Arts
See it while it’s still hot: Royal Opera's Rigoletto reviewed
In Oliver Mears’s new production of Verdi’s Rigoletto, the curtain rises on a work of art. The stage is in…
Absurd and amusing, solemn and scholarly: Charles Jencks's Cosmic House reviewed
An editor once told me: always look at the loos. It was remarkable, she said, how many grand cultural projets,…
Banal and profound, bent and beautiful: Nick Cave & Warren Ellis at Edinburgh Playhouse reviewed
Nick Cave has always been drawn to parable and fable, but more than ever these days he is engaged in…
Two gigs that prove that rock and pop is never just about the music
The single most boring and pointless thing that is ever said about rock and pop — and it always comes…
Made me buzz like an electron: Science – Clear+Vivid with Alan Alda reviewed
Given my affection for M*A*S*H, I can’t think why I haven’t listened to Alan Alda’s podcasts before now, besides the…
The best recordings of the Goldberg Variations
I sometimes think the classical record industry would collapse if it weren’t for the Goldberg Variations. Every month brings more…
Gripping slice of old-fashioned entertainment: Old Vic's Camp Siegfried reviewed
Boy meets girl. Girl gets pregnant. Then the entire world collapses. That’s the story of Camp Siegfried, which is set…
Nic Denton and Frances O’Connor
As the northern hemisphere, that ambiguous spectral homeland we’re conscious of, starts to open up, it’s easy to be envious…
How the British musical conquered the world
A new musical history is being written for Britain, says Nicola Christie
God, it's slight: Lindsey Buckingham's new album reviewed
Grade: B– The first time Lindsey Buckingham had a big falling out with Stevie Nicks we at least got some…
Jennifer Saunders is brilliant: Blithe Spirit at the Harold Pinter Theatre reviewed
Blithe Spirit is a comedy with the plot of a horror story. Charles, a middle-aged novelist, lives happily with his…
Skirt-swishing and stomach-dropping: Ukrainian Ballet Gala, at Sadler's Wells, reviewed
Like musical supergroups and Olympic basketball teams, ballet galas tend to prize individual gifts over group cohesion. A recent one…
Delivers in spades: The Many Saints of Newark reviewed
So how exactly did Tony Soprano become a New Jersey mob boss? It’s 1967 and young Anthony is struggling to…
Somewhere between eye-opening and jaw-dropping: Sky's Hawking – Can You Hear Me? reviewed
It is, of course, not unknown for a man to become famous with the support of his family — and,…
Fortifying snapshot of the gardener’s year: Saatchi Gallery's RHS Botanical Art show reviewed
Elizabeth Blackadder, who died last month at the age of 89, was probably the most distinctive botanical artist of our…
A lockdown masterpiece and the Jessica Rabbit of concertos: contemporary classical roundup
So it finally happened: I experienced my first vocal setting of the word ‘Covid’. An encounter that was, inevitably, more…
Diane Lane
It was doubly sad the other night to see Virginia Gay deliver a speech from her Covid-cancelled Cyrano on the…
Why The Sopranos remains the greatest gangster drama of all time
The Sopranos – the greatest television show in history – far outshines its progenitors, says Tanya Gold
A pep-talk nightmare: Everybody's Talking About Jamie reviewed
It’s a hard heart that doesn’t warm to the musical drama Everybody’s Talking About Jamie. I don’t have a hard…
Amateurish and implausible: BBC1's Vigil reviewed
Tense, claustrophobic, gripping, thrilling, realistic: just some of the adjectives no one is using to describe BBC1’s Sunday night submarine…
The yumminess of paint
‘Painting has always been dead,’ Willem de Kooning once mused. ‘But I was never worried about it.’ The exhibition Mixing…
A terrific night of opera: Zanetto/Orfeo ed Euridice, Arcola Theatre, reviewed
For a one-hit composer, we hear rather a lot of Pietro Mascagni. His reputation rests on his 1890 debut Cavalleria…
Teenage Fanclub are not a dramatic group, but they are lovely
They may no longer get many teenagers at their shows spending all their money on merchandise, then throwing up on…
How the good intentions of Title IX ended up punishing the innocent
How do we have difficult conversations? Especially in an age of polarisation, where everything is immediately politicised? But also where…
Sexist, classist and pro-global warming: Frozen, at Theatre Royal Drury Lane, reviewed
Frozen the musical declares war on woke politics. The 2013 Disney movie has been turned into a song-and-dance show that…
