Arts
Thomas Mann
And so Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge is Melbourne’s musical-in- waiting. The show that can only go on when we’re 80…
Tsunami of piffle: Rockets and Blue Lights at the Dorfman Theatre reviewed
Deep breath. Here goes. Winsome Pinnock’s new play about Turner opens with one of the most confusing and illogical scenes…
Bleak, unashamedly macho and grown-up: BBC2's The North Water reviewed
‘The world is hell, and men are both the tormented souls and the devils within it.’ This was the cheery…
Sale of the century: the contents of the Sitwells' mansion are going under the hammer
In my bedroom there is a small lidded laundry basket. It was designed by Geoffrey Lusty for Lloyd Loom, a…
Is the life of Jimmy Savile a suitable subject for drama?
Translating the story of Jimmy Savile to stage or screen is a creative minefield, says Jonathan Maitland, who knows from first-hand experience
Opera della Luna is a little miracle: Curtain Raisers at Wilton’s Music Hall reviewed
Arthur Sullivan knew better than to mess with a winning formula. ‘Cox and Box, based on J. Maddison Morton’s farce…
Intensely powerful: Herself reviewed
Herself is an intensely powerful film about domestic violence that isn’t Nil By Mouth or The Killer Inside Me or…
A podcast that will rescue your relationship: Where Should We Begin? reviewed
Let me give you a free piece of relationship advice: just break up. If it’s more work than pleasure, if…
Charlie Watts
The endless news is of shows locked down as every form of life is locked down in a nation struggling…
Repetitive, spiritless, god-bothering music: Kanye West's Donda reviewed
Grade: C– The nicest thing one can say is that this is a marginally better album than we would have…
Up there with Succession and Chernobyl: The White Lotus, Sky Atlantic, reviewed
Every now and then, you see a new series — Succession, say, or Chernobyl or To the Lake — which…
Cast a spell, clear and sharp as frost: The Unthanks, at Edinburgh International Festival, reviewed
As August unwound, the EIF settled into the cavernous gazebo that is Edinburgh Park, and things began to loosen up.…
A fantastical fever dream that's hard to follow or enjoy: Annette reviewed
Leos Carax is the director whose films have always been wilfully odd. Ron and Russell Mael (the brothers from the…
Exuberance and class: Ariadne auf Naxos at Edinburgh International Festival reviewed
For some reason, I’d got it into my head that the main work in the Gringolts Quartet’s midday recital at…
Glib and snarky: Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cinderella, at Gillian Lynne Theatre, reviewed
It’s a rum beast the new Andrew Lloyd Webber musical. Cinderella is set in Belleville, a European city of 18th-century…
The art of the pillbox
Laura Gascoigne on the art of pillboxes
Nicole Kidman
And, as even Canberra locks down, so do all the shows. The Melbourne Theatre Company shuts down its production of…
Captures the rapturous gaiety of the original: Globe's Twelfth Night reviewed
The new Lily Allen vehicle opens in a spruced-up terrace in the East End. Allen plays a self-satisfied yuppie, Jenny,…
Deserves to be much better known: Sophie Taeuber-Arp at Tate Modern reviewed
Great Swiss artists, like famous Belgians, might seem to be an amusingly underpopulated category. Actually, as with celebrated Flemings and…
The genius of Basic Instinct
Our occasional series on cinema’s most underrated films arrives at what many have considered the peak of misogynistic trash. We’re…
Must all history programming be 'relevant'?
When it comes to history programming, television’s loss is increasingly audio’s gain. People moan to me most weeks over the…
The central performances are tremendous: Glyndebourne's Luisa Miller, reviewed
Opera buffs enjoy their jargon. We all do it, scattering words like ‘spinto’ and ‘Fach’ like an enthusiastic pizza waiter…
Good noisy fun: black midi, at the Edinburgh International Festival, reviewed
This year we must love Edinburgh for her soul rather than her looks. The EIF should be commended for making…
How we killed comedy theatre: Nigel Planer interviewed
Lloyd Evans talks to Nigel Planer about the death of comedy theatre — and how he’s trying to revive it
Ernest Hemingway
Entertainment in a public place shrivels as the lockdowns continue. The Australian Ballet has cancelled its Melbourne season, Anna Karenina…
