Alice’s Adventures Under Ground at the Royal Opera House is as mad as a box of frogs. The much-loved children’s tale of delicious nonsense has been condensed into a 55-minute rollercoaster of an opera, written by Irish composer Gerald Barry and directed and designed by Antony McDonald. Anything is possible during this topsy-turvy muchness of…
London Arts and Culture
London Arts and Culture Blog: If culture vulturing is your thing, this is where you'll want to be. Grab a hot seat for the best art and exhibition, opera and classical music, dance and theatre in London. I sometimes head out of of the capital for out-of-town events.
Northern Chords Ensemble at King’s Place
Last updated on May 1st, 2020The Steinway piano was happily purring away on the King’s Place stage on Sunday night, with virtuoso Daniel Lebhardt on keys. He was in the musical company of his other Northern Chords Ensemble bedfellows, Benjamin Baker on violin and Jonathan Bloxham on cello. BBC New Generation Artist Timothy Ridout and…
Review: The Great Gatsby Immersive London
Last updated on October 1st, 2020There was a beckoning green light when I arrived at Gatsby’s Mayfair mansion on Wednesday for The Great Gatsby Immersive London. The night was tender, the drinks flowed, the conversation was titillating, and there was just the right glitter and glitz you’d expect from one of Gatsby’s infamous lawn parties….
Amélie the Musical review
Last updated on March 29th, 2022Merci Amélie the Musical for bringing some much-needed sunshine to a bleak and midwintery London. The petite French girl that we fell in love with in the 2001 film is treading the boards at The Other Palace in a production that’s a billet doux to Paris and is as enchanting as…
Oxford Lieder Festival – Magic, Myths and Mortals
Last updated on March 12th, 2021It’s that melodic time of year again, when Oxford goes into full musical throttle in celebration of classical music and poetry. For two weeks, the city falls under the spell of the Oxford Lieder Festival, which this year transports us to Tales of Beyond – Magic, Myths and Mortals in…
Fleabag Review (and in cinemas)
Last updated on June 2nd, 2021Phoebe Waller-Bridge is the Girl with the Golden Pen. She tickled us with her sassy baddie, Villanelle, from ‘Killing Eve,’ and is currently co-writing the screenplay for the new Bond film, ‘No Time to Die.’ Last night, she thrilled the audience with the return of her one-woman show, Fleabag, at the…
Shake It Up! Festival celebrates Shakespeare’s Shoreditch
Last updated on February 18th, 2021Grab your ruffs, London! The site of Shakespeare’s first London playhouse, The Theatre, is soon to become a permanent exhibition space. Ahead of its opening in March 2020, the Theatre Courtyard Gallery is hosting Shake it Up! A Shakespeare Festival for Shoreditch. The series of events celebrating the Bard and…
Shakespeare’s Rose Theatre pops up at Blenheim Palace
Last updated on May 17th, 2020Be still my beating heart! Shakespeare’s Rose Theatre, last seen in its playful glory in early seventeenth century Bankside, has come to life in a theatrical pop-up in the glorious gardens of Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire. And what a sight it is to behold. Complete with bustling Elizabethan village with…
Fantasio at Garsington Opera
Manolo Blahnik, who has taken up a well-heeled residence at the Wallace Collection in London, would feel right at home on the Garsington Opera stage this summer. That’s because its version of Offenbach’s Fantasio offers a powdering of Marie Antoinette (the Sofia Coppola version) with some flamboyant Commedia dell’Arte thrown in. And whilst poor old…
Review: Andrew Scott in Present Laughter (in cinemas now)
Last updated on December 8th, 2020If you could transplant the hearts face emoji onto humans, then the crowd at the Old Vic last night would have radiated red, pulsating love for Noel Coward’s Present Laughter. That’s because Andrew Scott was in the house, having recently traded in his cassocks from Fleabag, for a much more…