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New Moon is nothing if not an international advertisement for the hungry virtues of virginity and young people can’t get enough of it
The Twilight Saga: New Moon
Theatre
A smart, prickly and rewarding view of sexual and emotional confusion
Cock
Restaurants
Kitchen W8 is a bargain for this area, if such sophistication is what you crave
Kitchen W8
Too long and drawn out but very entertaining with excellent special effects
This is a peculiar play and does not work for me. Some of it is very funny but there are real flaws
Alex has a strong powerful voice and was faultless, she is far better now than she was on the X-Factor
London,
John Aizlewood's rating
Reader rating
Description: Songs from the critically-acclaimed albums The Juliet Letters and Moodswings, together with new material.
Unquestionably a great British songwriter, allowing himself to be sidetracked into areas (country, jazz, classical, soundtracks) he’s merely average at has effectively scuppered Elvis Costello’s career. Yet, jaunty of disposition, the father of two-year-old twins with third wife, jazz singer Diana Krall, seems more content than ever.
His far from skittish collaboration with The Brodsky Quartet began in 1993 with The Juliet Letters album. Last night, the second of six British dates, showcased the best and worst of Costello’s unyielding commitment to the less than obvious.
A man who runs so scared of his past wasn’t going to surrender to his hits despite opening a 150-minute performance with a deftly reworked Accidents Will Happen. For a heady moment, I fancied Costello might spend the evening re-imagining his best work. Silly me. That Number 28 hit, plus Pills And Soap, recorded under his Imposter guise), Shipbuilding, the protest song he gave to Robert Wyatt and Rocking Horse Road’s brief excursion into Wild Thing was as user-friendly as he allowed himself to be.
Wearyingly, this meant the unrequested exhumation of such lumpen dirges as Either Side Of The Same Town, For Other Eyes and the Johnny Mercer/Gordon Jenkins Thirties mood-killer, PS I Love You.
Mercifully, Costello is such an intriguing artist and The Brodsky Quartet such flexible foils that there was much to relish, not least Jacksons, Monk And Rowe, the fleet-footed Juliet Letters stand-out.
All This Useless Beauty was given a new, superior lease of life, while the tongue-twisting Bedlam remains that rarity: a 21st-century Costello song capable of standing alongside his best work of the 20th.
More encouraging still was the unrecorded One Bell Ringing, delivered solo but so full of wordy bile that those who have written off Costello may yet have to re-consider.
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
Elvis, We think you are a good host and a good storyteller on your television show but we also think that you are not a singer or a guitar virtuoso. It would be really nice if you just kept to interviewing your guests on Spectacle and left the guitar playing and singing to your guests.
- Dale C, Akron, USA
Jackson Monk and Rowe was written by the previous leader of the quartet Michael Thomas
- M. Davies, London
