Album: Little Simz - Lotus

A major hurdle in the UK star's career path proves to be no barrier

Little Simz clearly believes in meeting situations head on. Her sixth full-length album kicks off, in every sense of the phrase, with “Thief”: unambiguously a lyrical barrage at her childhood friend and frequent collaborator Inflo, who Simz is currently suing for alleged failure to repay £1.7 million in loans for ambitious recording and performance projects.

This is My Family, Southwark Playhouse - London debut of 2013 Sheffield hit is feeling its age

★ THIS IS MY FAMILY, SOUTHWARK PLAYHOUSE Play with music engenders a familiar warmth

Relatable or stereotyped - that's for you to decide

MOR. Twee. Unashamedly crowdpleasing. Are such descriptors indicative of a tedious night in the stalls? For your reviewer, who has become jaded very quickly with a myriad of searing examinations of mental health crises and wake up calls about the forthcoming environmental collapse, I often find comfort in material more suited to the large print section of the library. But the show still has to be good and that’s a big challenge when dealing with "smaller" subject matter.

The Rise and Fall of Michelle Mone, BBC Two - boom and bust in the lingerie trade

★★★★ THE RISE AND FALL OF MICHELLE MONE, BBC TWO Boom and bust in the lingerie trade

Life in the fast lane with David Cameron's entrepreneurship tsar

As this two-part documentary vividly illustrates, it has been a wild ride for Baroness Mone of Mayfair, the self-made businesswoman who emerged from Dennistoun in Glasgow’s East End in the Nineties and created the Ultimo Bra. This revolutionary undergarment ingeniously enhanced the wearer’s cleavage, using a silicon gel to mimic the feel of real breast tissue.

Josefowicz, LSO, Mälkki, Barbican review - two old favourites and one new one

★★★★★ JOSEFOWICZ, LSO, MALKKI, BARBICAN Two old favourites and one new one

Julia Perry well worth her place alongside Stravinsky and Bartók

Every now and then a concert programme comes along that fits like a bespoke suit, and this one could have been specially designed for me. Two established favourites from big names of the 20th century plus a new-to-me piece by a forgotten figure worthy of re-discovery.

Lucy Farrell, Catherine MacLellan, The Green Note review - sublime frequencies

★★★★ LUCY FARRELL, CATHERINE MACLELLAN, THE GREEN NOTE Sublime frequencies

Two singer songwriters in their prime deliver a double header showcase in Camden

Lucy Farrell, one quarter of the brilliant, award-winning Anglo-Scots band Furrow Collective, and a solo artist whose stunning debut album, We Are Only Sound, was released in 2023, divides her time between the UK – she’s a native of Kent – and Prince Edward Island, a musically rich parcel of land off Canada’s eastern seaboard. The island is home to the other half of this sublime folk-acoustic double bill, Juno Award-winning songwriter Catherine MacLellan.

The Last Musician of Auschwitz review - a haunting testament

★★★★★ THE LAST MUSICIAN OF AUSCHWITZ A haunting testament

When fine music was played in a death factory

“It is so disgraceful, what happened there,” says Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, in a comment that is the understatement of the century. She is referring to the genocide perpetrated by the Nazis in concentration camps like Auschwitz-Birkenau, where she was held prisoner.

The Gang of Three, King's Head Theatre - three old Labour ghosts resurrected to entertain and educate

★ THE GANG OF THREE, KING'S HEAD THEATRE The big beasts banter 50 years ago

Beautifully written and equally well acted play resonates down the decades

There was a time when the only daytime TV (ex-weekends and ex-Wimbledon fortnight) comprised the annual party conferences and the Trade Union Congress. A seemingly endless parade of indistinguishable middle-aged balding white men, with Barbara Castle’s fiery redhead and Margaret Thatcher’s immovable blonde hairdo the only relief, would grab 15 minutes of fame speechifying on the minutiae of policy, some puffing on pipes, some on full-strength Capstans.

Do Ho Suh: Walk the House, Tate Modern review - memories are made of this

★★★★ DO HO SUH: WALK THE HOUSE, TATE MODERN Memories are made of this

Home sweet home preserved as exquisite replicas

A traditional Korean house has appeared at Tate Modern. And with its neat brickwork, beautifully carved roof beams and lattice work screens, this charming dwelling looks decidedly out of place, and somewhat ghostly. Go closer and you realise that, improbably, the full-sized building is made of paper. It’s the work of South Korean artist Do Ho Suh (main picture).

Dealer's Choice, Donmar Warehouse review - fresh take on a classic about male self-destruction

★★★ DEALER'S CHOICE, DONMAR WAREHOUSE An ideal revisiting of Patrick Marber's play about risking all to move ahead

An ideal revisiting of Patrick Marber's play about risking all to move ahead

Patrick Marber’s powerful debut about gambling men is 30 years old, born as the Eighties entrepreneurial boom was starting to sour but before poker become a game for mathematical whizz kids. What it reveals as it maps the male psyche seems as pertinent as ever.