Musical Theatre
Magic moments
A bomb dropped into the frightful world of mid-Victorian musical entertainment
W.S. Gilbert
A wildly funny and slyly subversive comic genius who deftly skewered the mores of Victorian England
Flatpack classic
Summer theatre where anything, including a return to rehearsal-room Brechtian, goes
Playing with fire
Is writing a show about burns victims and the pioneering Guinea Pig Club really “appropriate”?
Musical Lessons
Could the jazz-hands pizzaz of musical theatre be just what opera needs?
Grope springs eternal
Rupert Goold’s Spring Awakening was too woke to be stirring
Good-natured amateurishness
British musical theatre has nothing on the American slickness
Why musicals are Britain’s elite artform
Musical theatre is one of Britain’s most prized assets; we must protect this unique part of our culture and economy at all costs
The public sector must reform or die
Too big to fail? It is too big to succeed
The wrongs of Proudman
Criticism does not amount to discrimination or abuse
The eternal lockdown of the soul
Lockdown-lifers have become a key tool of the state
Conservatives listen to music too
Gatekeeping the “real” meaning of songs is foolish and futile
Carole Cadwalladr’s conspiracy theory
The feverish paranoia obscures valid questions
Must-Miss TV
Your regular Critic round-up of the hottest shows and films.
Farewell to Larry Siedentop
The great political philosopher, Oxford don, and sage defender of Western liberalism
The first female President will be Republican
American conservatives are far less averse to assertive women than the political left
Tierless? (Starmer’s version)
Taxpayer-funded escorts for celebrities, criminal neighbours for normal Brits
Murders for November
Another mélange of murders, from Japan to Scotland
What’s wrong with the Human Rights Act?
It makes judges the arbiter of moral and political as well as legal decisions
