2 h. ago Like its demigod hero, Disney’s Hercules musical loses its divine status in clumsy hands

This show is lit up by sinuous harmonies and heart-melting ballads, but the warmth evaporates when the music stops

Politics

3 h. ago Hercules at Theatre Royal Drury Lane: 'chugs along agreeably enough'

This adaptation of the Disney film is slick with some fun songs but somewhat lacking in strength

Politics

11 h. ago Hercules theatre review: Musical lacks a punch in new take of Disney classic, writes PATRICK MARMION

Hercules has been reduced from legendary hero to close to zero by a laboured new musical version of his derring-do, based on the 1997 animated film, writes PATRICK MARMION

Culture

52 h. ago ‘It’s Frozen times 10’: Disney’s Hercules musical goes from zero to hero on the West End

As Disney prepares to launch its next juggernaut musical, Isobel Lewis speaks to the creatives and cast about the herculean task of translating the Greek myth cartoon to the stage – and why being faithful to the source material isn’t always the way to go

Politics

54 h. ago ‘It’s Frozen times 10’: Disney’s Hercules musical goes from from zero to hero on the West End

As Disney prepares to launch its next juggernaut musical, Isobel Lewis speaks to the creatives and cast about the herculean task of translating the Greek myth cartoon to the stage – and why being faithful to the source material isn’t always the way to go

Politics

4 d. ago Dua Lipa at Wembley Stadium review: high octane euphoria from the queen of summer pop

The pop star was on top form in what felt like a celebration of how far she’d come

Politics

4 d. ago Dua Lipa’s electrifying Wembley debut is a striking reminder of how far she’s come as a performer

It’s hard to believe the pop star’s on-stage prowess was ever the subject of online ridicule

Events

4 d. ago Haim have evolved on muscular summer album I Quit, but could have dared to abandon more

The three sisters from the Valley reclaim quitting as an empowered act – and that includes shedding past sounds, not just exes

Culture

5 d. ago Hotline TNT: Raspberry Moon review – love lights melodies through the fuzz

(Third Man Records)Will Anderson opens up on the NYC group’s third album, revealing an expansive articulacy to his take on 90s indie-rockThe third album by these New York-based indie-rockers rings some crucial changes. First, bandleader Will Anderson is in love, which alleviates some of the gloom that pervaded earlier records. And while the lyrics don’t amount to much on the page, when sung in unaffected deadpan and robed in artfully embellished shoegazey noise, Anderson’s elliptical poetics carry a compelling weight.Second, and more importantly, Anderson invited his bandmates into the studio to record Raspberry Moon. Where previous albums had been one-man affairs, with Anderson overdubbing layer upon layer of guitar and synth on his lonesome, the presence of other musicians in the room has shaken up the paradigm. Their trademark walls of fuzz remain, but Raspberry Moon also fields tracks such as Break Right, on which the happy/sad melodies flourish with space to breathe, and the lu...

Events

5 d. ago La Mer: French Piano Trios album review – expansive, beguiling and unexpected

Neave Trio(Chandos)Works by Saint-Saëns, Mel Bonis and Sally Beamish’s imaginative reinterpretation of Debussy’s La Mer make for a disparate but rounded programmeThree French works make a disparate but rounded programme on this release from the Neave Trio. Saint-Saëns took years to write his Trio No 2, and the result was a sprawling five-movement work that gets an appropriately wide-ranging and meaty performance here. The first movement roils and surges, the players catching both the push and pull of the restless theme and the brief passage of stillness later on. The slow third movement sings .with wistful nostalgia, and the fourth flows by in a waltz-like whirl pitched somewhere between Chopin and Dvořák. But the second movement, with its obsessively repeated rhythmic motif, perhaps needs a little more imagination to make it work.The two movements of Mel Bonis’s Soir et Matin, written in 1907, are the opposite way round in atmosphere from how you might expect: Soir (Evening) is sou...

Politics

5 d. ago Nine Inch Nails at the O2: 'Trent Reznor is the last great art rock star'

Despite technical problems, Nine Inch Nails prove that they are still pushing the boundaries of music and perhaps the perfect band for dark times

Politics

5 d. ago Berlioz and Ravel album review – his orchestra is responsive to Mäkelä’s every move

Orchestre de Paris/Mäkelä(Decca)It may be missing that edge-of-your-seat excitement it had at last summer’s Proms, but Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique is full of colour and impact, and the energy keeps fizzing on Ravel’s La ValseKlaus Mäkelä and the Orchestre de Paris gave an unforgettable performance of Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique at the BBC Proms last September, the electric atmosphere of which is not quite replicated on this recording, made in Paris a few months later.It’s all played with consummate skill by an orchestra who are clearly responsive to their conductor’s every move, as they were in Royal Albert Hall, and Mäkelä’s shaping of Berlioz’s music, from the gentle, vibratoless violins at the beginning to the careering witches’ dance of the finale, remains highly coloured and full of impact. Yet it all feels a little clinical; the edge-of-the-seat excitement is missing. Perhaps it has been engineered out: the sound feels over-tweaked, and although the spatial effects at ...

Politics

6 d. ago Loyle Carner: Hopefully! review – rap sweetheart faces family, fear and the feels | Album of the week

(Island EMI)The Londoner’s trademark sentimental sweetness is balanced by a new unaffected singing style – his fourth album is his most impressive work yetLoyle Carner raps like he has a lump in his throat and tears in his eyes. Wonder, nostalgia, love, hurt, excitement, hard-won peace: these are the emotions his voice tends to catch on. When combined with his typically blissed-out sonics – feathery breakbeats, dreamy piano figures, delicate synth washes, gently plucked guitars – the results are often very nice. Sometimes a bit too nice. So it is on Feel at Home, the sentimental love song that opens the 30-year-old’s fourth album, Hopefully!Carner – whose moniker is a spoonerism of his real name, Benjamin Coyle-Larner – never makes music that is boring or basic. As well as the slushy lyrics and comfortingly toasty chords, Feel at Home is buttressed by madly skittering percussion and what sounds like a blurry reproduction of young children’s playground chatter. But much like the outp...

Politics

6 d. ago Lovestuck review – superb dating disaster musical inspired by unfortunate toilet accident

Stratford East, LondonThis show, based on a gone-viral Tinder date in which a woman tried to dispose of her poo unconventionally, tackles the perils of modern love with wit, humour and cracking songsAs bad dating stories go, this one from 2017 is a classic. During a Tinder date, a woman found herself in a pretty awkward situation: her poo wouldn’t flush, and in an attempt to discreetly dispose of it, she ended up wedged between two windows. The story was turned into a viral meme, and even made the headlines. Now, a musical by two of the creators of the hit podcast My Dad Wrote a Porno (Jamie Morton and James Cooper) has been spawned from the incident, too.The central premise remains, but with a few creative tweaks. Lucy and Peter have been raised on Disney movies but are chronically unlucky in love. Misguided help arrives in the form of Lucy’s cutting anti-guardian-angel, Miseraie, and Peter’s insufferable finance bro flatmate, David. After matching on a dating app, they meet at a M...

Events

6 d. ago J Hus review – rapper touched by genius can’t quite channel his energy

Royal Albert Hall, LondonAfter a cancelled arena tour, expectations are high for J Hus’s return – but for all his swagger and melody, he ends up falling short due to sound issues and a lack of visionJ Hus’s one-night-only show at the Royal Albert Hall, celebrating the five-year anniversary of his album Big Conspiracy, begins with the British rapper’s sister and collaborator iceè tgm reciting a poem in front of a black curtain. “It all starts with a question,” she posits. “What is the big conspiracy?” By the end, the show leaves even more unanswered questions.When the curtain falls, it reveals a small symphony orchestra placed behind live band the Compozers. Hus opens with force: Helicopter, Triumph, Fight for Your Right, Fortune Teller, Reckless, and No Denying come in quick succession. He spits with braggadocious swagger, jumping from a protruding platform into the throes of the adoring crowd standing in the stalls. Even looking up towards the gallery, the venue’s grandeur feels en...

Politics

7 d. ago Lovestuck at Stratford East review: 'a cheerfully brainless scatological musical'

Based on a true story about a woman who was trapped upside down in a toilet, this musical from the team behind My Dad Wrote a Porno doesn’t come out smelling of roses

Politics

7 d. ago LCD Soundsystem at O2 Academy Brixton: 'beg, borrow or steal for a ticket'

James Murphy and co have their residency in Brixton underway and it is an LCD love-in

Events

8 d. ago A Visit to Friends at Aldeburgh Festival: 'an opera with a totally new harmonic language'

Composer Colin Matthews has produced his first opera and sprung a huge surprise with this ambitious work at Aldeburgh Festival

Culture

9 d. ago Charli xcx at LIDO Festival review: strap in for Brat summer 2.0

The singer took to the stage for a victory lap performance featuring all the hits

Politics

9 d. ago Pulp at the O2 review: Jarvis Cocker, sorted for snacks and wizardry

Pulp take to the O2 for a weird and wonderful celebration of uncommon music led by their one-off frontman

Politics