True love Hollywood style, old friends and just a little misbehaviour The play, The Philadelphia Story, on which High Society is based, premiered on Broadway on 28 March 1939, starring Katharine Hepburn as Tracy Lord, a role specifically written for her. Based on a book by Arthur Kopit, the Broadway success was swiftly followed by […]
Sir John Tavener’s Krishna at Grange Park Opera
A Transcendental Meditation Last night saw the world premiere of Sir John Tavener’s Krishna at Grange Park Opera in Surrey. Tavener created both the music and libretto for this ‘mystical pantomime’ which has an extraordinary backstory. Completed in 2005, the opera remained unperformed until after the composer’s death in 2013, when his widow brought it […]
Albatross at Omnibus Theatre
A study of glacial shifts in a mother-daughter relationship Albatrosses are mysterious creatures. In Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s canonical poem, ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’, a reckless sailor slays an albatross and thereby dooms his crew to death. There’s something inexplicably prophetic about these gigantic sea birds, and, following the success of her debut play […]
Der Rosenkavalier – Garsington Opera
A Fabulous Frolic, Magnificent Vocals and a Deeper Message Travelling to Garsington for a summer opera spectacular is always a treat. The stunning setting, together with an evening of exemplary opera, seldom disappoints. Der Rosenkavalier, a late-Romantic opera by Richard Strauss, has a fairytale storyline perfect for an idyllic evening in the country. This production, […]
La Fille Mal Gardée Returns to Covent Garden
Cuban Patricio Revé’s Ashton Debut No choreographer is as quintessentially English as Sir Frederick Ashton (1904-1988); and few of his many ballets are as English as La Fille Mal Gardée (generally translated as The Wayward Daughter). Though inspired by an 18th-century French original, Ashton’s 1960 version, framed by Osbert Lancaster’s naturalistic designs, and set to […]
The Harder They Come – Theatre Royal Stratford East
Joyful theatre adaptation of the film that “brought reggae music to the world” returns to the London stage If the distinctive sound of reggae music makes you think of lazy Caribbean holidays and rum cocktails on the beach, then you are probably not alone. But if you consider for a moment the origins of reggae […]
Gentleman Jack The Ballet
Northern Ballet Celebrates the First Modern Lesbian Gentleman Jack is possibly the first ever ballet centred on a lesbian heroine: Anne Lister, the indomitable 19th-century Yorkshire landowner, known as Gentleman Jack, who lived and loved as she liked, with no concessions to societal mores and restrictions. Since the discovery and decryption of her detailed diaries, […]
A Summer of Opera: England’s 2026 Festival Season
Pimms and Puccini The English countryside comes alive each summer with some of the world’s finest opera, performed in settings ranging from intimate country houses to grand classical estates. The 2026 season promises an exceptional selection of productions, from Monteverdi’s Orfeo, considered the first great opera, to Puccini crowd-pleasers, an operatic take on The Importance […]
Stage Kiss at Hampstead Theatre
An eccentric romcom about theatre itself From Casablanca to Titanic, kisses are the crown jewels of the most memorable sequences in entertainment history. Yet, behind the scenes, in gloomy rehearsal rooms, intimacy between performers is often without electricity. Kissing strangers is an actor’s bread and butter, and Sarah Ruhl’s Stage Kiss runs with the weirdness […]
Tulsa Ballet: Made in America
A UK Debut for Oklahoma’s Premier Ballet Company Tulsa Ballet, Oklahoma’s largest performing arts organisation, brought a large dose of American showmanship to the Linbury with Made in America, a triple bill of very distinctive works that illustrate the company’s talent, technique and versatility. American dancers possess unique attack and a very special way of […]