theatre

  • Liz Carr calls for venues to consider facemask-only shows

    The Silent Witness star called for theatres to offer 'Covid-safer' performances for the vulnerable.

  • Phoenix Rising, review: Evan Rachel Wood’s searing allegations against Marilyn Manson

    In February 2018, the actress Evan Rachel Wood appeared in front of US Congress to testify about her personal experience of rape and sexual assault. She shared a number of highly distressing details about the abuse she says she had suffered, but the name of her abuser was not among them. That followed three years later in a brief message posted on Instagram: Wood alleged it was Marilyn Manson, the controversy-courting rock star with whom Wood had shared a highly publicised relationship in the la

  • Fatal Attraction, Theatre Royal Brighton review: lacks the psychological hinterland of the film

    Though a Hollywood hot property – a top-grossing cultural phenomenon in 1987 – Fatal Attraction drew a less enamoured critical reaction with its eventual stage incarnation, ranging from lukewarm approval to icy disdain.

  • Gainsborough's Blue Boy, National Gallery review: hurry to meet him, before he's gone again

    Whoever he is, he’s back. Exactly a hundred years ago, The Blue Boy, Thomas Gainsborough’s full-length portrait of about 1770, was honoured with a three-week valedictory display at the National Gallery, after the Duke of Westminster sold it to the American tycoon Henry E. Huntington for a record price. Ninety thousand people turned up to bid this much-loved masterpiece of British art farewell, touched, perhaps, by its vision of innocent youth when the losses of the First World War were still raw

  • We Need to Talk About Cosby, review: tries too hard to tell a story bigger than Cosby

    Bill Cosby was “America’s Dad” but also a wise and fatherly presence in the lives of the millions around the world who watched his Eighties sitcom The Cosby Show. And so the revelation in 2014 that he had, across the span of his career, drugged and raped dozens of woman created global headlines. Years before Harvey Weinstein, the scandal ignited a debate about sexual violence, Hollywood power dynamics and predators hiding in plain sight.

  • American Girl is a gentle boat ride through kinship

    American Girl won five awards at the 58th Golden Horse Awards in Taipei, including best new performer for young star Caitlin Fang and best new director for Feng-I Fiona Roan.

  • Andrew Lloyd Webber says it's 'heartbreaking' to see theatre industry 'decimated' amid pandemic

    The theatre impresario has been vocal throughout the pandemic about its impact on the industry.

  • Why Michael Ball won't whistle in the theatre

    Michael Ball reveals the surprising reason he won't whistle in a theatre, and why he's shouted at kids for doing it before.

  • Over 50 live performances in Singapore to help you live it up for the rest of 2021

    There's a whole bevy of live productions to entertain you for the rest of 2021.

  • Comedian Kumar to perform at Sands Theatre for the first time

    In an episode of We Chat With, Kumar gets real with Yahoo Life SEA as he delves into his mental health, axing toxic friends from his phonebook and stressing the importance of art in today's climate.

  • Hannah Waddingham: I asked the universe for 'Ted Lasso' role, and now I've been Emmy nominated

    Hannah Waddingham has spoken out following the rush of Emmy nominations for Ted Lasso, saying that she asked the universe for the role to come along for her.

  • Hitchcock, Conrad and literary exile: Colm Tóibín on his hero Brian Moore

    In 1965, the Irish novelist Brian Moore found himself in Hollywood working with Alfred Hitchcock on the film Torn Curtain, for which he wrote the script. “I told Hitch one day that my father was a doctor, and that I knew death was often a long and painful business. People didn’t always die as quickly as they did in movies. As soon as I said that, Hitch...went mad thinking of all the ways we could prolong a murder scene.”

  • Andrew Lloyd Webber says 'theatre is on its knees' as he aims more criticism at government

    The musical impresario said the government needs to understand the value of theatre to the economy, as it 'cannot function with this current system'.

  • Copenhagen, Theatre Royal Bath, review: Nazis, atomic physics and an enduring mystery

    If you’re going to put any Michael Frayn play on the stage, amid the chronic uncertainty around theatrical activity, then it seems most appropriate to reach for that copper-bottomed modern classic, Copenhagen. It entails three actors, no singing or dancing, and enough food for thought to ensure that the audience members at Theatre Royal Bath would be stocked up if the shutters came down again. An insistently cerebral, near-sepulchral affair, it handles the real-life 1941 encounter in the Nazi-oc

  • From Adele to Elvis: the 10 best Bob Dylan cover versions

    Amazingly, not everyone likes Bob Dylan’s voice. Back in 1965, Mitch Jayne of bluegrass band The Dillards compared Dylan’s singing to “a dog with its leg caught on barbed wire,” an insult that has followed the great man around ever since. David Bowie called it “a voice like sand and glue” in his 1971 Song for Bob Dylan, although I think he meant it as a compliment. I’ve lost count of the number of people over the years who have told me they can’t listen to Dylan because “he can’t sing.” They are wrong, of course. Dylan is a gloriously gifted vocalist who always finds distinctive ways to deliver the meaning, intent and emotion of his audaciously lyrical and flowingly melodic songs, whether expressing the aching longing of Visions of Johanna, the surrealist scorn of Ballad of a Thin Man, the tender despair of She’s A Big Girl Now, the righteous defiance of Hurricane, bluesy lust of New Pony or bittersweet regret of Most of the Time. His pipes may have become increasingly ragged and torn by a lifetime of smoking and gigging, yet his ability to put himself deep into the mysterious fabric of his songs is undiminished on his most recent and quite extraordinary album, 2020’s Rough and Rowdy Ways. It may not be particularly smooth and lovely, and sometimes his tuning is suspect and delivery eccentric, but when Bob Dylan sings, it always sounds like the truth. Still, his voice is evidently not for everyone. Yet it would be a shame for it to act as a bar to an appreciation of his art. For Bob Dylan has created one of the greatest bodies of work by any songsmith in the history of our musical species, hundreds and hundreds of elaborately conceived songs spanning a huge array of styles and genres, incorporating folk, country, blues, gospel, jazz and pop, from ornate ballads to fierce rockers and other strange and poetic styles he practically invented himself. Fortunately, there has been no shortage of singers eager to bring their own interpretations to Dylan’s oeuvre, almost certainly the most covered catalogue of songs in pop apart from that of the Beatles. Over a thousand artists have recorded many thousands of versions of Dylan’s songs, in styles varying from heavy rock (Guns ‘N Roses blistering assault on Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door) to reggae (Bob Marley & the Wailers released a weirdly jaunty adaptation of Like a Rolling Stone in 1966). Some cover versions are more famous than Dylan’s own. Indeed, the gnarly young singer first rose to prominence when squeaky-clean folk trio Peter, Paul & Mary had a number two hit in America with Blowin’ in the Wind in 1963, a song subsequently recorded over 60 times by some of the finest singers in pop history, including Joan Baez, Stevie Wonder, Sam Cooke, Etta James, Elvis Presley, Dionne Warwick and Neil Young.

  • The 92 films to win Best Picture at the Oscars, from Wings to Parasite

    After Parasite's mould-breaking win at the 2020 awards, the running for Best Picture looks to be another historic year, with two women nominated in the Best Picture and Best Director categories for the first time ever. In the run-up to the Oscars 2021 ceremony on Saturday April 25 (Sunday 26, 12.30am for UK viewers), we take a look back at all 92 Best Picture winners, exploring such cinematic landmarks as the transition into Technicolour and the surprise win that beat Citizen Kane to the Best Picture title. Oscars Best Picture winners list 1. 1929: Wings

  • 'Game of Thrones' stage show in development for West End and Broadway

    The play will cover the Great Tourney at Harrenhal, where Jaime Lannister and Ned Stark were among those in attendance.

  • The best theatre shows to book tickets for in 2021, in London and the UK

    Whether you're a fan of drama, comedy or music, theatres offer something for everyone. Shows and performances are as varied as ever this year and include classics such as Hamlet and Wicked as well as also newcomers like Michele Lee’s Rice.

  • Pubs, theatres, sport events dealt a blow as UK government puts pin in vaccine passport idea

    Pubs, theatres and sports events have been among the businesses hit hard by coronavirus lockdowns.

  • The 100 greatest novels of all time

    Hairy-toed hobbit Frodo leaves home to defend the world from dark forces by destroying a cursed ring, in Tolkien's epic trilogy. WH Auden thought this tale of fantastic creatures looking for lost jewellery was a “masterpiece”.