New York
Walter Becker, 1950-2017 - 'we play rock and roll, but we swing when we play'Wednesday, 06 September 2017
The death of Walter Becker last weekend brings to an end one of the great double acts of rock history. Becker’s partnership with Donald Fagen, with whom he created Steely Dan, has left a legacy of music which seems destined to be at least as... Read more... |
Citizen Jane review - portrait of a New York toughieThursday, 10 August 2017
When you’re next strolling through Washington Square Park, or SoHo, or the West Village, you can thank Jane Jacobs that those New York neighbourhoods have survived (though she'd blanch at the price of real estate). Four-lane highways almost... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: RamonesSunday, 23 July 2017
Production gloss and deliberation are not notions immediately springing to mind while pondering the 1976-era Ramones. Even so, this new edition of their second album, the ever-wonderful Leave Home, reveals that careful consideration was given to how... Read more... |
Spider-Man: Homecoming review - fresh, funny version of the arachnid avengerWednesday, 05 July 2017
First introduced into the burgeoning “Marvel Cinematic Universe” in last year’s Captain America: Civil War, Tom Holland’s incarnation of Spider-Man is another triumph for this exuberant franchise (even if some might feel a pang for the fine and... Read more... |
Bat Out of Hell, Coliseum review - Jim Steinman's rockin' dystopia hits the stageWednesday, 21 June 2017
Opera-lovers coming to St Martin's Lane may feel confused to be confronted by an unrecognisable Coliseum, which now has huge girder-like structures adorning the stage and ceiling and a rather ugly skyscraper looming out of the wings, called Falco... Read more... |
Norman review - revelatory Richard Gere in mesmerising New York taleWednesday, 07 June 2017
“You’re like a drowning man trying to wave at an ocean liner,” says lawyer Philip (Michael Sheen) to his uncle Norman Oppenheimer (Richard Gere as you’ve never seen him before – a revelation). “But I’m a good swimmer,” replies Norman, feverishly... Read more... |
Annie review - a 12-year-old star is bornTuesday, 06 June 2017
Forty years after Annie swept on to Broadway, brimming with shining-faced optimism amidst wearying times, along comes Nikolai Foster's West End revival of the show to do much the same today. A tentative-seeming Miranda Hart may be the name player,... Read more... |
On the Town review - triple threat Danny Mac and co are unmissableThursday, 01 June 2017
On 8 April 1952, screenwriters Betty Comden and Adolph Green were chatting to Charlie Chaplin at a party when he started raving about a picture he’d seen the previous night at Sam Goldwyn’s house. It was called Singin’ in the Rain – had they... Read more... |
DVD/Blu-ray: CatfightFriday, 05 May 2017
Catfights can be entertaining, till the blood starts to flow – or, as in Onur Tukel’s brutal social comedy, you take turns putting your opponent in a coma. During three increasingly ritualised donnybrooks, Anne Heche and Sandra Oh batter past the... Read more... |
City of Glass, Lyric Hammersmith review - ‘thrilling and enthralling Paul Auster adaptation’Thursday, 27 April 2017
Playwright Duncan Macmillan has had a good couple of years. In 2015, his play People, Places and Things was a big hit at the National Theatre, winning awards and transferring to the West End. His other plays, often produced by new-writing company... Read more... |
Ma, New York Philharmonic, Gilbert, BarbicanMonday, 03 April 2017
John Adams, greatest communicator among living front-rank composers, zoomed into the follow-spot for the second and third concerts of the New York Philharmonic's Barbican mini-residency. Harmonielehre, his first epic symphony in all but name, and... Read more... |
I'm Gonna Pray for You So Hard, Finborough TheatreThursday, 09 March 2017
In I’m Gonna Pray for You So Hard, Halley Feiffer has written a right curmudgeon of a central role. David is a successful playwright, a Pulitzer Prize-winner who has no difficulty slotting himself directly into the great American drama tradition. He... Read more... |
