Sing 2 reivew: Illumination animation has no problem playing the hits February 7, 2022 It’s a tough time for animated movies, as families have tended to stay away from the cinema. This has resulted in the last three Pixar movies going straight to streaming, much to the chagrin of the animators if reports are to be believed. Rivals Illumination don’t seem to have had as much trouble. The wildly [...]
A Number at the Old Vic review: Cloning drama never seems to age February 7, 2022 What is the value of a human life? What makes us who we are? How can we weigh our good deeds against our bad? Does any of this really matter? A Number asks these heavy questions with a remarkable lightness of touch. Among the most commonly-performed of Caryl Churchill’s plays, it’s a blistering hour and [...]
Inside the content creators’ industry, not everything is as glossy as it seems February 7, 2022 Say “influencer economy” to most people and there remains a temptation to shrug it off as a handful of Youtube stars making a few grand here and there for make-up videos. In truth, the influencer economy has become mainstream – almost 50m people around the world consider themselves “content creators”. That spans from impossibly youthful [...]
Frozen the Musical review: A crowd-pleaser that plays the hits February 4, 2022 When Disney’s Frozen hit screens back in 2013, only those hiding under rocks escaped round-the-clock renditions of Let It Go by children across the land. The announcement of an adaptation for theatre, initially on Broadway and then the West End, was hardly a surprise. With an extravagant set featuring icicle-laden bridges, mountain cabins and luxurious [...]
The Glow at the Royal Court review: A messy time-travel conundrum February 4, 2022 Were playwright Alistair McDowall and I to go for a pint, I think we’d get on pretty well. Having seen three of his plays to date – Pomona, X and now The Glow – we seem to share a love of lo-fi sci-fi, dystopian fiction and Lovecraftian horror. Each of his plays have tickled that part of [...]
Creative industries get £50m boost as Tories drive ‘level up’ opportunities February 1, 2022 The government injects £50m into creative industries as the Tories hammer home their level up programme and invest in "world class" arts.
Spotify faces the music amid Rogan row January 31, 2022 How the streaming giant may have taken its podcast push too far
Bacon: Man and Beast at the Royal Academy review January 29, 2022 The galleries of the Royal Academy are shrouded in an appropriate gloom for this Francis Bacon retrospective, the atmosphere part cathedral, part occult gathering. Rather than simply present the works chronologically, which would have been easy given the number of paintings brought together, the RA explores Bacon’s work through a single recurring theme – his [...]
London’s Saatchi Gallery named one of the most ‘Instagrammable’ art galleries in the world January 29, 2022 A new study has revealed that London’s Saatchi Gallery is the third most Instagrammable gallery in the world, with Paris' The Louvre taking the top spot.
Spotify removes Neil Young tunes following Rogan vaccine row January 27, 2022 In a growing sign that the biggest digital tech platforms are becoming effective publishers, Spotify vows to remove Neil Young following a feud over podcaster Joe Rogan’s false Covid claims. In an open letter to his manager and record label this week, Young demanded that his songs be removed from the streaming platform, after he [...]