Steve, Seven Dials Playhouse review - everything’s charming, except the script

Award-winning hymn to Stephen Sondheim leans too heavily on in-jokes

Steven (David Ames) is having a birthday party. He’s invited his closest friends – two of whom have recently started dating their personal trainer, Steve – and his partner, of course: Stephen (Joe Aaron Reid). Their eight-year-old son, Stevie, is being babysat by his grandma. Even the handsome Argentine waiter (Nico Conde) is called Esteban.

The Choir Of Man, Arts Theatre review - old school hits in an old school pub

★★ THE CHOIR OF MAN, ARTS THEATRE Decent blokes sing old school hits in an old school pub

Lots of songs and lots of sugary sentimentality

Like a previous occupant of this venue, Six, The Choir Of Man started life as a quirky Edinburgh show and has gone on to be staged around the world to adoring audiences, tapping into a vibe that’s as much about participation as viewing, the show as much a gig as a musical.

Album: James Blake - Friends That Break Your Heart

★★★★ JAMES BLAKE - FRIENDS THAT BREAK YOUR HEART An engagingly varied set

Our James Blake-phobic reviewer has to admit the singer's latest has much to admire

There I was, gleefully prepared to give this a good kick-in but, annoyingly, it’s defied my expectations. I’ve come to associate James Blake’s singing with the worst excesses of I’m-so-vulnerable-me, post-Jeff Buckley, falsetto-voice-breaking, and his public persona with joylessly prescriptive and enfeebled ultra-wokeness.

Bagdad Café, Old Vic review - sweet but scattershot

★★★ BAGDAD CAFE, OLD VIC Stage adaptation needs more narrative drive

Stage adaptation of 1987 film needs more narrative drive

A gorgeous song exists in search of a show to match over at Bagdad Café, the 1987 film that gave the world the memorably plaintive "Calling You", which is threaded throughout Emma Rice's stage adaptation of the movie with understandable insistence.

Last Easter, Orange Tree Theatre review - over-performative and strangely off-putting

★★★ LAST EASTER, ORANGE TREE Over-performative and strangely off-putting

The lighting's gorgeous, but Bryony Lavery's drama about theatre friendships never quite clicks

Last Easter has become a lot more relatable since it was forced to postpone this run at the Orange Tree Theatre, originally scheduled for 2020.

Edward St Aubyn: Double Blind review - constructing 'cognition literature'

★★★ EDWARD ST AUBYN: DOUBLE BLIND Constructing 'cognition literature'

Psychoanalysis meets fiction in this original study of human emotion

If it weren’t for the warning on the blurb, the first chapter of Double Blind would have you wondering whether you’d ordered something from the science section by mistake. It's a novel that throws its reader in at the deep end, where that end is made of "streaks of bacteria" and "vigorous mycorrhizal networks" that would take a biology degree (or a browser) to decipher.

Dolly Alderton: Ghosts review - a love story beyond romance

★★★★ DOLLY ALDERTON: GHOSTS A light but enjoyable examination of the life of the new thirty-something

A light but enjoyable examination of the life of the new thirty-something

There’s something simultaneously cringey and also addictive about Dolly Alderton’s prose. Ghosts is definitely feminism lite, a palimpsest for young women in London who are into yoga and small plates. But that is not to detract from the fact that it is eminently readable, and frequently charming.