Review: Ellie Blackshaw Solo Violin Recital St Nicholas Church, Brighton
Ellie Blackshaw with her interrogatory musicianship probes corners I've not heard before, indicating these variations. Rapt, rare music making.
Genre: Live Music 0
Review: The Gambler
Chiten Theatre intensifies to a point of light here something barbarous, atavistic, and goes to the heart of nihilism. Still outstanding.
Review: Elise Jasmine Hills Piano Recital St Nicholas Church, Brighton
We’re seeing what looks to be a major pianistic talent in the ascendant.
Review: American Psycho
If you can queue, you’ll be in good company. Jean queued for Les Mis at 6.30 am.
Review: Yohei Nakajjina and Miho Sanou Viola and Piano Recital St Nicholas Church, Brighton
A stunningly symbiotic partnership. Consummate musicians it'll be a pleasure to welcome them back. Again.
Review: Cable Street
This is an event. Break in (without breakages!) if you have to, to see this. You’ll be standing in the aisles to swarm the barricades.
Kitty-Maria Clarke's warm hug of a voice recalls the best kind of popular soprano who'd never be out of her depth in an intimate opera house.
Review: The Playboy of the Western World
An impossible balance, but having seen Playboy at farce-speed, it’s good to weigh in with a loquacious backbeat of despair. Wholly absorbing.
Review: Beauty and the Beast New Wolsey, Ipswich
Possibly the best pantomime now playing, it proves Stone is currently the queen of writing and scoring pantos.
Review: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
This is a virtuoso production like no other you’ll see in one twice as big with a stage twenty times as huge.
Review: Sunny Afternoon
Joe Penhall’s book is outstanding and frankly puts most musical biopics in the shade. His wit and deft charactering of core band and satellites who interact with the complexity of a play, the way the songs move the narrative. Ray Davies’ storytelling and songs are self-recommending. Sunny Afternoon still deserves those awards.
Review: Caroline Goodwin and Zhanna Kemp Soprano and Piano Recital St Nicholas Church
Gorgeously rendered, again with musical discoveries in nearly every song.
Review: Alice in Wonderland
This 23-strong cast triumph in this cavalcade of Carroll. A must-see and pretty outstanding.
Review: Sussex Musicians SMC Chapel Royal
A memorable end of year concert. And all so easily to be heard on the website in a few days.
Review: Here & Now
With young talent like this, no-one need worry just yet about British musical theatre. And that is the best reason to see this silly yet warm-hearted pre-Christmas cracker.
Review: John Collins Organ Recital St Nicholas Church, Brighton
Another exceptional recital from the unique John Collins. We're lucky to have such a scholarly yet consummate recitalist.
Review: Daria Robertson and Jason Pimblett Recital St Nicholas Church, Brighton
Ten gems delivered by two gem-like musicians.
Review: Sussex Musicians SMC Chapel Royal
Real discoveries and delight here. And all so easily to be heard on the website in a few days.
Review: We Are the Lions, Mr Manager
At a time of racialised targeting – a distraction technique born of the very forces Jayaben Desai fought – Grunwick speaks with startling relevance.
Review: Emilia Karaliute Kankles Recital St Nicholas Church, Brighton
A hidden gem of a recital and a consummate performer. Emilia Karaliute must return.
Review: Emily Jennings and Cassandra Mathews
Exquisite and again a hidden gem. Back in February, this duo are already gaining an enthusiastic following.
Review: Sussex Musicians SMC Chapel Royal, Brighton
An almost completely baroque evening with a modernist tail!
Review: Jason Ma and Seth Schultheis Cello and Piano Recital St Nicholas Church, Brighton
A recital both unusually exhilarating and wholly satisfying.
Review: David Lan The Land of the Living
The most moving and theatrically gripping new play I’ve seen for a long time, it’s also the most layered and completely realised. A world that invites ours to ask where on earth we come from.
Review: Hamlet
An outstandingly thought-through Hamlet though, with more of the prince and play in it than I’ve seen. And Giles Terera’s is with the best of recent decades.
Review: Dominic Downs Piano Recital St Nicholas Church
Dominic Downs is entering the 2027 Leeds Piano Competition with luck and here's hoping he'll excel.
Review: Sylvia Akagi and Peter Golden Flute, Guitar and Voice Recital St Nicholas Church, Brighton
A soft September spell.
Review: Death Comes to Pemberley
Stylishness in the fixtures, truth in the lower orders, some superb acting by the likes of Berger, Boyce, and Faulkner, as well as two couples with chemistry.
Review: Berniya Hamie Piano Recital
Hamie's tonal palette is rich beyond her years and her realisation of some of Beethoven's writing is pellucid in a way I've not heard before.
Review: Sense & Sensibility
Austen fans can feel they’re delivered the story’s heft, if not all its socially pinched circumstance. It’s a small gem.
Review: Twelfth Night
The most exuberant Shakespeare out there, and a summer last-blast to make Malvolio weep.
Review: The Wild Washerwomen, Brighton Open Air Theatre
Ella Turk-Thompson has scored something special here.
Review: Agadez and Antonio Forcione: Queendoms Unplugged
New music through the inspiration and creative lens of two outstanding performers.
Review: The Oxford Commas: Aca-demic Weapons
Go spend an afternoon with the Oxford Commas. You will leave knowing more about this venerable part of English history but, more importantly, with a smile on your face and a song in your heart from these enjoyable entertainers.
Review: No Strings Attached – An A Cappella Love Story
A charming and engaging a cappella performance by a talented university ensemble
Review: BBC Prom 35 Gubaidulina , Ravel, Shostakovich Symphony No. 13 Royal Albert Hall
An outstanding Prom. Catch in on BBC Sounds.
Review: Les Misérables
There’s not enough adjectives left to praise this. But there is a verb phrase: see it!
Review: Delusions and Grandeur
Studies show that people forget up to 80% of what they hear within 24 hours. You will not forget Karen Hall – her brilliant playing and her passionate and engaging story.
Review: Trio Cavatina, St Nicholas Church, Brighton
A refreshing recital, full of slant sun in uncertain weather.
Review: You’re An Instrument
You’re An Instrument has young ones mesmerized while the adults laugh and happily play along. It is truly a fun and fascinating day out. It is a must-see for anyone with curiosity and a willingness to have fun in a new style.
Review: The Billy Joel Story
Fringe audiences will be singing at the top of their lungs as Alex Munro and his powerhouse band brilliantly perform the all-time favourite hits of the man that Munro calls “the best songwriter that ever breathed oxygen”.
Review: The Quiet Earth Beneath
A rich and magical journey into memory, loss, ritual and hidden worlds beyond our reach
Review: Ohio
A celebratory true story told through indie folk about losing faith and finding hope in the darkest of places.
Review: John Joubert Jane Eyre, Grimeborn Opera
A gripping romantic opera premiere emerging right out of Dalston. Arcola’s Grimeborn have scored another first with a future.
Review: Paul Gregory Guitar Recital, St Nicholas Church, Brighton
An exhilarating recital, a true gem and above all tribute to the much-missed Richard Bowen.
Review: Extraordinary Women
For a bijou summer in a bottle, this can’t be beaten. Exquisite, painfully funny, and hinting at the depths Mackenzie found to his own chagrin. A gem.
Review: Top Hat
The most joyous musical of the summer. And it has a summer heart that never cloys. A sizzling must-see.
Review: Mercedes Gancedo and Quimey Urquiaga Soprano and Piano Recital St Nicholas Church, Brighton
A treasurable gem of a recital. But remember you can catch them on Friday at St Luke’s Brighton. Do go.
Review: The Merry Wives of Windsor
Sean Holmes has conjured the most intelligently re-thought Merry Wives of recent years with a convincing take on Mistress Ford. The last few gestures in this show change everything that might follow.
Review: Ivan Hovorun Piano Recital St Nicholas Church, Brighton
An exceptionally musical as well as virtuosic climax to a recital alerting is to another world-class pianist.
Review: James Inverne That Bastard, Puccini!
With such a script, cast and production values, this is a sure-fire hit, a gem deserving of longer runs too. Don’t let this be a one-run wonder!
Review: Vivaldi’s Four Seasons by Candelight Sussex String Quartet
Come for the music, if you can afford the ticket. That, and the context framing it will leave you so much richer, despite the weight of your pocket.
Review: Tim Price Nye
Through choreographic sweep, Tim Price crafts a necessary, traditional warning. A must-see with the finest last line since Good.
Review: Emily Jennings and Cassandra Mathews Song and Guitar Recital St Nicholas Church, Brighton
Outstanding. And again at such short notice. Quite the most exhilarating song recital in months.
Review: Girl from the North Country
Girl from the North Country freights a world in a steam whistle. The sheer punch of talent doesn’t come much greater than this.
Review: Kwanita Lau and Charles Tam Violin/Piano Recital St Nicholas Church, Brighton
Outstanding. And at such short notice
Review: Regent Wind Quintet Recital St Nicholas Church, Brighton
An outstanding debut in Brighton for an ensemble already invited to return.
Review: Cruel Intentions
If ever you’ve been crossed in love, double-crossed yourself, or just crossing through, then this is for you. It’s June’s sizzle, all the way to Six, this September.
Review: Tolstoy/Phillip Breen Anna Karenina
Potentially a revelation, perhaps a classic: a fully-articulated world around Anna, and not just her ghost.
Review: Joan Littlewood Oh What a Lovely War
The Merry Roosters forget who they are and come together, awed by the transcendent theatre they’ve invoked. See it.
Review: Beth Levin MOOT Concert Unitarian Brighton
A stunning concert. Beth Levin is a discovered master.
Review: Miaoyan Li Piano Recital St Nicholas Church, Brighton
Exhilarating. On this showing Miaoyan Li promises hugely.
Review: Duty
A fresh and urgent play, Duty should tour as a salutary reminder of how war impacts community, divides war-influenced majority from the few who see through war.
Review: Yoko Ono Piano Recital St Nicholas Church, Brighton
Yoko Ono is a hidden gem of south-coast pianism.
Review: Jonathan McLean Touching it Makes Baby Jesus Cry: The Musical
This can sing all the way to Edinburgh: just stopping off to be publicly burned, along with Jonathan McLean, in the Vatican itself.
Review: Siriol Hugh-Jones and Stephen Carroll-Turner Recital St Nicholas Church
First class performances, idiomatic and immensely satisfying.
Review: Stephen Sondheim, David Ives Here We Are
Altogether this mightn’t be in the top tier of Sondheim musicals, but it’s one of the most interesting, even profound, and Sondheim exits with a rapt question-mark. Unmissable.
Review: John Collins Organ Recital St Nicholas Church, Brighton
Again an unique presentation of lesser-known organ music.
Review: Kenny Fu Piano Recital St Nicholas Church, Brighton April 30th 2025
Superb, something of world class Chopin here.
Review: Eugenia and Quentin Russell Recital St Nicholas Church, Brighton
Niche but nicely judged and worth 53 minutes of a lunchtime away from the burly world
Review: Tending
Essential theatre, essential witness and mandatory for anyone who wants to know how human we have to be, from beginning to end.
