wed 15/10/2025

Reviews

'We are bowled over!' Thank you for your messages of love and support

Tom Birchenough

We are bowled over! 

London Film Festival - from paranoia in Brazil and Iran, to light relief in New York and Tuscany

Helen Hawkins

Film festivals are a bran tub: what you find in them may be unexpected, and not always in a good way. Here are six I pulled out in my first week (minus one of my favourites, The Mastermind, which I will review when it goes on general release next week).Jay Kelly 

Albert Herring, English National Opera review - a...

David Nice

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...

Iron Ladies review - working-class heroines of...

Justine Elias

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...

David Nice

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...

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The Woman in Cabin 10 review - Scandi noir meets Agatha Christie on a superyacht

Justine Elias

Reason goes overboard on a seagoing mystery thriller

Two-Piano Gala, Kings Place review - shining constellations

David Nice

London Piano Festival curators and illustrious friends entertain and enlighten

Music Reissues Weekly: Marc and the Mambas - Three Black Nights Of Little Black Bites

Kieron Tyler

When Marc Almond took time out from Soft Cell

Troilus and Cressida, Globe Theatre review - a 'problem play' with added problems

Gary Naylor

Raucous and carnivalesque, but also ugly and incomprehensible

London Film Festival 2025 - crime, punishment, pop stars and shrinks

Adam Sweeting

Daniel Craig investigates, Jodie Foster speaks French and Colin Farrell has a gambling habit

I Swear review - taking stock of Tourette's

James Saynor

A sharp and moving tale of cuss-words and tics

Clarkston, Trafalgar Theatre review - two lads on a road to nowhere

Gary Naylor

Netflix star, Joe Locke, is the selling point of a production that needs one

Carmen, English National Opera review - not quite dangerous

David Nice

Hopes for Niamh O’Sullivan only partly fulfilled, though much good singing throughout

Ghost Stories, Peacock Theatre review - spirited staging but short on scares

Gary Naylor

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

Jenny Gilbert

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

Mark Kidel

Three supreme musicians from Bamako in transcendent mood

Giustino, Linbury Theatre review - a stylish account of a slight opera

Alexandra Coghlan

Gods, mortals and monsters do battle in Handel's charming drama

A House of Dynamite review - the final countdown

Nick Hasted

Kathryn Bigelow's cautionary tale sets the nuclear clock ticking again

Echo Vocal Ensemble, Latto, Union Chapel review - eclectic choral programme garlanded with dance

Bernard Hughes

Beautiful singing at the heart of an imaginative and stylistically varied concert

Susanna, Opera North review - hybrid staging of a Handel oratorio

Robert Beale

Dance and signing complement outstanding singing in a story of virtue rewarded

Scott, Irish Baroque Orchestra, Whelan, RIAM, Dublin review - towards a Mozart masterpiece

David Nice

Characteristic joy and enlightenment from this team, but a valveless horn brings problems

Music Reissues Weekly: The Earlies - These Were The Earlies

Kieron Tyler

Lancashire and Texas unite to fashion a 2004 landmark of modern psychedelia

Hamlet, National Theatre review - turning tragedy to comedy is no joke

Demetrios Matheou

Hiran Abeyeskera’s childlike prince falls flat in a mixed production

France, LPO, Gardner, RFH review - the sound of other worlds

Boyd Tonkin

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

Helen Hawkins

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

Sarah Kent

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

Rachel Halliburton

Łukasz Twarkowski's production dazzles without illuminating

Lee, Park Theatre review - Lee Krasner looks back on her life as an artist

Gary Naylor

Informative and interesting, the play's format limits its potential

Ariodante, Opéra Garnier, Paris review - a blast of Baroque beauty

Mark Kidel

A near-perfect night at the opera

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