Review: St Nicholas Emmanuel Sowicz Guitar Recital September 11th 2024
A consummate guitarist already marked - by many - for greatness.
Genre: Live Music
Review: BBC Prom 68 Britten A Midsummer Night’s Dream Garsington Opera
A triumphant revival, it’s still the most elusive of Britten’s major operas, easy to enjoy, still hard to fathom the melodic root of.
Review: Greenhouse Festival LAMDA Festival New Directors in association with Orange Tree
Every one of these productions could enjoy a run at the Orange Tree: they’re exciting and accomplished.
Review: The Comedy of Errors
The most intelligent Comedy of Errors I’ve seen since the NT production of 2012 and truer to the play’s temper.
Review: St Nicholas Soprano Mandy Ching Man Liu and Pianist Mia Miaoyan Li Recital
Liu has both power and joy, precision and range. Li as pianist has aplomb and discretion in equal measure
Review: BBC Prom 49 Czech Phil/Hrusa Dvorak Cello Concerto, Suk Symphony No. 2 in c Op 27 Asrael
Hrusa elicits playing of astonishing fire from the Czech Philharmonic. Here, they’re out to convince us Suk’s Azrael is one of the great universal symphonies. And they do. Outstanding.
Review: St Nicholas In Memory of Benjamin Cruft
It would be good to hear far more from this singular ensemble.
Review: In The Mood – A Tribute to Glenn Miller and the Music of the 40s
Delightful evening of big band favourites
Review: Or What’s Left of Us
Sh*t Theatre are lost and found through folk in a show that lingers like a loved refrain
Review: Breathe
A beautifully designed and performed story that is delightful, meaningful and entertaining.
Review: Another Unwasted Evening – The Genius of Tom Lehrer
Antony (Dr H) Hubmayer brings to life the witty and topical tunes of genius composer Tom Lehrer in an hilarious and entertaining hour.
Review: Super Second Rate
This show is an hour of first-rate – not second rate – stunning cello performance, beautiful singing, compelling storytelling, and humour.
Review: The Secret Poetess of Terezin
Lilting soundscapes and passionate singing paint a vivid picture of the moving poems and stories from a gifted World War II concentration camp survivor.
Review: St Nicholas The John Lake Quartet Recital
A summer-rich ensemble that could play in any season.
Review: Pitchblenders: Só Danço Samba
Grab a Caipirinha drink and let this talented band transport you to Carnival in Rio or a café in Paris. You will be moved by the music and inspired by the stories.
Review: Oxford Alternotives: A Cappella Off the Rails!
A fun afternoon of a cappella with Oxford University’s long-running student ensemble. The enthusiasm and joy transmitted by these talented young singers will send you on your way humming with a smile on your face.
Review: Down Under: The Songs That Shaped Australia
Reminisce, then get up and dance to the high energy sounds of Australian pop. This band and the stories told will knock your socks off.
Review: Ventriloquist Queen: A True African Queen
Great for families with children from age 8 and up. But even “kids at heart” (adults) will enjoy her charming presentation and lively music.
A musically riveting, dramatically rather episodic production where the dancers and singers make the best of it
Review: St Nicholas Sylvia Akagi and Peter Golden Recital
A wonderful afternoon, and in its way fortuitous, necessary, and healing.
Review: BBC Prom 23 Rachmaninov: Symphonic Dances, Busoni: Piano Concerto
The London Philharmonic Orchestra with Edward Gardner bring an electrifying, percussive justice to both. One to replay on BBC Sounds.
Review: The Years
This production reminds us it’s often the least theatrical, least tractable works that break boundaries, glow with an authority that changes the order of things.
Review: All Saints Sussex Flutes
First-class and compelling, both compositions and performers. A gem.
Review: Yoon Seok Shin Piano Recital
One of the finest pianists to have played at St Nicholas in recent years.
Review: Oliver!
There’s not a moment in this two-hours-40 where you’re not at the edge of your seat. The best musical revival this year. Don’t wait till it transfers to the West End.
Review: The Hot Wing King
Hall, following Nottage in particular, emerges as one of the most exciting US dramatists.
Review: St Nicholas Hammig String Quartet with Clare Wibberley, St Nicholas
Throroughly recommended.
Review: St Nicholas John Bruzon Recital
Sovereign performance, intriguing sidelights. An immensely satisfying recital.
Review: St Nicholas Kwanita Kwan-Lam Lau & Guangmel Chen Schumann Violin Sonatas
To have these Sonatas played and one after another too, is an absolute privilege, almost a luxury
Review: The Bible in Early Modern Drama: Robert Owen The History of Purgatory
Dr Will Tosh leads a discussion The Bible in Early Modern Drama. Absorbing.
Review: The Hills of California
For nearly any other playwright, this would count as something of a masterpiece.
Review: The Kite Runner
Spellbindingly translated to the stage and here with more power even than before. Don’t miss it.
Review: As You Like It
A first-rate outdoor revival, and easily rivalling what the Globe have to offer.
Review: Suite in Three Keys
A once-in-a-generation masterpiece of revival. This is what we’ve been missing.
Review: That Witch Helen
An absorbing retelling. Whatever Ridewood and Sibyl Theatre tackles next will be worth waiting for.
Review: Richard III
In a female-led cast led by the eponymous Richard III (Michelle Terry) it’s striking that the trio of cursing women is this production’s highlight
Review: The Trials of Magnus Coffinkey
Of the 115 (mostly London) shows I’ve seen this year so far, it ranks as the most profound, and one of the very finest.
Review: Sappho
A bit of theatrical democracy invoking pre-democracy crafts an exquisite irony for a rainy afternoon. Do see it.
Review: Much Ado About Nothing
A triumph of tone, of textual intercourse and tight-reined spirits. Beatrice’s star is dancing. It’ll stay fresh as the feelgood Shakespeare this summer.
Review: St Nicholas Richard Bowen Guitar Recital
Recommended for languorous afternoons such as the burst of May outside.
Review: Little Women
There’s heartbreak and joy here. If you don’t know it, be surprised and moved at this hidden fringe gem, realised by this team in delicately-cut facets.
Review: The Other Boleyn Girl
Mike Poulton’s text gleams and snaps. Lucy Bailey’s production of it thrills and occasionally overwhelms, dazzling in its maze of missteps. A must-see.
Review: An Officer and a Gentleman
What brings this musical home is the drawing-together of threads that hang loose in Act One. And finally you believe in a story that doesn’t flinch from darkness and sings its distress. Thoroughly enjoyable.
Review: St Nicholas Simon Carrey Fauré and Chaminade Recital
Simon Carrey is an exquisite and deeply-musical pianist, wholly in tune with Fauré. I’d love to have heard two hours of him, with an interval.
Review: Neil Crossland Piano Recital, Unitarian Church, New Road Brighton
All in all an outstanding recital. Neil Crossland’s piano recital at the Unitarian Church is again on another level
Review: The Valley of Fear
Blackeyed have kept their telling as lean as Holmes’ hawk-like face, and it pounces. If you admire 221b at all, see it this week.
Review: St Nicholas Duo Brikcius 2 Cello Recital
Overall a richly satisfying recital, letting us into worlds and sonorities, ways of listening to some music we knew, and much we didn’t, that I’d love to hear again. Superb.
Review: Sister Act
In short, a fabulous example of British talent, now endangered, bringing quadruple threat to a magnificent production. Not all such mainstream shows on tour even approach outstanding, but this truly is.
Review: Good-Bye
Wholly absorbing, wholly other, it’s a gem of the Coronet’s dedication to world theatre.
Review: St Nicholas Louis-Viktor Bak Piano Recital
An exceptionally distinguished recital. We’re lucky to have Louis-Viktor Bak, and the Petroff piano might just tempt him – and others – to return.
Review: The Duchess of Malfi
There’s so much to admire here that it’s a happy duty to urge you to see it, if you can, any way you can.
Review: Sleeping Beauty
If you care for ballet and you’re not in Covent Garden every month, see this.
Review: Turning the Screw
This six-hander is a 90-minute announcement of a major talent. An almost flawless play.
Review: King Lear
This smouldering production – fast-talking or timeless - fully engages with the play. It makes almost perfect sense: and two families’ DNA ring true as rarely before.
Review: Oliver!
You’re not going to see anything this special in most (if any) revivals, however luxury-cast. In stripping-back, then regrowing a complete ensemble with even lesser songs, this is the most complete Oliver! we’re likely to see.
Review: Just For One Day
Despite history’s caveats, O’Farrell’s core message isn’t about white saviours or pop stars but how ordinary people unite to change things.
Review: Till the Stars Come Down
Even this early, it’s safe to predict we’ll look back at the end of 2024 and proclaim it as one of the year’s finest.
Review: Othello
With institutional racism and trauma compounded in a feedback loop, this Othello’s a timely, and timeless broadside on everything toxic we inhale and expel as venom.
Review: For Entertainment Purposes Only
Philip Ayckbourn’s songs are the heart of this collection. It’d be thrilling to see a full musical here; and staged in London. Enthusiastically recommended, there’s gems, with more of Ayckbourn’s elegiac sensibility than I’ve ever seen. More of this please.
Review: Cowbois
Cranford’s gone Wild West, via the Court and RSC. Cowbois is of course daft. But it’s magnificent in its silliness, contains wonderful – and truthful – moments. Deadly serious can have you rolling in the aisles and still jump up for the revolution.
Review: Boy In Da Korma
A necessary, engaging, original variation on finding your voice: and a theatrical coup. Acting, writing, directing, video, lighting and tech support, indeed singing are first class. A gem.
Review: Sussex Musicians Club Unitarian Church
Another unique evening, of revelatory and unfamiliar music.
Review: The Good John Proctor
A valuable corrective to anticipate both real events and Arthur Miller’s take on Abigail Williams
Review: Protest Song
Tim Price’s magnificent one-man play reminds us – yells at us - how much we’re all connected, and unless we stand together, how much we lose.
Review: Cold War
Cold War ends with a draining-out of hope in Anya Chalotra and Luke Thallon; a desolate beauty the cast certainly earn.
Review: Bullring Techno Makeout Jamz
Bullring Techno Makeout Jamz is neither complex or fiendishly plotted. But it’s very witty, linguistically inventive and light-hearted: so its downside is highlighted.
Review: Tom’s Midnight Garden
An absolutely first-rate ensemble and they tell the story with all the wide-eyed wonder of a real enchantment, beyond Christmas, beyond, perhaps time. A gem.
Review: Odyssey: A Heroic Pantomime
This compact one hour 45 show must run again. The most inventive, best-written and possibly best-sung panto in Town.
Review: Oh What a Lovely War
Musically directed by Ellie Verkerk the six-strong cast play instruments throughout. They’re a phenomenal team, singing beautifully a capella or in solo. With six young actors mostly fresh out of drama school absolutely at the top of their first game, we’re treated to acting both hungry to prove and yet touched by the world they’ve entered. This is an outstanding production.
