Reviews
Ocean's 8 review – half-cocked caper
Monday, 18 June 2018
Perfectly timed, in theory, for the advent of #MeToo and Hollywood’s post-Weinstein era, this girl-power redesign of the Ocean franchise has lined up a turbo-charged cast and then not given them anything very interesting to do.
Berlin to Broadway with Kurt Weill, Opera North, City Varieties Music Hall - life as a cabaret
Monday, 18 June 2018
Peer at the small print and it’s clear that Berlin to Broadway with Kurt Weill is actually a spruced-up repackaging of a show originally devised by Gene Lerner and arranger Newton Wayland, about whom Opera North’s programme tells us nothing. The cabaret-style production’s two halves take us neatly through Weill’s career, the linking narrative divvied out among the 11-strong cast in a manner that suggests a primary school class assembly. But it works handsomely.
Paloma Faith, Bedgebury Pinetum review - positive...
Monday, 18 June 2018
There is a real festival ambience to this quintessentially English field-gig, set amidst the stunning forests of Bedgebury Pinetum as part of the...
Kelleigh Greenberg-Jephcott: Swan Song review -...
Sunday, 17 June 2018
Here you will find Babe Paley, Slim Keith, CZ Guest, Gloria Guinness, Lee Radziwill, Marella Agnelli, the stylish leaders of society, gorgeous,...
Reissue CDs Weekly: The Rose Garden
Sunday, 17 June 2018
The Rose Garden didn’t linger in the bright lights but for those inclined towards harmony pop their name resonates due to the quality of their sole...
Notes From the Field, Royal Court review - sobering report from the frontline of race
Anna Deavere Smith shines her singular light on American inequality and systemic injustice |
CD: Soulwax - Essential
Belgian beat maestros return with a different approach |
Mamzer Bastard, Royal Opera, Hackney Empire review - inert Hasidic music-drama
Sludgy orchestral lines and ungainly word-setting in Na'ama Zisser's new opera |
The Happy Prince review - Wilde at heart
Rupert Everett's spirited and humane homage to Oscar is worth the long wait |
Panorama: Putin's Russia with David Dimbleby, BBC One review - jolly football weather
As the World Cup kicks off, a sober - and sobering - insight into the host country today |
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Donmar Warehouse review - Lia Williams makes an iconic role her own
Familiar title is reinvigorated afresh in a startling revival |
The Ciambra review - supremely effective storytelling
'This Is England' meets 'Gomorrah' in one boy’s passage into manhood |
Get Shorty, Sky Atlantic review - Elmore Leonard meets Tarantino
Sex, sleaze and violence as gangland comes to Hollywood |
theartsdesk at Download Festival 2018: three days of metal mayhem
Guns'n'Roses, Ozzy Osbourne, Avenged Sevenfold and many more |
theartsdesk at the Leipzig Bach Festival: a cantata blockbuster
Gardiner, Suzuki, Koopman and Rademann offer a musical and historical revelation |
Machinal, Almeida Theatre review - descending into darkness
Lesser-known American classic exerts a clinical fascination |
City of Ghosts review - chilling but inspiring report on Syria's citizen journalists
Quietly masterful and harrowing documentary on undercover reportage in Raqqa |
Acis and Galatea, English National Opera, Lilian Baylis House review - Handel for the hashtag generation
This insta-update is hard to 'like' |
Monogamy, Park Theatre review - Janie Dee in dark family drama
New comedy about a celebrity chef sometimes sizzles, but leaves a bad taste |
Roscoe, BBC Philharmonic, Mena, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review - a scenic send-off
Spanish sunshine in an operatic farewell to orchestra’s departing chief |
Giulio Cesare, Glyndebourne review - no weak link
Glyndebourne at its best just got better |
Isabelle Huppert reads Marquis de Sade, Queen Elizabeth Hall review - virtue twinned with vice
Isabelle Huppert brings her customary rigour to some notorious writings |
Un ballo in maschera, Grange Park Opera review – singing out against the American grain
High-concept Yankee Verdi benefits from some Old World style |
Studio 54 review - boogie wonderland
Documentary revisits the most celebrated discotheque of them all |
Hidden, BBC Four review - a death in Snowdonia
A strong start from the heir to 'Hinterland' |
Robert Gordon: Memphis Rent Party review - a fast-moving Mississippi anthology
An engaging cast of characters from Memphis' musical past |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Gene Clark
Significant first-time release of demos recorded after the singer-songwriter left The Byrds |
Taylor Swift, Etihad Stadium, Manchester review - pop perfection on epic scale
Here be serpents - and songs about her feelings |
Julie, National Theatre review - vacuous and unilluminating
Vanessa Kirby leads superfluous update that is a lot more Stenham than Strindberg |
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latest in today
Berlin to Broadway with Kurt Weill, Opera North, City Variet...
Peer at the small print and it’s clear that Berlin to Broadway with Kurt Weill is actually a spruced-up repackaging of a show originally...
Paloma Faith, Bedgebury Pinetum review - positive pop in a w...
There is a real festival ambience to this quintessentially English field-gig, set amidst the stunning forests of Bedgebury Pinetum as part of the...
CD: Jim James - Uniform Distortion
How great is Uniform Distortion? As great as Greg Sage’s Straight Ahead or Neil Young & Crazy Horse’s Ragged Glory...
Kelleigh Greenberg-Jephcott: Swan Song review - Capote redu...
Here you will find Babe Paley, Slim Keith, CZ Guest, Gloria Guinness, Lee Radziwill, Marella Agnelli, the stylish leaders of society, gorgeous,...
Reissue CDs Weekly: The Rose Garden
The Rose Garden didn’t linger in the bright lights but for those inclined towards harmony pop their name resonates due to the quality of their...
Notes From the Field, Royal Court review - sobering report f...
Anna Deavere Smith contains multitudes. As the solo performance artist recounts the testimonies she has selected from the more than 250 people she...
CD: Soulwax - Essential
It took Soulwax 12 years to release 2017’s From Deewee, a triumphant one take clash of live drums and...
Mamzer Bastard, Royal Opera, Hackney Empire review - inert H...
Striking it lucky with a successful new opera is a rare occurrence, though every company has a duty to keep on trying. The...