Films, Vol. 2
These three films come from Buster Keaton’s mid-1920s purple patch, the high spots of which prompted critic Roger Ebert to describe Keaton as “...
It’s True, It’s True, It’s True, Breach Theatre online revie...
Artemisia Gentileschi has definitely had a hard time. Although she was an outstanding Renaissance painter in the style of Caravaggio, and the...
Ozark, Series 3 review, Netflix - money-laundering saga hits...
While not the most headline-catching show on Netflix, ...
Classical Music/Opera direct to home 5 - orchestral manoeuvr...
Necessity has certainly been the mother of invention over the past three weeks, and orchestras especially, left in the dark with no means of...
Rumpelstiltskin, Sadler's Wells Digital Stage review -...
The latest in Sadler’s Wells’ Digital Stage programme – an impressively assembled online offering to keep audiences entertained during the...
Rachel Fairburn, Go Faster Stripe review - smart and subtle...
Rachel Fairburn says she didn't know what to wear for the...
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