Reviews
'We are bowled over!' Thank you for your messages of love and support
Friday, 14 November 2025
We are bowled over!
Run Sister Run, Arcola Theatre review - emphatic emotions, overwrought production
Wednesday, 09 July 2025
Near the start of Chloë Moss’s latest play, Run Sister Run, one character tells his wife to “Calm your nerves”. A classic moment of emotional illiteracy perhaps, but given the heightened nature of the drama’s opening scene, it does also seem like an instance of unconscious self-reflection.
Album: Gwenno - Utopia
Wednesday, 09 July 2025
Stylistically, Utopia wears multiple faces. Opening cut “London 1757” drifts by like a twig floating upon an unhurried stream. Next, “Dancing on...
Live Aid at 40: When Rock'n'Roll Took...
Tuesday, 08 July 2025
“Bob’s not the kind of guy you can say no to,” said Sting, reminiscing about the origins of 1984’s Band Aid charity single “Do They Know It’s...
Sabrina Carpenter, Hyde Park BST review - a sexy...
Monday, 07 July 2025
Has Sabrina Carpenter officially conquered London? A year after bestie and fellow Disney alumni Taylor Swift declared the “Summer of Sabrina”...
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Music Reissues Weekly: Motörhead - The Manticore Tapes
Snapshot of Lemmy and co in August 1976 proves fascinating |
Kiefer / Van Gogh, Royal Academy review - a pairing of opposites
Small scale intensity meets large scale melodrama |
Siglo de Oro, Wigmore Hall review - electronic Lamentations and Trojan tragedy
Committed and intense performance of a newly-commissioned oratorio |
Jenny Saville: The Anatomy of Painting, National Portrait Gallery review - a protégé losing her way
A brilliant painter in search of a worthwhile subject |
Hot Milk review - a mother of a problem
Emma Mackey shines as a daughter drawn to the deep end of a family trauma |
Glastonbury Festival 2025: Five Somerset summer days of music, controversy and beautiful mayhem
The full, brain-frazzling, immersive deep dive into Worthy Farm's music and arts spectacular |
Tom Raworth: Cancer review - truthfulness
A 'lost' book reconfirms Raworth’s legacy as one of the great lyric poets |
Hill, Sky Documentaries review - how Damon Hill battled his demons
Alex Holmes's film is both documentary and psychological portrait |
The Shrouds review - he wouldn't let it lie
More from the gruesome internal affairs department of David Cronenberg |
Jurassic World Rebirth review - prehistoric franchise gets a new lease of life
Scarlett Johansson shines in roller-coaster dino-romp |
Semele, Royal Opera review - unholy smoke
Style comes and goes in a justifiably dark treatment of Handelian myth |
Sudan, Remember Us review - the revolution will be memorised
Gonzo documentary shines light on a lost opportunity in the Arab spring |
Le nozze di Figaro, Glyndebourne review - perceptive humanity in period setting
Mostly glorious cast, sharp ideas, fussy conducting |
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 |
Fidelio, Garsington Opera review - a battle of sunshine and shadows
Intimacy yields to spectacle as Beethoven's light of freedom triumphs |
Summer Laugh review - five comics gear up for the Fringe
Terrific initiative by Scottish stand-ups |
Album: Brìghde Chaimbeul - Sunwise
A singular sonic auteur reshapes traditional Celtic music |
Music Reissues Weekly: Rupert’s People - Dream In My Mind
How ‘A Whiter Shade of Pale’ transformed a London mod-pop band |
Intimate Apparel, Donmar Warehouse review - stirring story of Black survival in 1905 New York
An early Lynn Nottage work gets a superb cast and production |
Hercules, Theatre Royal Drury Lane review - new Disney stage musical is no 'Lion King'
Big West End crowdpleaser lacks punch and poignancy with join-the-dots plotting and cookie-cutter characters |
Chicken Town review - sluggish rural comedy with few laughs (and one chicken)
A comedy great gets lost in an English backwater |
Aldeburgh Festival, Weekend 2 review - nine premieres, three young ensembles - and Allan Clayton
A solstice sunrise swim crowned the best of times at this phoenix of a festival |
F1: The Movie review - Brad Pitt rolls back the years as maverick racer Sonny Hayes
Joseph Kosinski's motorsport spectacle delivers bang for your buck |
Brad Mehldau Trio, St George's Bristol review - exquisite intelligence
A brilliant trio in scintillating conversation |
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