The Last Five Years, Southwark Playhouse review - an inspired actor-musician take on a cult classic

★★★★ THE LAST FIVE YEARS, SOUTHWARK PLAYHOUSE Inspired actor-musician takes on cult classic

Jason Robert Brown's conceptual relationship musical gets an enriching new layer

There’s concept on top of concept in this revival of Jason Robert Brown’s beloved 2001 musical, which charts the ebb and flow of a relationship by juggling timelines: aspiring actress Cathy’s story is told in reverse chronological order, while aspiring writer Jamie’s moves forward. It’s an apt framing for a couple who are never on the same page, their dual ambitions and relative success wrenching them apart.

Album: Moby - All Visible Objects

★★ MOBY - ALL VISIBLE OBJECTS Too many clouds

US electronic dance perennial takes a rare stumble with his bombastic latest

Moby is perhaps better known these days for his two ultra-candid biographies, Porcelain and Then It Fell Apart, than he is for his massive album successes of two decades ago. His memoirs are compulsive, unique windows into the screwed up life of an intellectually inquisitive, punk rock-spirited, rave nerd who accidentally, briefly experienced superstardom.

Gerde's Folk City at 60, The Iridium, New York City - a celebration of the legendary folk club

★★ GERDE'S FOLK CITY AT 60, THE IRIDIUM The Greenwich Village coffee house that drove the New York folk revival

Remembering Gerde's, the Greenwich Village coffee house that drove the New York folk revival

Fifty-nine years to the day, 24 January 1961, that a young college dropout named Robert Zimmerman clambered out of a car on the Manhattan end of the George Washington Bridge, having hitchhiked across the country to reinvent himself as Bob Dylan, the sixtieth anniversary of the club where his career was launched was celebrated.

The Sunset Limited, Boulevard Theatre review - all talk, no theatre

★★ THE SUNSET LIMITED, BOULEVARD THEATRE All talk, no theatre

Cormac McCarthy two-hander tries an audience's patience

Cormac McCarthy’s two-hander, premiered at Chicago's mighty Steppenwolf Theatre in 2006, has by this point been everything short of an ice ballet: a self-described “novel in dramatic form”, as one might expect from the American author of such titles as All the Pretty Horses and The Road, followed by a film made for TV directed by, and starring, Tommy Lee Jones, opposite Samuel L Jackson.

Uncut Gems review - relentless tale of gambling and the diamond trade

★★★★ UNCUT GEMS Relentless tale of gambling and the diamond trade

Adrenaline fuelled portrait of a gambler running out of luck

The Safdie brothers, Josh and Benny, once programmed a season of films entitled Emotional Sloppy Manic Cinema, and if sloppy is subtracted from that description, it’s a pretty accurate summation of their work here in Uncut Gems. This is edge-of-the-seat filmmaking, with vertiginous camerawork by Darius Khondji and a relentless, immersive soundscape of electronica and layered dialogue.

Celebrating the musicals of Jerry Herman (1931-2019)

JERRY HERMAN (1931-2019) The legacy of an immortal lyricist and composer

An immortal lyricist and composer leaves us plenty to be joyful about

How is it that, in the nearly 900 pages of Sondheim's collected lyrics with extensive comments Finishing the Hat and Look, I Made a Hat, with numerous special boxes celebrating other composers and lyricists, he managed to mention Jerry Herman only once, and in passing?

DVD/Blu-ray: Buddies

★★★★ DVD/BLU-RAY: BUDDIES The first feature to address evolving AIDS pandemic retains real laconic power

The first feature to address evolving AIDS pandemic retains real laconic power

The acclaim of being the first to represent the mid-1980s AIDS pandemic in cultural form was a plaudit that none of those concerned would ever have wished for. With New York as its epicentre, and almost nothing known about the disease that was hitting at the heart of the city’s gay community, such early attempts were tentative, the boundaries between personal and political still rough.

CD: Josh Rouse - The Holiday Sounds of Josh Rouse

★★★ JOSH ROUSE - THE HOLIDAY SOUNDS OF JOSH ROUSE  Undemanding Christmas confection

Likeable singer-songwriter serves up an undemanding Christmas confection

Nebraska-born singer-songwriter Josh Rouse made his name in Nashville and has spent the past 15 years living in Spain, and his latest offering gathers together elements of both sides of the Atlantic in a meandering, twinkling collection of Christmas songs.

CD: Gang Starr - One of the Best Yet

Back by dope demand? Guru raps from beyond the grave on a mixed album

Before the days of stardom on Jay-Z and Kanye’s scale, before Brooklyn became a millionaire’s playground, Gang Starr were deeply influential in hip hop and became pioneers of jazz rap.

Classical CDs Weekly: Coates, Dvořák, Martinů, Peñalosa

CLASSICAL CDS WEEKLY British light music, two Czech piano concertos and sacred sounds from 16th century Spain

British light music, two Czech piano concertos and sacred sounds from 16th century Spain

 

Coates WilsonEric Coates: Orchestral Works, Vol. 1 BBC Philharmonic/John Wilson (Chandos)