Arts
Bob Monkhouse, John Lennon and prostitution: Lloyd Evans’s Edinburgh Fringe picks
In the clammy shadows of Cowgate I was leafleted by a chubby beauty wearing all-leather fetish gear. ‘Hi! Want to…
Opera in Edinburgh: even the best Stravinsky can’t beat mediocre Mozart
Is Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress anything more than an exercise in style? ‘I will lace each aria into a tight…
Gemma Bovery does not work as a film in any way whatsoever
Gemma Bovery is a modern-day refashioning of Gustave Flaubert’s literary masterpiece Madame Bovary, and while such refashionings can work well…
Why does TV assume everyone is so thick they have to have everything explained?
My favourite moment in The Scandalous Lady W (BBC2, Monday) was when the heroine played by Natalie Dormer was shown…
If we all got drunk like Jeffrey Bernard, we could save the NHS a lot of money
Just back from a few nights in Sweden to find the perfect programme on Radio 3. It was one of…
Ai Weiwei: the perfect Asian artist for lazy western curators
In September, the Royal Academy of Arts will present a solo exhibition of works by the Chinese artist Ai Weiwei.…
Culture buff
Last week’s opening by the Sydney Theatre Company of The Present was a high water mark in its history. Adapted…
Male order
Gemma Bovery is a modern-day refashioning of Gustave Flaubert’s literary masterpiece Madame Bovary, and while such refashionings can work well…
The master returns
There’s a scene in 887, Robert Lepage’s latest show, which opened at the Edinburgh International Festival last week, in which…
The greatest pianist you’ve never heard of
William Kapell was an American concert pianist with the looks of a male model and the fingers of a wizard.…
The greatest pianist you’ve never heard of
William Kapell was an American concert pianist with the looks of a male model and the fingers of a wizard.…
Ai Weiwei
In September, the Royal Academy of Arts will present a solo exhibition of works by the Chinese artist Ai Weiwei.…
Ai Weiwei
In September, the Royal Academy of Arts will present a solo exhibition of works by the Chinese artist Ai Weiwei.…
Summer listening
Just back from a few nights in Sweden to find the perfect programme on Radio 3. It was one of…
Poldark porn
My favourite moment in The Scandalous Lady W (BBC2, Monday) was when the heroine played by Natalie Dormer was shown…
Summer listening
Just back from a few nights in Sweden to find the perfect programme on Radio 3. It was one of…
What I learned from reshooting the dullest film ever made
Stephen Smith finally sees the point of Empire, one of the dullest films in cinema history
Sylvie Guillem’s better than ever in her final, final Coliseum farewell
The blackness that sweeps along the stage behind Sylvie Guillem’s disappearing figure in the Russell Maliphant piece on her farewell…
Glyndebourne’s Ravel double bill comes close to perfection
When I saw the first performance of this production of Ravel’s two operas at Glyndebourne three years ago, I thought…
Trainwreck wastes Amy Schumer’s talents
Trainwreck is a romcom as written and directed by Amy Schumer, the American comedy prodigy whose Comedy Central sketch show…
I can’t stop thinking about the Courtauld’s Unfinished exhibition
A while ago, David Hockney mused on a proposal to tax the works of art stored in artists’ studios. ‘You’d…
The stars of this year’s Edinburgh Fringe: Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage
Propaganda is said to work best when based upon a grain of truth. Ukip! The Musical assumes that most electors…
Is medical screening bad for your health? Michael Mosley dons a pair of ‘dignity shorts’ to find out
When the link between tobacco and lung cancer was first established in the early 1950s, one obvious question arose: should…
As the Hindenburg burned, you could hear radio news being born
It’s really hard to imagine now a world before 24-hour news, continually and constantly accessible in a never-ending stream of…
Culture buff
‘I Love a Piano’ sang Fred Astaire and Judy Garland, courtesy of Irving Berlin, in Easter Parade. So do most…
