Album: Christeene - Midnite Fukk Train

★★★ CHRISTEENE - MIDNITE FUKK TRAIN Boundary-smashing in-yer-face performer's third

Boundary-smashing in-yer-face performer's third album hits musical paydirt

Christeene is not so much a musical entity, as a performative assault, an artist who pushes drag somewhere visceral, caustic, wilfully edgy and defiantly unpolished. The creation of New York-based, Louisiana-raised Paul Soileau, her videos and shows have thus far probably been more important than her albums, but her third raises the bar.

Something in the Air, Jermyn Street Theatre review - evocative London mood music

Peter Gill's new memory play is a wistful recreation of gay loves lost and found

As its title suggests, Peter Gill’s Something in the Air is an elusive piece – it’s about catching at instinct, responding to intuition, bringing together overlapping hints of present and past lives. From these different stories, spun out of lived experience and imagination equally, the octogenarian playwright leaves the audience to craft a whole.

The Doctor, Duke of York's Theatre review - Juliet Stevenson will see you now

★★★★ THE DOCTOR, DUKE OF YORK'S THEATRE Juliet Stevenson will see you now

Robert Icke's whip-smart adaptation puts identity politics on the dissection table

Robert Icke is an expert in corporate tragedy. I don’t mean that in a bad way - just that he has a penchant for taking classics (Hamlet, The Oresteia, Mary Stuart) and transporting them, with the help of designer Hildegard Bechtler, to the frosted-glass doors and pale wood of the boardroom.

Bright Half Life, Kings Head Theatre review - ups and downs of a tender lesbian love affair

★★★ BRIGHT HALF LIFE, KING'S HEAD THEATRE Ups and downs of a tender lesbian love affair

Tanya Barfield reconstructs a simple plot as an absorbing puzzle

A tender love story has arrived at the Kings Head theatre from the US, where its author, Tanya Barfield, is an award-winning playwright for both television and theatre. The plot is simple: two women — one white, one Black — meet in an office where one is a supervisor, the other a science teacher turned temp, and their lives become entwined over the next 25 years.

The P Word, Bush Theatre review - persecution and pride

★★★★ THE P WORD, BUSH THEATRE Two-hander about a contrasting pair of gay Pakistanis

Two-hander about a contrasting pair of gay Pakistanis is beautifully wrought

Britain is a divided nation, but one of the divisions that we don’t hear that much about is that between Pakistani gay men. Written by Waleed Akhtar (who also stars in this impressively heartfelt two-hander), The P Word is about the differences in life experiences between one asylum seeker and one Londoner, and comes to the Bush Theatre in a production which has been supported by Micro Rainbow, the first safe house in the UK for LGBTQ asylum seekers and refugees.

Who Killed My Father, Young Vic review - Hans Kesting excels in this solo show

★★★★ WHO KILLED MY FATHER, YOUNG VIC Hans Kesting excels in this solo show

Édouard Louis’s book is brought to life in a fierce performance

A bare interior with tarnished walls, a single bed, and an oxygen tube. The stage seems to have been set for a Beckett play, but the figure who comes to inhabit this dejected enclosure for 90 minutes is grounded in a far different world.

Album: Beyoncé - Renaissance

★★★★★ BEYONCE - RENAISSANCE Musical life begins at 40: Beyoncé meets highest expectations

Musical life begins at 40 as Beyoncé lives up to the highest expectations

There’s polarising discourse and there’s polarising discourse, and then there’s Beyoncé discourse. On the one hand, there’s “the Bey Hive”: the very model of a furious modern fandom who will boost her and monster her critics at a microsecond’s notice. There are the commentators for whom everything she does is by definition profound, moral and important, regardless of any hypercapitalist excesses and hanging out with dicators’ offspring.

Album: Lizzo - Special

★★★ LIZZO - SPECIAL The latest from one of the hardest working entertainers in showbiz

Is the law of diminishing returns setting in for one of the hardest working entertainers in showbiz?

You can’t really blame Lizzo for playing to her strengths. When she started putting out records some nine years ago, there wasn’t really a niche in the market for a flute playing, twerking, positive-thinking, plus-size rapper-stroke-disco-diva.

Glastonbury Festival 2022: an unexpurgated odyssey around the best party on the planet

★★★★★ GLASTONBURY FESTIVAL The biggest, wildest, most extensive 2022 report of them all

The biggest, wildest, most extensive Glastonbury 2022 report of them all

Last days of June 2022, I sit in my writing hut. My liver is radioactive jelly, my nose reinforced concrete, my leg muscles marathon-cramped, and poisoned perspiration rolls down my forehead, stinging my eyeballs.