overnight reviews

Emma Doran, Leicester Square Theatre review - domestic life laid bare

★★★ EMMA DORAN, LEICESTER SQUARE THEATRE Irish comic mixes sentiment and sauciness

Irish comic mixes sentiment and sauciness

The Irish diaspora in London were out in force for Emma Doran’s appearance at Leicester Square Theatre. Her online work and her appearance on Amazon Prime Video's LOL: Last One Laughing Ireland has gained her a huge fanbase in Ireland and beyond – although she did ask if the English in the room had been dragged along by an Irish pal. In truth, they were probably fans anyway – and would surely have been at the gig’s end.

Music Reissues Weekly: Joe Meek - A Curious Mind

JOE MEEK - A CURIOUS MIND How the Sixties producer’s preoccupations influenced his creations

How the maverick Sixties producer’s preoccupations influenced his creations

A curious mind, indeed. Outer space, and what may be there. Communicating with those in the hereafter. Spooks, vampires and other horror film perennials. The wild west. Deceased rock ’n’ rollers Eddie Cochran and Buddy Holly.

Pop Will Eat Itself, O2 Institute, Birmingham review - Poppies are back on patrol

★★★★★ POP WILL EAT ITSELF, BIRMINGHAM PWEI hit home turf and blow the place up

PWEI hit home turf and blow the place up

As the Poppies’ set at Birmingham’s O2 Academy drew to an end on Friday night, co-vocalist Mary Byker barked into his microphone: “Reform is on the rise? Why is that? We shouldn’t be singing this song anymore”. The song in question had their home crowd pogoing like lunatics and howling back at the stage, “Ich bin ein Auslander auch!” at the top of their lungs.

Janine Harouni, Soho Theatre review - families and surviving them

★★★ JANINE HAROUNI, SOHO THEATRE US comic's slick show about relationships

US comic's slick show about relationships

Write about what you know, they say. And just as her previous show was about imminent motherhood (she performed the show while heavily pregnant) now Janine Harouni brings us This Is What You Waited For, which is about – you’ve guessed it – being a parent.

The American comic, however, doesn’t deliver a mushy paean to her toddler son, although he certainly provides a lot of comedy, not least about his big head and the bragging rights she gets for having birthed him.

The Mastermind review - another slim but nourishing slice of Americana from Kelly Reichardt

Josh O'Connor is perfect casting as a cocky middle-class American adrift in the 1970s

The clatter of cool jazz on the soundtrack announces writer-director Kelly Reichardt’s latest project, the kind of score that back in the day would have announced a film by a maverick new talent. The film, her ninth, has been given a faded and vintage look, tricked out in shades of greige and tan that you see in ageing photos of the 1970s, as if it too was shot then.

Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere review - the story of the Boss who isn't boss of his own head

★★★★ SPRINGSTEEN: DELIVER ME FROM NOWHERE A brooding trip on the Bruce Springsteen highway of hard knocks

A brooding trip on the Bruce Springsteen highway of hard knocks

There’s something about hauntingly performed songs written in the first person that can draw us in like nothing else. As songs from Robert Johnson to Leonard Cohen remind us, they can take us into the mental recesses of their subjects – for instance, malcontents and killers – better even than a novel or a movie. We’re kidnapped by the voice.

Mary Page Marlowe, Old Vic review - a starry portrait of a splintered life

Tracy Letts's Off Broadway play makes a shimmeringly powerful London debut

I came late to the Old Vic's shimmering production of Mary Page Marlowe, Tracy Letts's Off Broadway play from 2018 which has arrived in London with Andrea Riseborough and Susan Sarandon leading a sizable and uniformly excellent cast. And I hope theatregoers will catch this too-short run while they can. Amidst ongoing chat – sometimes justified – about screen stars not being able to hold their own stage, Matthew Warchus's keenly attuned staging proves that just as often they very much can.