Of all the things we wear, the T-shirt has the ability to be both humble and exclusive. To underline the point, the Fashion and Textile Museum’s shop accompanies its exhibition on the T-shirt from the fifth-century, when it was a variant of the tunic, to now, with designer examples on sale for around 100 pounds.
The London theatre scene could easily manage without another musical about love. But the UK premiere of this Australian-born celebration of the greatest of emotions by Peter Rutherford and James Millar is nevertheless as welcome, even as necessary, as every generation’s attempts to redefine love for themselves.
One of the joys of the MASP in the Paulista Avenue, Sao Paulo’s equivalent of the Champs Elysees, is that when you pay for entry (every day except Tuesday) nearly everyone else is too busy making or spending money to block your view of old and new masters.
As far as 1960s audiences were concerned, Lionel Bart – famed for the musical Oliver – had lost his “twang” when he came up with the box office flop “Twang!!”, with two exclamation marks. But if the audiences of the swinging sixties weren’t ready, the 21st century theatre-goers of London’s Union Theatre – renowned for alternative, low-budget, high-entertainment musicals – are.
Andreea Scridon reports on a music & poetry event held at the Romanian Cultural Institute
D A Prince applauds Keith Hutson’s poetic tributes to music hall performers
Rosie Johnston enters into the spirit of an intoxicating anthology of pub poems mixed by Helen Mort and Stuart Maconie
John Lucas reviews a genuinely interesting collection of essays by Jim Burns – and adds some equally interesting observations of his own
Pam Thompson finds her attention consistently held by Robin Houghton’s poetry
Henry Moore enthusiasts could do worse on this rainy Easter Week than to head for Canary Wharf and see this exhibition, which tells the story of the creation of the Draped Seated Figure, now known as “Old Flo”, and her changing fortunes over the past fifty years.
The title Requiem pour L., if spoken aloud, translates as Requiem for her. Who is the anonymous woman that we see dying onscreen as Mozart’s Requiem in D minor, K. 626, is re-scored?
Michael Tolkien finds he is kept on his toes by the shifting styles of Pam Thompson’s latest collection
By Michael Bartholomew-Biggs • books, poetry reviews, year 2018 • Tags: books, Michael Tolkien, poetry