Aladdin at the Prince Edward Theatre review: A gloriously magical and hilarious production that hits all the right nostalgic notes June 16, 2016 Prince Edward Theatre | ★★★★☆ Musicals inspired by Disney films have a chequered track record. Luckily, Aladdin joins The Lion King and Mary Poppins in the halls of success, leaving Tarzan and The Little Mermaid in the doldrums where they belong. While there were some children in the audience, most appeared to have been dragged along [...]
The Conjuring 2: The Enfield Haunting film review: An overlong, but well-crafted horror with a genuinely unpleasant demon June 16, 2016 Dir: James Wan | ★★★☆☆ The world’s creepiest couple, Ed and Lorraine Warren, return to investigate another paranormal case. This time, they’ve been asked by the Catholic church to visit somewhere more diabolical than their supernatural adventures have ever taken them: Enfield, north London. Described as “England’s Amityville”, they find a poverty-stricken single-parent family who are [...]
The Tate Modern extension will help transform the gallery into the world’s most cutting edge art space June 14, 2016 It’s been 14 years in the planning, it’s four years overdue, and it cost £260m. But the extension to the Tate Modern will finally throw it’s doors open to the public on Friday. So has the project, the recipient of the largest cultural fundraising effort ever seen in the UK, been worth the wait? Has [...]
The Deep Blue Sea review: Terrence Rattigan’s evocative portrayal of post-war Britain’s uncertain future June 9, 2016 National Theatre | ★★★★☆ This new production of Terrence Rattigan’s 1952 play evokes brilliantly both the uncertainty of the decade in which it was written and its universal insights about relationships. It opens with a bungled suicide: Hester Collyer (played by Helen McCrory), the estranged wife of a judge, has tried to gas herself but forgot [...]
Where to Invade Next review: Michael Moore back on form with film that questions US’s place in the world June 9, 2016 WHERE TO INVADE NEXT (15) | Dir. Michael Moore Michael Moore is back behind and in front of the camera for his first film in six years. The baseball capped antagonist visits several countries across Europe to see their approaches to issues including commerce, education, crime and healthcare, hoping to bring home ways to improve the [...]
Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 2016: blockbuster works by Marina Abramović, Gilbert and George and Eva & Adele overshadow the brilliant up-and-coming talent June 9, 2016 British sculptor Richard Wilson coordinates the 248th annual Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, the world’s largest open submission art show. It’s naturally a mammoth, exhaustive exhibition, taking up most of the RA’s main galleries, its walls crammed with images competing for attention. With more than a thousand pieces on display, how does one begin to digest [...]
The Spoils at Trafalgar Studios review: Jesse Eisenberg’s twitchy performance papers over dramatic cracks June 8, 2016 The Spoils | Trafalgar Studios | ★★★☆☆ You can see why Jesse Eisenberg attracts comparisons with Woody Allen: both excel in playing (and writing) self-obsessed men whose acerbic wit fails to mask their social ineptitude. Eisenberg’s third play as writer-actor – the first to transfer to London – feels like the apotheosis of this: his [...]
Fashion photographer Miles Aldridge took these amazing Polaroids of his raunchy shoots June 6, 2016 British fashion photographer Miles Aldridge is famed for his vivid, highly stylised photographs, saturated in colour but drained of emotion. His models stare blankly at nightmarish explosions of ketchup or broken crockery in recurring pastiches of 1950s domesticity. His photographs are meticulously crafted, his frames arranged and composed with all the precision of a painter [...]
Bhupen Khakhar at the Tate Modern review: LS Lowry meets Henri Rousseau in this touching chronicle of life in India June 6, 2016 Bhupen Khakhar | Tate Modern | ★★☆☆☆ This impressive collection of Bhupen Khakhar’s work is a deeply personal journey through the life of India’s most revered pop artist. It flits from his wide-eyed early paintings of life on the subcontinent to his darker, more blurred work that grapples with his homosexuality (much of which was made [...]
This boozed-up and Giamatti-less theatre production of Sideways fails to live up to its big screen cousin June 3, 2016 St James Theatre | ★★☆☆☆ If you could forget about Sideways, the Oscar-winning film starring Paul Giamatti, this play (by the author of the original novel but based on the movie) would be a passable if unremarkable comedy. But the film does exist: it’s a brilliant, poignant exploration of obsession. This production is a poor cousin [...]