Terri White: Coming Undone review - a British journalist unravels in NYC

★★★★ TERRI WHITE: COMING UNDONE A memoir of benders, blackouts and self-harm

A memoir of benders, blackouts and self-harm

The journalistic addiction-memoir is a crowded genre these days: Details editor Dan Perez chronicles his massive intake of Vicodin and other opioids in As Needed for Pain; New York Times columnist Eilene Zimmerman pieces together her husband’s drug addiction in Smacked, and now Terri White, editor-in-chief of Empire magazine and former editor of Time Out New York, shares with us her benders, blackouts and hospitalisations, somehow combined with an impressive career path, in the vivid, painful Coming Undone.

The Last Five Years, The Other Palace Digital review - socially distanced heartbreak

★★★ THE LAST FIVE YEARS, THE OTHER PALACE DIGITAL Socially distanced heartbreak

Jason Robert Brown's chamber musical has new lockdown resonance

A musical featuring two people who are physically separated? Jason Robert Brown’s work is a shutdown natural – as this new digital theatre version demonstrates.

Theatre Lockdown Special 10: Epic plays from the National Theatre and Broadway alongside voices raised in protest

LOCKDOWN SPECIAL 10 Epic plays from the National Theatre and Broadway alongside voices raised in protest

The state of Britain then and now gets a look-in, as do animals in human form

As lockdown continues, National Theatre at Home has announced its final sequence of plays, and several of the very best are being saved for last. That certainly applies to this week's offering, Small Island, whose dissection of Britain's racist past couldn't be timelier.

Classical music/Opera direct to home 15 - opening up at different rates

CLASSICAL MUSIC/OPERA DIRECT TO HOME 15 Opening up at different rates

The Royal Opera cautiously re-engages, while Sweden and Norway continue apace

It's taken time, but at last we have two major musical figures speaking up for cultural institutions in dire straits. Following a crucial, detailed article by Charlotte Higgins in The Guardian, Simon Rattle and Mark Elder have finally taken up the cudgels as their colleagues in the theatre world have been doing for weeks.

What We Do in the Shadows, BBC Two review - the vampires of Staten Island are back

★★★★ WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS, BBC TWO The vampire of Staten Island are back

Undead in the suburbs: Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi's inspired creation lives on

The first series of What We Do in the Shadows, Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi’s mockumentary about vampires in Staten Island (a TV spin-off from their cult New Zealand-located film) was a joy, and although it’s a hard act to follow, it’s delicious to be reacquainted with these timeless Transylvanian transplants and their mission to conquer the Americas. At least, that’s what their master, a crumbling vampire baron, has told them to do.

A Rainy Day in New York review - one of Woody's later, patchy ones

★★★ A RAINY DAY IN NEW YORK Chalamet and other young stars keep Allen's latest Manhattan fantasy afloat

Chalamet and other young stars keep Allen's latest Manhattan fantasy afloat

Woody Allen’s filmography, like Michael Caine’s, is remorseless, accepting mediocre work to mine more gems than most. Even after his career and this film’s planned 2018 release became collateral damage to #MeToo and a revived child abuse allegation, he has kept directing. A Rainy Day in New York is a thorough résumé of late Woody flaws, but still sparks with residual brilliance.

Take Me to the World: A Sondheim 90th Birthday Celebration, Broadway.com/YouTube review - slick, often sombre, but when funny, hilarious

★★★★ SONDHEIM 90TH BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION Housebound Broadway stars raise a glass

A host of Broadway stars varies the strain in classily done from-home gala

Maybe you can't compare incomparables, but it was instructive to watch this Broadway lockdown gala feting nonagenarian Stephen Sondheim a night after the Metropolitan Opera's galaxy of stars welcoming us into their homes.

Metropolitan Opera At-Home Gala livestream review - classy joy and sorrow in domestic settings

METROPOLITAN OPERA AT HOME GALA Classy joy & sorrow in domestic settings

Top voices giving generously to raise funds in often dodgy Skyped sound

So many of the world's great opera singers inviting us to look through the keyhole at a carefully presented version of their lockdown lives over four very variable hours, such bad sound for the most part (Skype, like Zoom, catches the voice but loses the accompaniment).