Arts
Bloated waffle: Jitney at the Old Vic reviewed
The Old Vic’s new show, Jitney, has a mystifying YouTube advert which gives no information about the play or the…
No genre of storytelling is more formulaic or more exhausted than true crime
Nothing new under the sun. Or at least it feels that way these days, doesn’t it? The movies are TV…
The hips are electric but you will be willing it to stay put: Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis reviewed
Elvis is Baz Luhrmann’s biopic of Elvis Presley and it’s cradle to grave but told at such a gallop you’ll…
A thoroughly enjoyable grand old heap of nothing: The Excursions of Mr Broucek reviewed
Sir David Pountney, it appears, has been to Prague. He’s booked himself a mini-break, he’s EasyJetted out, and after (one…
The man who changed Indian cinema
Tanjil Rashid on the polymathic Bengali filmmaker Satyajit Ray, who spearheaded a new school of Indian cinema
The women’s lips are pursed; the men’s are kissable: Glyn Philpot at Pallant House reviewed
Of all the photos of artists in the studio, the one of Glyn Philpot being served a martini by his…
The sad decline of my one-time favourites
I don’t think it’s my imagination: it really is getting harder and harder to find anything worth watching on TV.…
Tinkering with the masters
It was sad to see Ray Liotta, that magnificent actor, had died the other week. He was most famous for…
A masterclass in evenhandedness: James Graham’s Sherwood reviewed
James Graham has made his considerable name writing political-based dramas of a highly unusual type: non-polemical ones. And this certainly…
Leave Bizet’s Carmen alone
I’ve always felt uncomfortably ambivalent about the work of Matthew Bourne. Of course, there is no disputing its infectious exuberance…
Joyously liberating: Tony! [The Tony Blair Rock Opera] reviewed
Harry Hill’s latest musical traces Tony Blair’s bizarre career from student pacifist to war-mongering plaything of the United States. With…
The opera that wouldn’t die
Richard Bratby on the resurrection of wunderkind Erich Korngold’s long-neglected masterpiece
The power of cultural reclamation
‘Version’ is an old reggae term I’ve always loved. It refers to a stripped-down, rhythm-heavy instrumental mix of a song,…
It’s wholly impossible to look away: Good Luck to You, Leo Grande reviewed
Good Luck to You, Leo Grande stars Emma Thompson as a retired, widowed religious education teacher in her sixties who…
A completely satisfying operatic experience: Opera North’s Parsifal reviewed
When Parsifal finally returns to Montsalvat, it’s Good Friday. He’s trodden the path of suffering but now the sun is…
How interesting an art is fashion?
One of the New York Met Gala stylists is sharing tips for wearing a corset to an evening do. ‘Breathe…
Sheer erotic pulsation
Anyone whose extreme youth was graced by the experience of watching the Nederlands Dans Theater is liable to be astonished…
It’s taken me days to uncringe: All My Friends Hate Me reviewed
All My Friends Hate Me is a film about a university reunion weekend and should you have an upcoming university…
They have the weakest catalogue of any major act: Abba: Voyage reviewed
One of the biggest talking points in pop these past couple of years has been how successful old musicians have…
Gandhi’s killer is more loveable than his victim: The Father and the Assassin reviewed
Dictating to the Estate is a piece of community theatre that explains why Grenfell Tower went up in flames on…
Ricky Gervais is an achingly conventional Millennial posing as a naughty maverick
Just how edgy and dangerous is Ricky Gervais? There is no one more edgy and dangerous, we learn from no…
The art of extinction
Sam Kriss on the power of paleoart
Nobody paints the sea like Emile Nolde
In April, ten years after opening its gallery on the beach in Hastings, the Jerwood Foundation gifted the building to…
I suspect this was a rush job: Like Water for Chocolate reviewed
How much weight of plot can dance carry? Balanchine famously insisted that there are no mothers-in-law in ballet, and masters…
Big glass slippers to fill
It sounds like a wet dream of musical theatre, doesn’t it? A Cinderella by Rodgers & Hammerstein in a visually…
