wed 09/07/2025

Reviews

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

Tom Birchenough

We are bowled over! 

Run Sister Run, Arcola Theatre review - emphatic emotions, overwrought production

Aleks Sierz

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

Kieron Tyler

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...

Adam Sweeting

“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...

Katie Colombus

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

Kieron Tyler

Snapshot of Lemmy and co in August 1976 proves fascinating

Kiefer / Van Gogh, Royal Academy review - a pairing of opposites

Sarah Kent

Small scale intensity meets large scale melodrama

Siglo de Oro, Wigmore Hall review - electronic Lamentations and Trojan tragedy

Bernard Hughes

Committed and intense performance of a newly-commissioned oratorio

Jenny Saville: The Anatomy of Painting, National Portrait Gallery review - a protégé losing her way

Sarah Kent

A brilliant painter in search of a worthwhile subject

Hot Milk review - a mother of a problem

Graham Fuller

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

Caspar Gomez

The full, brain-frazzling, immersive deep dive into Worthy Farm's music and arts spectacular

Tom Raworth: Cancer review - truthfulness

Jack Barron

A 'lost' book reconfirms Raworth’s legacy as one of the great lyric poets

Hill, Sky Documentaries review - how Damon Hill battled his demons

Adam Sweeting

Alex Holmes's film is both documentary and psychological portrait

The Shrouds review - he wouldn't let it lie

James Saynor

More from the gruesome internal affairs department of David Cronenberg

Jurassic World Rebirth review - prehistoric franchise gets a new lease of life

Adam Sweeting

Scarlett Johansson shines in roller-coaster dino-romp

Semele, Royal Opera review - unholy smoke

David Nice

Style comes and goes in a justifiably dark treatment of Handelian myth

Sudan, Remember Us review - the revolution will be memorised

Hugh Barnes

Gonzo documentary shines light on a lost opportunity in the Arab spring

Le nozze di Figaro, Glyndebourne review - perceptive humanity in period setting

David Nice

Mostly glorious cast, sharp ideas, fussy conducting

Quadrophenia, Sadler's Wells review - missed opportunity to give new stage life to a Who classic

Helen Hawkins

The brilliant cast need a tighter score and a stronger narrative

Fidelio, Garsington Opera review - a battle of sunshine and shadows

Boyd Tonkin

Intimacy yields to spectacle as Beethoven's light of freedom triumphs

Summer Laugh review - five comics gear up for the Fringe

Veronica Lee

Terrific initiative by Scottish stand-ups

Album: Brìghde Chaimbeul - Sunwise

Kieron Tyler

A singular sonic auteur reshapes traditional Celtic music

Music Reissues Weekly: Rupert’s People - Dream In My Mind

Kieron Tyler

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

Helen Hawkins

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'

Gary Naylor

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)

Helen Hawkins

A comedy great gets lost in an English backwater

Aldeburgh Festival, Weekend 2 review - nine premieres, three young ensembles - and Allan Clayton

David Nice

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

Adam Sweeting

Joseph Kosinski's motorsport spectacle delivers bang for your buck

Brad Mehldau Trio, St George's Bristol review - exquisite intelligence

Mark Kidel

A brilliant trio in scintillating conversation

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