Arts
The death of the live album
Next week The The release The Comeback Special, a 24-track live album documenting the band’s concert at the Royal Albert…
Paintings dominate – the good, the bad and the very ugly: Frieze London 2021 reviewed
There’s a faint scent of desperation wafting through the Frieze tent this year. Pre–pandemic, this was where you came to…
Somewhere in this production lies Shakespeare's tragedy: Almeida's Macbeth reviewed
Yaël Farber’s Macbeth sets out to be a great work of art. The director crams the Almeida’s stage with suggestive…
You'll tire of the wackiness and the whimsy: The French Dispatch reviewed
The American filmmaker Wes Anderson has an apartment in Paris and has always yearned to make a French movie but…
'You should see some of the other scripts that come through': Robert Carlyle interviewed
Robert Jackman talks to Robert Carlyle about Begbie, playing a Tory prime minister and the merits of keeping your head down
Maggie Smith
And so we look like being able to see live performance again in the two biggest cities in Australia: Sydney…
Granada’s Brideshead Revisited remains the sine qua non of mini-series
Sumptuous, glorious, luminous, lavish: Granada’s 40-year-old adaptation of Brideshead Revisited remains the sine qua non of mini-series, says Mark McGinness
Hang in there for the gripping final half an hour: The Last Duel reviewed
Ridley Scott’s The Last Duel is set in the 14th century and is a tale of rivalry and rape told…
Lurking beneath the gore are moments of wit and sensitivity: Squid Game reviewed
Should we be worried that Squid Game is the most popular show in Netflix’s history? If it’s a case of…
The frisky side of a classical master: National Gallery's Poussin and the Dance reviewed
In the winter of 1861, visitors to the Louvre might have seen a young artist painstakingly copying one of the…
A triumph: Young Vic's Hamlet reviewed
Here goes. The Young Vic’s Hamlet, directed by Greg Hersov, is a triumph. This is a pared-back, plain-speaking version done…
We'll be talking about Royal Opera's Jenufa two decades from now
Leos Janacek cared about words. He’d hang about central Brno, notebook in hand, eavesdropping on conversations and trying to capture…
A terrible joke gone wonderfully right: Rick Astley and Blossoms Perform the Smiths reviewed
Many of us who grew up loving the Smiths have rather shelved that affection in recent years. Many of us,…
The best podcasts where girls sit around talking about ghosts
‘I’ve actually seen ghosts.’ This statement comes less than ten minutes into the first episode of Dark House, a limited-series…
Clive Owen
A time of plague makes us brood on the culture we share in the absence of personal preference. One person…
How the culture wars are killing Western classical music
Ian Pace on musicology’s culture wars
Hits you where it hurts: Welsh National Opera's Madam Butterfly reviewed
‘It’s generally agreed that in contemporary practice, this opera proposes significant ethical and cultural problems,’ says the director Lindy Hume…
Blair & Brown: The New Labour Revolution should be called ‘The Tragedy of Gordon Brown'
Murder Island features eight real-life ‘ordinary people’ seeking to solve a fictional killing on a fictional Scottish island. What follows…
If it were any better, it would actually be a terrible pity: Diana – The Musical reviewed
This week, an excellent film (Moving On) and a film that isn’t at all, but is entirely worth it as…
The Sunday Feature is one of the most consistently interesting things on Radio 3
The story is likely apocryphal — and so disgraceful I almost hesitate to tell it — but it goes like…
The genius of Frans Hals
Since art auctions were invented, they have served to hype artists’ prices. It can happen during an artist’s lifetime —…
A well-meaning but dull Official History: Olivier's Normal Heart reviewed
The Normal Heart is not about Aids. Larry Kramer’s play is set in New York in 1981 at a time…
Heath Ledger
It’s weird to hear news of artistic life in the midst of Covid. The Sydney Theatre Company has a new…
In defence of Marvel
A global pandemic is no match for the Marvel multiverse, says Rosie Millard
A compelling mess: No Time to Die reviewed
These days, James Bond can no longer just be the main character in the Bond films. He’s also had to…
