‘Reviving the legend nicely’ I normally avoid tribute acts, grouping them in the same class as magic shows and children’s theatre. Fine for some, but simply not for me. Amy Winehouse, however, is very much a slice of moi, and the 14th of September is a pretty big date in her legacy-what would have been her 42nd birthday. So, it ...
‘Prefect addition to the glowing riot of culture and glitter that is Pride’ Right, I’ll hold up my red-nailed hands. This review is shamefully late, but your reviewer is but a simple homosexual. A man hopefully a little unlike you, considering all the effort I put into rampant individuality-but a human nevertheless. Drinking, overindulging, struggling through the subsequent Pride bacchanal, ...
‘swelling and quietly mournful’ We the assembled shuffle in our finery, clothes dancing with embroidered jasmine and cherry blossom. We wait, breath baited for the glowing diamond of classical music: Lang Lang, unassuming in black with a shock of dark hair, pacing on stage to weave the piano magic we have heard so much about. Starting playing at 3 this ...
‘Introducing both Hrůša and Biss, an utterly blissful experience from start to finish.’ The evening has a sense of celebration, of newly minted and upcoming grandeur. Jakub Hrůša’s face is one we will gladly get used to as he takes up his post as musical director of the Royal Opera House. Tonight, he leads the BBC Symphony Orchestra, weaving fellow ...
‘Leaving a warm feeling’ As a confirmed Londoner, my experience of British wildlife is pretty drab, with flashes of bushy vermilion tails disappearing into my bins. Elsewhere on these storied Isles, I admit to wonder, but rarely is it the focus of the nature industry’s fisheyed lens. The BBC series, headed by our lord and saviour Sir Attenborough, has other ...
‘Stormy, drenched in polluted water and blood’ National Changgeuk Company of Korea Although the traditional Korean art form of Changgeuk, Shakespeare’s King Lear and the Barbican all seem rather randomly thrown together, it’s a delicious concoction that has been brewing for longer than you might have expected. What a way to kick of the 11th year of the K-Music Festival! Now ...
‘Like with any fantasy, reality has a habit of creeping in through the cracks’ Clod Ensemble & Nu Civilisation Orchestra Mea culpa, mea culpa, this review will be part apology, part whinge and hopefully just a little amusing. Picture this, a rushed theatre critic, invited by a trusted PR person to his favourite venue, quickly skims the show’s blurb, sees ...
‘An evening of such delight’ Full-time country music fan, and a part-time alcoholic, the two have always been a match made in heaven for me. But Phoebe Stringer productions prove that the genre has more to it, much much more. I will explain. Picture the scene: an industrial estate, a clear autumn night, a brewery that specifies in low gluten, ...
‘Everything feels skin deep’ Climate change is all the rage right now.. or at least it certainly is raging… Theatre is especially leading the charge while the thing that mainly pollutes, oil, or methane leaks in Turkmenistan for example are sadly lagging behind. Enter into this frantic scrabble of conscious shows “nature songwriter” Erland Cooper and friends. Now I reviewed ...
‘Beautiful music, beautiful sentiment, and at times beautiful animation’ The world is melting as you may have heard, and with those of us of reading age slowly racing towards senility, the children are our only hope. With climate despair rampant it is important to remind young people of the choice and hope inherent in their future. What better way to do that ...