Album: Maggie Rogers - Don't Forget Me

★★★★ MAGGIE ROGERS - DON'T FORGET ME Full of warmth and personable introspection

Rogers continues her knack for capturing natural moments, embracing a more live sound

For the past almost two years, Maggie Rogers has taken an unexpectedly special place in my heart and musical tastes. Upon reviewing her previous album, Surrender, because of the difference in style and sound to my usual tastes I was caught completely off guard.

Combined with just as unforeseen changes in my personal life, Surrender was an unfounded delight that chimed completely at that point in time. Now it’s not just an album, but a time capsule of those summer months of 2022.

Long Day's Journey Into Night, Wyndham's Theatre review - O'Neill masterwork is once again driven by its Mary

★★★★ LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT, WYNDHAM'S THEATRE Patricia Clarkson excels

Patricia Clarkson powers the latest iteration of this great, grievous American drama

Memory is a confounding thing. By way of proof, just ask the Mary Tyrone who is being given unforgettable life by Patricia Clarkson in London's latest version of Long Day's Journey into Night, which has arrived on the West End (and at the same theatre) a mere six years after the previous version of Eugene O'Neill's posthumously premiered masterwork; that one headlined a top-rank Lesley Manville in the same part.

Album: Beyoncé - Cowboy Carter

So much more than an Country album

The second act of a trilogy, launched with “Renaissance” (2022), Beyoncé’s latest release has been loudly proclaimed as her “Country” album. In a tradition of surprising and controversial self-reinventions that includes among others Bob Dylan’s gospel albums and Ray Charles’s “Modern Sounds in Country and Western” (1962), the superstar has once again broken the rules of genre, and done her own all-too-remarkable thing – with the usual brilliance and panache.

Mothers' Instinct review - 'Mad Women'

★★★ MOTHERS' INSTINCT Sixties suburban duel veers between daftness and spooky power

Sixties suburban duel veers between daftness and spooky power

This is a Nineties psycho thriller in Mad Men clothes, undermining its Sixties suburban gloss and Anne Hathaway and Jessica Chastain’s desperate housewives with genre clichés, yet sustained by the courage of debuting director Benoît Delhomme’s un-Hollywood conviction.

MJ the Musical, Prince Edward Theatre review - glitzy jukebox musical with a superb star but a void inside

★★★ MJ THE MUSICAL, PRINCE EDWARD THEATRE It's a great song and dance evening, but the story is an empty one

It's a great song and dance evening, but the story is an empty one

In a secret chamber somewhere, the producers of MJ the Musical may be keeping a portrait of the King of Pop that has acquired all his scars, physical and psychological.

First person: playwright Paul Grellong on keeping pace with American politics

The author of 'Power of Sail' sets the scene for his play's UK premiere

I’m writing this in the lobby of the Menier Chocolate Factory a couple of hours before the first preview. I was last here in February for the start of rehearsals. In the time since, I’ve made a handful of, one hopes, helpful adjustments to the script. I’ll let audiences be the judge of that.

Late Night With the Devil review - indie-horror punches above its weight

Controversy over AI-generated images aside, this is a wholly original film

In Late Night With the Devil, light entertainment rubs shoulders with demonic forces on a talk show. It isn't quite the homerun its 97% Rotten Tomatoes rating would suggest, but this Australian indie production punches above its weight with an effective found-footage concept and lived-in 1970s setting. Regrettably, excitement for the movie's long-awaited cinema release has been dampened by controversy over its makers' use of AI-generated images.

Manhunt, Apple TV+ review - all the President's men

★★★★ MANHUNT, APPLE TV+ Tobias Menzies and Anthony Boyle go head to head in historical crime drama

Tobias Menzies and Anthony Boyle go head to head in historical crime drama

President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated on 14 April 1865, five days after General Robert E Lee’s surrender at Appomatox signalled the end of the American Civil War. The ensuing chase to catch his killer, John Wilkes Booth, is the basis of Manhunt (based on James L Swanson’s book).

Drive-Away Dolls review - larky lesbian road movie with some iffy gear changes

★★ DRIVE-AWAY DOLLS Larky lesbian road movie with some iffy gear changes 

Comic violent caper meets queer romcom, both ending up shortchanged

There’s a Coen brother directing, plus a cast that includes Matt Damon, Pedro Pascal, Oscar nominee Colman Domingo and Margaret Qualley, the standout hitchhiker in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood… so why does Drive-Away Dolls feel so insubstantial?