Here We Are, National Theatre, review: Stephen Sondheim musical is more Severance than sing-a-long May 8, 2025 Here We Are review and star rating: ★★★★ Stephen Sondheim’s final musical is nothing like his most famous works – in fact, it’s barely a musical at all, but perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised. As Here We Are writer David Ives remarked, the legend relished in challenging his loyal followers with reinvention. “Sondheim makes people crazy [...]
Visit a rooftop bar: London’s best sky-high drinking spots for summer May 8, 2025 Find your favourite rooftop bar: London’s latest openings for 2025 are listed below Provencal themes are jolting drinkers out of the capital and to the south of France this spring, as many of the best London rooftop bars deck out their outdoor areas with escapist design themes. That’s why we particularly love The Culpeper, who [...]
Another Simple Favour review: Blake Lively back after Baldoni battle May 7, 2025 Like her character Emily, Blake Lively launches her new film with an air of suspicion around her. Once one of the most popular stars in Hollywood, recent headlines have been less forgiving following the fallout from her previous project, 2024’s It Ends With Us. The former Gossip Girl star is embroiled in a legal battle [...]
How to fly to New York in style (and why The Devonshire is overrated) May 7, 2025 Flying to New York to visit the Evolv Collection Restaurants last week, I was reminded that the British Airways loyalty scheme conditions had changed. For reference, here are my own (slightly tongue in cheek) rules for any self-respecting ‘City Guy’ visiting Terminal Five: 1. Arrive at the airport in a cab and ask for the [...]
‘I’ve directed Sir David Attenborough for 40 years – these are my best stories’ May 7, 2025 Ocean with David Attenborough is in cinemas from tomorrow – its producer, a longtime colleague of Sir David’s, shares his favourite memories of working with the legendary broadcaster as he turns 99 Here’s a remarkable fact: when TV producer Keith Scholey first worked with Sir David Attenborough in 1983, the nature documentarian was approaching the [...]
Why going all-inclusive in the Maldives gets the best of paradise May 6, 2025 Ruth Jessop was surprised when she feel for all-inclusive life in the Maldives I’m sitting on a tiny seaplane with twelve other people. We’re packed in tightly: there’s barely enough room to stand up, and most of us are knocking elbows with the other passengers, and jetlagged. The journey to the Maldives has been long [...]
Krapp’s Last Tape review: Stephen Rea is sublime May 6, 2025 Krapp’s Last Tape | Barbican | ★★★★☆ Should you have been waiting in earnest for Krapp to show up – not unlike a character in a different Samuel Beckett play – this is your week. At the York Royal Theatre, Gary Oldman takes on the role of the ageing Krapp, reminiscing over audio diaries he [...]
The Vineyard in Berkshire is the perfect pre-summer holiday May 6, 2025 With the weather improving but summer holidays still a way off, it’s the perfect time to cast around for mini-break options closer to home. The UK’s luxury spa market has recovered strongly from the hospitality-wide hit at the beginning of the decade, but how to distinguish between the many options? The Vineyard in Berkshire has [...]
In memory of Richard Vines, a sage and a gentleman May 6, 2025 My friend Richard Vines, chief restaurant critic of Bloomberg for 25 years, passed away this week. A champion of both genius chefs and restaurateurs, he was a wonderful man who I admired hugely. Over the last few days, I have been reminded of some magnificent City lunches with Richard; at Kym’s by Andrew Wong, after [...]
Giant play review: Roald Dahl show is great but not perfect May 3, 2025 Giant play review and star rating: ★★★★ Roald Dahl defied the image we cherish in our minds. He was charismatic, but in a way that masqueraded his poisonous views. He was also an anti-Semite, writing in the New Statesman in 1983 that “there is a trait in the Jewish character that does provoke animosity, maybe [...]