Jazz café What’s more psychedelic than California? With San Francisco being the multicolored fractalizing centre. The sun, the sea, and the soul. Beginning as an amalgamation of three bands in 2005 in the North Bay music scene . Monophonic’s mind-bending tones, with dashes of classic Motown, has…..soared seems the wrong verb for these deeply relaxed fellas, so maybe stretched out ...

Almeida Theatre ‘Floundering in a sea of conflicting story arcs’ American playwright Jeremy O. Harris’s Daddy overflows with ideas, beauty, and contradiction. It is too much, in both a positive and a negative sense. David Hockney’s California Dreaming series of paintings dress the compact Almeida stage. A real pool casts hypnotic rippling reflections on the rooms of a modernist Los Angeles glass-house-on-the-hill. Expanses ...

English National Ballet Sadlers Wells As a ballet reviewer/devotee even I admit it’s reputation as stuffy and conservative is still proving hard to shed. Venues like Sadlers Wells and The Place do their utmost to regularly reinvent the landscape and companies like Ballet Black and Rambert (to name a few) keep banging their drums. But with The Nutcracker and Swan ...

Barbican Centre What were you doing at 20 years of age? I was subsisting on a diet of super noodles and Marlboro reds, just starting an eye-opening but physically gruelling course at drama school. I certainly couldn’t claim to have been creating work that challenged and exposed the dance world’s prejudices, along with being of an impressively high calibre consistently. ...

Sadlers Wells Premiering in March 2020 Deluxe only dazzled 7 times before the world closed inward again. But never fear, 2 years on, and a new set of exciting male dancers bring BalleyBoyz’s (almost) lost show back to Sadlers Wells, and thank goodness they did! Michael Nunn and William Trevitt (artistic directors and co-founders of the company) along with being ...

Barbican Hall An evening of Russian classical music and patriotism sounds like a tough sell currently. But despite the raging argument of cultural-canceling the Barbican and BBC Symphony Orchestra’s clever selection and curation prove to be a thought-provoking event. Framing the work and more specifically Symphony No 5 in D minor of Dmitry Shostakovich alongside one of his forming influences ...

‘Petite but perfectly formed offering’ A literal and metaphoric hidden gem, Fin and Lorcan Spiteri’s new venture is a sensation for those in the know. After a leisurely wander along the Regent’s Canal trying to find the place, we are guided by Ella the local cat along a bobbing pontoon to Rose the boat. The culinary fairytale begins here. Saying ...

Sadlers Wells Let me tell you a story. On a sweltering summer evening, a cynical dancer reviewer and a first-time ballet-goer dips their toes into the Dance Reflections Festival. Financed by Van Cleef&Arpels (lovely French bling) and hosted by Sadlers Wells, Royal Opera House, and the Tate modern. It was, as you would imagine a weird and wonderful experience….for the first 45 ...

London Coliseum A brave new version of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s comic opera somersaults into the English National Opera, steamrolling the gleeful audience in the process. Amidst the crumpling chorus of Werther’s Original packets, the Sunday matinee crowd is ready for a classic. However, this innovative production of Cosi fan tutte is directed by Phelim McDermott of Improbable theatre company, and the visual sumptuousness ...

Jazz café “Like a bee to some honey…..you got an addiction” we sure did, addicted insects, buzzing round the aura of Liv Warfield. The Unexpected singer is on a stratospheric rise, from an Illinois upbringing to touring with Prince and his band New Power Generation, and now solo. Along with playing Live on Jimmy Fallon, there is no stopping a ...