The Staircase, NOW review - addictive dramatisation of real-life murder investigation

★★★★ THE STAIRCASE, NOW Colin Firth visits the dark side as suspected killer Michael Peterson

Colin Firth visits the dark side as suspected killer Michael Peterson

The real-life case of Michael Peterson and the death of his wife Kathleen in 2001 has generated a steady stream of TV documentaries, though this new series from HBO Max (showing on NOW) is the first time anybody has actually dramatised the story. With Colin Firth as Michael and Toni Collette as Kathleen, it’s a compelling mix of conspiracy theory, forensic detective thriller and legal drama, bristling with false trails and tantalising clues.

Everything Everywhere All at Once review - brace yourself

★★★ EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE Pick 'n' mix assortment of martial arts, sci fi, family drama, and existential angst

Pick 'n' mix assortment of martial arts, sci fi, family drama, and existential angst

Everything Everywhere All at Once is one of those films that are guaranteed to make an audience feel their age. Unless you’re steeped in the multiverse genre (The Matrix films, the Marvel canon, etc.) and are comfortable with absurdist pop culture memes, it may well leave you reeling. Brace yourself for two hours and 20 minutes of handbrake-turn jokes and surreal, comic action sequences. 

Oklahoma!, Young Vic review - a stunning, stripped-down version of the classic musical

OLIVIER AWARDS 2023 - Best Musical in revival OKLAHOMA! & Arthur Darvill, Best Actor, musical

Rodgers and Hammerstein revival goes to the dark heart of the story

No surreys, fringes or corny chap-slapping: the Rodgers and Hammerstein revival that has arrived at the Young Vic from New York, trailing a Tony award, is no ordinary makeover. Daniel Fish, its director, has spent the best part of 15 years stripping down and remodelling the 1943 original.

Doctor Strange in The Multiverse Of Madness – not strange, not mad

★★ DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS Freakery falls flat as Marvel mislays its heart

Freakery falls flat as Marvel mislays its heart

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is at its most radical and corporate here; maybe decadent is the word. We start with surgeon turned sorcerer Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) threatened then slaughtered in a cosmic chase sequence. It’s just a dream, then it isn’t, and so is/isn’t pretty much everything that follows. For a film due to be a huge mainstream hit, Doctor Strange in The Multiverse Of Madness is narratively anarchic, and dependent on degree-level knowledge of MCU arcana, clearly feeling, as this franchise invincibly warps and morphs, that we’ll take anything now.

Kožená, LSO, Rattle, Barbican review - Berlin to Broadway, and back

KOŽENÁ, LSO, RATTLE, BARBICAN A Kurt Weill evening with more polish than grit

A Kurt Weill evening with more polish than grit

As Walter Huston croaked in 1938, it’s a long, long while from May to December. And Kurt Weill – who wrote his evergreen “September Song” for Huston in that year – spanned several musical epochs within not so many years as he travelled from the Weimar avant-garde to Hollywood and Broadway.

First Person: playwright Naomi Wallace on finally hearing her work performed in English

FIRST PERSON: NAOMI WALLACE The playwright on finally hearing her work performed in English

Set in America, 'The Breach' was first seen in Paris, as its author explains

The Breach is a coming of age story and an age-in-the-making story. The play takes place in the U.S. in the 1970s and 1990s, switching back and forth between teenagers in Louisville and their older selves 15 years later. The promise of the 1970s in the US (and UK) when inequality was actively being reduced, and the undoing of that potential, are played out amongst this group of young friends.  

Bonnie & Clyde, Arts Theatre review - great songs, but plot fires too many blanks

★★★ BONNIE & CLYDE, ARTS THEATRE Great songs but plot fires too many blanks

Iconic couple shoot for West End success

One of the more irritating memes (it’s a competitive field, I know) is the “Name a more iconic couple” appearing over a photo of Posh and Becks, or Harry and Megan, or Leo and whoever. I’ve always been tempted to close the discussion down with a photo of Bonnie and Clyde, because couples do not come more iconic than they are. 

Wolf Cub, Hampstead Downstairs review - haunting solo play about the American nightmare

★★★★ WOLF CUB, HAMPSTEAD DOWNSTAIRS Haunting solo play about American nightmare

Ché Walker directs his savage play, with a stellar turn from Clare Latham

Ché Walker claims he wrote Wolf Cub, now in the Hampstead Downstairs studio space, in a two-day blitz prompted by Donald Trump’s election win in 2016. He was working in Atlanta at the time, the home city of Claire Latham, the solo performer for this piece.

Album: Camila Cabello - Familia

Leaning into the global Latin pop explosion to charming effect

The global popularity of Latin music in the past few years is almost incomprehensibly huge. 2017’s “Despacito” by Puerto Rican Luis Fonsi was the point where it became clear that Latin America – like South Korea – was now operating entirely on its own pop terms and making the rest of the world dance to its beat. And a look at global streaming charts will show consistently vast figures for artists like Brazil’s Anitta whose “Envolver” is currently the worldwide no.1 single with streams in the hundreds of millions.  

Album: Jack White - Fear Of The Dawn

Rock reupholstered for a hip-hop world, in outraged, hungry songs

Jack White is still unsatisfied, and rock’n’roll still unfinished business for its most extremist exponent. His last pre-pandemic album, Boarding House Reach (2018), seemed a major blow to his career, its experiment in warped dynamics and Beat spoken-word relatively rejected, despite its chart-topping start, a setback barely arrested by the Raconteurs’ reunion.