Arts
Reminiscent of Roxy Music’s cocktail sound: The Weather Station reviewed
One of the unforeseen consequences of the rise of streaming was a change in the very structure of the pop…
Is Jed Mercurio bored with Line of Duty?
When a drama begins with news of a ‘Chis handler’ receiving ‘intel graded A1 on the matrix’ that causes a…
My favourite failed podcasts
The promise of the internet was supposed to be thus: you could be your own bizarre, inappropriate self, and you…
How 20th-century artists rescued the Crucifixion
Two millennia ago, in the outer reaches of the empire, the Romans performed a routine execution of a Galilean rebel.…
The fossil-hunting is more interesting than the sex: Ammonite reviewed
Ammonite is writer-director Francis Lee’s second film after God’s Own Country, one of the best films of 2017, and possibly…
Promising material squandered: BKLYN – The Musical reviewed
BKLYN — The Musical gives itself a headache for no reason. What does ‘BKLYN’ mean? Perhaps it’s a random jumble…
Ray Lawler
When Brett Sheehy, the departing artistic director of the Melbourne Theatre Company took the stage of the Sumner with the…
French Impressionism from the Boston Museum of Fine Arts at the National Gallery of Victoria
While admiring the collections of French impressionist paintings in American galleries, it is easy to think of them as evidence…
Why In Our Time remains the best thing on radio
In Our Time is the best thing on Radio 4, possibly the best thing on the radio full stop. It…
The mystery and romance of the cassette tape
May the gods of Hiss and Compression bless Lou Ottens. As head of new product development at Phillips, the Dutch…
How real is the performing arts exodus?
Richard Bratby on the post-Covid exodus of talent from the performing arts
There's the kernel of a good show in this copycat Hamilton: Treason the Musical reviewed
Copycat Hamiltons are everywhere. Lin-Manuel Miranda led the way by turning an unexamined corner of history into a smash-hit show.…
Spellbinding: Preparations to be Together for an Unknown Period of Time reviewed
The premise for the unsnappily titled Preparations to be Together for an Unknown Period of Time is this: a Hungarian…
Why are the Oscars such a lousy guide to great cinema?
Chloé Zhao’s Nomadland,predicted to win big at this year’s Oscars, is not a terrible film. It’s a slight, sentimental Grapes…
Revelatory and grubby: Framing Britney Spears reviewed
The most headline-grabbing of these three pop docs was Framing Britney Spears, part of the New York Times Presents documentary…
Apple+'s new series damn near cost me my marriage: Calls reviewed
Calls is the very antithesis of televisual soma. In fact it’s so jarring and discomfiting and horrible that I think…
Britney Spears
The arts world in general —and with it theatre in particular— is opening up. Not only is the Botticelli to…
Johannes Fritzsch
It is hard to imagine a city with a richer cultural history than Dresden or a better place for a…
The death of the mainstream band: Black Country, New Road reviewed
Twitter was awash with mockery last week, after Adam Levine, the singer of the American group Maroon 5, was interviewed…
Grotesquely plodding: Late Night Staring At High Res Pixels reviewed
The Finborough’s new show is a love story with the male partner absent. Two women, one Irish and one American,…
Undemandingly enjoyable (just don’t read the episode’s title): McDonald & Dodds review
Well, this a bit awkward. A fortnight ago, in my last TV column, I confidently asserted that, despite the involvement…
The truth about my father, Philip Guston
Musa Mayer talks to Hermione Eyre about her father Philip Guston’s cancellation and her fear that he will for ever be known as the artist who painted the Ku Klux Klan
Three new releases that show the classical recording industry is alive and well
Rachmaninov’s First Symphony begins with a snarl, and gets angrier. A menacing skirl from the woodwinds, a triple-fortissimo blast from…
Clubhouse left me with one question: why am I here?
For my 13th birthday in 1995 I requested — and got — my own ‘line’. This meant that I could…
Barack Obama will make you cringe: Renegades: Born in the USA reviewed
Barack Obama wants the world to know how much he loves singing. In his new podcast, which takes the form…
