The Score is a strange and unusual musical – but not in a good way September 14, 2022 The Score’s writer-director Malachi Smyth has sketched an idea of what the British Wild West could look like, and it has a stylish twist: singing gangsters. When the central musical segments work, they’re captivating, making The Score’s tone feel daringly out-of-the-box. But the meat of this movie fails to score. Credit to Smyth for pulling [...]
Handbagged at the Kiln Theatre is a timely new show about the Queen September 14, 2022 This article is the first in a new series called The Lowdown, where we speak to writers, directors and actors to get the lowdown on their latest creative project And they say that life imitates art… Handbagged, a show featuring fictional accounts about the Queen’s weekly meetings with Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, had always planned [...]
The Queen ate at The Stafford hotel, so we booked a table in her honour September 12, 2022 St James’ Street near Green Park Tube is heaving with tourists, but turn onto Little St James’ Place toward The Stafford hotel and you enter a private enclave where the racket of the capital’s buses, taxis and tourists cannot be heard. Here you’re in St James proper, amongst the type of discreet private roads no-one [...]
Exclusive: What King Charles III said to well-wishers outside Buckingham Palace September 9, 2022 Thousands are gathering at Buckingham Palace following King Charles’ walkabout after he returned from Balmoral earlier this afternoon. Diana from London met King Charles: “I held out my hand, shook his hand, and I said: ‘Your mother has been absolutely wonderful for this country – and I know you will be too.’ ‘“And he responded [...]
Tasting rare 16-year-old beef at Meatopia food festival September 7, 2022 Thick wafts of smoke cover me in the sweet smell of resin and meat. The translucent shapes of the fumes drift skywards from more than a dozen barbecue grills. I’m at Meatopia on the top floor of Regency-era warehouse Tobacco Dock, a fitting name for the sight I see around me. Halfway along the top [...]
The best things to do in London this September and October September 2, 2022 Massive new musicals, snooping around some of the best private houses in the capital, eating with Tom Kerridge and making the most out of those final long late-summer evenings. There are still so many things to do in London this September, including three more festivals before the summer calls it quits. Here’s the best of [...]
I, Joan, The Globe, review: Trans lead makes London theatre history with gripping performance September 2, 2022 Gay men had it in the 1980s and 1990s when two landmark plays, Angels In America and The Normal Heart, humanised the tragedies of the AIDS crisis on major theatre stages. And now I, Joan, a new adaptation of the story of Joan of Arc, feels similarly like a crucial and history-making piece of theatre [...]
Al Mare restaurant review: Forget La Dolche Vita, there’s an ideal Italian escape in SW1 August 31, 2022 Living and working in the Square Mile, I rarely venture too far west, but when I do I get all the rush of a foreign holiday. There’s the expansive feel of the grand parklands and the glamorous feel of the hotels with air-conditioned lobbies. Then there’s the contrasting intimacy of the red brick mansions on [...]
The man who helped Tom Cruise act at 7Gs in Top Gun: Maverick August 26, 2022 Top Gun: Maverick has ascended like a graceful jet to become the sixth highest grossing film in US history. Quite some doing given it was only released three months ago. A mixture of cynicism and wonder drove people back to the cinema: the promise of Tom Cruise flying in real fighter jets at hundreds of [...]
Beast review: A surprisingly straight story of man vs lion, and actually good August 26, 2022 Let’s tackle the elephant – or should that be the lion? – in the room. The concept of new Idris Elba film Beast is flatly ridiculous. It features a deadly serious scene in which Elba fights a lion with his bare hands. It’s about a man-munching lion skulking around South Africa tearing limbs off locals [...]