Reviews
Ridley Road, BBC One review - Jewish community fights Nazi nightmare in 1960s London
Monday, 18 October 2021
Neo-Nazis held a Trafalgar Square rally under the banner "Free Britain from Jewish Control" in the year of my birth; I had no idea until I watched Ridley Road. Most of us know about the Battle of Cable Street in 1936, but, until now, next to nothing about the Jewish resistance against fascist Colin Jordan and his gang of thugs, some of them cynically recruited from borstals and children’s homes, 17 years after the end of the Second World War.
The Beauty Queen of Leenane, Lyric Hammersmith review - matchless revival of a contemporary classic
Monday, 18 October 2021
“You can’t kick a cow in Leenane without some bastard holding a grudge for 20 years,” sighs Pato Dooley (Adam Best) prophetically; he has already started making his escape from that particular Galway village, doing lonely stints on London building sites.
Bernstein Double Bill, Opera North review -...
Monday, 18 October 2021
Leonard Bernstein’s one-act opera Trouble in Tahiti enjoyed a relatively trouble-free gestation, at least compared to his other stage works. Its...
Clements Prize, Conway Hall review - newly-...
Monday, 18 October 2021
The Conway Hall in London has hosted chamber music concerts since it was built in 1929, and for 40 years this included a composition prize, in...
Music Reissues Weekly: Fire - Father's Name...
Sunday, 17 October 2021
Between August 1966 and November 1967, The Syn played 36 shows at London’s high-profile Marquee Club. In June and September 1967 they issued two...
The Dante Project, Royal Ballet review - a towering achievement
A stupendous score by Thomas Adès powers this inspiring undertaking |
The Cherry Orchard, Windsor Theatre Royal review - Tolstoy meets Mrs Two Soups
Ian McKellen's scene-stealing is not the only reason to see Chekhov's comedy |
Macbeth, Almeida Theatre review – vivid, but much too long
Saoirse Ronan makes her UK stage debut in Yaël Farber’s testosterone-fest |
Manic Street Preachers, Brighton Dome review - solid gig occasionally explodes to another level
Politically literate Welsh pop-rockers still have fire in their bellies |
Tamestit, LSO, Ticciati, LSO St Luke's review - viola as chameleon, palpitating Brahms
Razor-sharp Walton complements an airborne, detailed account of a great symphony |
White Noise, Bridge Theatre review - provocative if not always plausible
Suzan-Lori Parks has tweaked her Off Broadway play to mixed results |
Romeo and Juliet, Birmingham Royal Ballet & Royal Ballet review - a storming start to the season
Half a century on MacMillan's R&J is still the business |
Maximo Park, Saint Luke's and the Winged Ox, Glasgow - indie veterans still have fire in their bellies
A new line-up and album seems to have rejuvenated the artful rockers |
Karine Polwart, Birmingham Town Hall Review: Expertly crafted modern folk
the Karine Polwart Trio return to Brum with a mix of old and new music |
Mary Wellesley: Hidden Hands review - passion in the parchment
Medieval manuscripts and their forgotten artist-authors come to life |
Don Pasquale, Glyndebourne Tour review - winning comeback for a sturdy veteran
Sweet spots abound in Donizetti's much-loved sugar-daddy romp |
The Velvet Underground review - Todd Haynes tunnels through band history
Ingeniously composed documentary portrait, with John Cale the definitive star |
Marcin Wicha: Things I Didn’t Throw Out review - the stories told by stacks of stuff
Connecting a mother's helpless love of things with questions of presence and personhood |
Jonathan Franzen: Crossroads review - can goodness ever be its own reward?
The first volume of Franzen's new family saga leaves you wanting more |
Two-Piano Gala, Kings Place review - five pianists, two pianos, too many pieces
Captivating Mozart and Schubert offset by note-heavy Ravel and Rachmaninov |
Jason Manford, London Palladium review - lockdown laughs and feelgood fun
Worth the wait for this Covid-affected tour |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Psychedelic Soul - Produced By Norman Whitfield
First-ever overview of the storied producer and songwriter |
Gabriela Montero, Kings Place review - improvising to a Chaplin classic is the icing on a zesty cake
Grabbing the audience and never letting go at the start of the London Piano Festival |
Sarah Hall: Burntcoat review - love after the end of the world
Beautiful lives of loss, in a pandemic close to our own |
Bavouzet, Manchester Camerata, Takács-Nagy, Stoller Hall, Manchester review - together again
A great partnership returns to public Mozart recording project |
The Midnight Bell, New Adventures, Sadler's Wells review - dance theatre at its most compelling
Matthew Bourne hits his stride in an engrossing picture of lovelessness in 1930s London |
The Mirror and the Light, Gielgud Theatre review - nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition
Third time round, Hilary Mantel self-adapts, and eviscerates, her novel on stage |
Metamorphoses, Sam Wanamaker Playhouse review - punchy, cleverly reworked classic
Any figure in Roman mythology today would be at the pointy end of cancel culture |
theartsdesk at the Two Moors Festival - birdsong, gongs and nocturnes in Dartmoor churches
In tune with the natural wonders of Devon's high places, musicians excel |
latest in today
Ridley Road, BBC One review - Jewish community fights Nazi n...
Neo-Nazis held a Trafalgar Square rally under the banner "Free Britain from Jewish Control" in the year of my birth; I had no idea until I watched...
The Beauty Queen of Leenane, Lyric Hammersmith review - matc...
“You can’t kick a cow in Leenane without some bastard holding a grudge for 20 years,” sighs Pato Dooley (Adam Best) prophetically...
Bernstein Double Bill, Opera North review - fractured relati...
Leonard Bernstein’s one-act opera Trouble in Tahiti enjoyed a relatively trouble-free gestation, at least compared to his other stage...
Clements Prize, Conway Hall review - newly-written string tr...
The Conway Hall in London has hosted chamber music concerts since it was built in 1929, and for 40 years this included a composition prize, in...
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From underground curiosity to cult icon, now label head and superstar, Atlanta’s Young Thug has continued to reinvent himself, as well as...
Music Reissues Weekly: Fire - Father's Name Is Dad, Flo...
Between August 1966 and November 1967, The Syn played 36...
Blu-ray: La Dolce Vita
One of those films weighed down by a considerable reputation, La Dolce Vita (1960) is rarely taken as seriously as it should be. From the...
The Dante Project, Royal Ballet review - a towering achievem...
Unless you happen to be a student of Italian language or culture, the significance of the 14th-century...
The Cherry Orchard, Windsor Theatre Royal review - Tolstoy m...
The cherry orchard in Anton Chekhov’s eponymous play is a...
