Carla Scarano visits two exhibitions in Florence: The return to Italy of Salvatore Ferragamo in 1927 and the Dawn of a Nation after WW II
It’s testimony to the vibrant creativity and style of Sao Paulo that its international art festival – SP-Arte – can transform an object as potentially mundane and outdated as the tea trolley into a pinnacle of design.
Michael Tolkien finds he is kept on his toes by the shifting styles of Pam Thompson’s latest collection
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
Grant Tarbard has produced a fascinating collection, observes Carla Scarano
By Michael Bartholomew-Biggs • books, poetry reviews, year 2018 1 • Tags: books, Carla Scarano, poetry