London’s Barbican Gallery has just opened a major retrospective of the stunning work of the American feminist visual painter ALICE NEEL called Hot Off The Griddle. Neel was known for her vivid portraits depicting friends, family, lovers, poets, artists, and strangers that capture the shifting social and political context of the American twentieth century. Crowned … Continue reading
Windfall ★★★★ Southwark Playhouse Borough Windfall is a jack-in-the-box of a comedy, but in the first half, you don’t know it. It unwinds in an amusing but restrained way with glimpses of something more compelling beneath the surface, then in the second half, it leaps out at you. A manic, blade-wielding clown from a … Continue reading
In the 1960s and 1970s comedian Frankie Howard was one of the major stars of British Television. He was also like many performers of that time a closeted homosexual, as coming out then was considered professional suicide. Homosexuality was still illegal in the UK until the law changed in 1969 but it still took several … Continue reading
Henry Queen of Squats ☆☆☆ The Vault Festival London Henry Moss is a short man. Or an average-sized girl, as he describes himself. He also does a very short stand-up show, at London’s Vaults Festival, lasting about 45 minutes. Or about 50 TikToks, as he would describe it. That certainly captures the structure, a bubbling … Continue reading
We are often very surprised about how and where composers chose their subject matters when creating a new musical. So far it’s been The First Lady of Argentina, a TS Elliot poetry book about cats, and Tim Rice even based one of his on a game of Chess. Now Joel Goodman & Jan Osborne … Continue reading