Reviews
'We are bowled over!' Thank you for your messages of love and support
Friday, 14 November 2025
We are bowled over!
Albert Herring, English National Opera review - a great comedy with depths fully realised
Tuesday, 14 October 2025
Britten’s Albert Herring is one of the great 20th century comic operas; only Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi and Barry’s The Importance of Being Earnest draw such whole-hearted laughter. If it’s never been performed in the London Coliseum before, that’s because it’s a chamber opera with a 14-piece ensemble in the pit. This clever compromise shouldn’t be going to Lowry, Salford for its third and fourth performances but touring the country in much smaller houses.
Iron Ladies review - working-class heroines of...
Tuesday, 14 October 2025
The enduring image of the 1984-1985 Miners' Strike is that of men standing arm in arm against police and of mass protests devolving into mayhem –...
Solomon, OAE, Butt, QEH review - daft Biblical...
Monday, 13 October 2025
Forty years ago, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment was born, and I heard Handel’s Solomon in concert for the first time. Charles Mackerras’s...
The Woman in Cabin 10 review - Scandi noir meets...
Monday, 13 October 2025
A fizzy mystery cocktail with a twist and a splash, The Woman in Cabin 10, based on Ruth Ware’s bestseller, sails along like the sleek superyacht...
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Two-Piano Gala, Kings Place review - shining constellations
London Piano Festival curators and illustrious friends entertain and enlighten |
Music Reissues Weekly: Marc and the Mambas - Three Black Nights Of Little Black Bites
When Marc Almond took time out from Soft Cell |
Troilus and Cressida, Globe Theatre review - a 'problem play' with added problems
Raucous and carnivalesque, but also ugly and incomprehensible |
London Film Festival 2025 - crime, punishment, pop stars and shrinks
Daniel Craig investigates, Jodie Foster speaks French and Colin Farrell has a gambling habit |
I Swear review - taking stock of Tourette's
A sharp and moving tale of cuss-words and tics |
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 |
Carmen, English National Opera review - not quite dangerous
Hopes for Niamh O’Sullivan only partly fulfilled, though much good singing throughout |
Ghost Stories, Peacock Theatre review - spirited staging but short on scares
Impressive spectacle saves an ageing show in an unsuitable venue |
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 |
Trio Da Kali, Milton Court review - Mali masters make the ancient new
Three supreme musicians from Bamako in transcendent mood |
Giustino, Linbury Theatre review - a stylish account of a slight opera
Gods, mortals and monsters do battle in Handel's charming drama |
A House of Dynamite review - the final countdown
Kathryn Bigelow's cautionary tale sets the nuclear clock ticking again |
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 |
Susanna, Opera North review - hybrid staging of a Handel oratorio
Dance and signing complement outstanding singing in a story of virtue rewarded |
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 |
Music Reissues Weekly: The Earlies - These Were The Earlies
Lancashire and Texas unite to fashion a 2004 landmark of modern psychedelia |
Hamlet, National Theatre review - turning tragedy to comedy is no joke
Hiran Abeyeskera’s childlike prince falls flat in a mixed production |
France, LPO, Gardner, RFH review - the sound of other worlds
From a snowbound contemporary classic to Mahler's folk-tale heaven |
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 |
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? |
Rohtko, Barbican review - postmodern meditation on fake and authentic art is less than the sum of its parts
Łukasz Twarkowski's production dazzles without illuminating |
Lee, Park Theatre review - Lee Krasner looks back on her life as an artist
Informative and interesting, the play's format limits its potential |
Ariodante, Opéra Garnier, Paris review - a blast of Baroque beauty
A near-perfect night at the opera |
Murder Before Evensong, Acorn TV review - death comes to the picturesque village of Champton
The Rev Richard Coles's sleuthing cleric hits the screen |
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