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An awesome and ridiculous film that leaves you thrilled beyond the point of your natural endurance
2012
Theatre
The show has suddenly become quite wonderful, and the galvanising factor is the terrific stage debut of Melanie C
Blood Brothers
Music
The British pop music industry may be eating itself but if Muse are the pick of what it can offer the world in 2010 then British music is in rude health indeed
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I was smitten by both Gilberts enormous luxuriant moustache and the intelligence and nuance of this highly entertaining play
I totally recommend Babbo to anyone who is looking for really good and traditional Italian food
Always been a fan but never seen them live. I was ecstatic to be part of this epic event. WOW!
London,
Sarah Frater's rating
Reader rating
Description: The Cuban superstar returns with his show of mixed pieces from both the classical canon and contemporary works, performed with guest artists from The Royal Ballet.
Trains: Tube: Leicester Square/Charing Cross 
, Tube / Bus: 3, 6, 9, 11, 12, 13, 15, 23, 24, 29, 53, 77a, 88, 91, 139 
Phone: 0871911 0200
Website: www.eno.org
Email: access@eno.org
Above and beyond: Carlos Acosta leaps on to the stage at the London Coliseum
It takes two: Carlos Acosta with Tamara Rojo in the pas de deux from Diana and Actaeon
There is, without fail, a collective intake of breath when Carlos Acosta leaps on stage. Audiences can't quite believe their eyes as the Cuban ballet dancer spins three or four, or is it five times, before six or seven split jumps followed by an impeccable landing in a perfect lunge.
The buttock grazing loin cloth and knowing smile add to his considerable allure, although Acosta is too classy a showman to let this overwhelm his dancing, which is an airy mix of ease and exuberance.
Acosta has been wowing us since he joined the Royal Ballet in 1998, and he's wowing us still in a show he first performed at Sadler's Wells in 2006 and which he's transferred to the Coliseum as part of the Spring Dance season.
It is, essentially, an Acosta and friends event, with chums from the Royal Ballet joining him in a mixed bill of short works, both old favorites and newer pieces.
Purists and nit-pickers will grumble that excerpts shows rob ballet of its dramatic context, and it's true that at last night's opener the Winter Dreams and La Sylphide duets both suffered outside their full-length frames.
However, an excerpts show is also a sit-back-and-relax show, where you can simply enjoy the dancing, and watch lots of tip-top dancers you don't normally see together.
And the dancers really are very good. Tamara Rojo and Sarah Lamb are two of the Royal's best, while Martin Harvey and Valeri Hristov are rapidly growing in stature. Hristov shone in La Sylphide, while Harvey showed the right amount of romantic boldness in Winter Dreams.
After the first half of older ballets, including Acosta and Rojo in Diana and Actaeon (this is the one with the loin cloth), came the second half of newer and little-seen work. Many are from Acosta's time at Houston Ballet and Cuban National Ballet, and the highlight was easily the show closer Majisimo.
This divertissement of mildly Spanish carousing made you laugh out loud as the eight dancers outdid each other in speed and daring.
Integral to the show is Acosta's onstage/off-stage motif. At the start of the performance, the dancers saunter on in their tattered rehearsal kit, limber up, change into their costumes, perform, and after the show wander off again.
This gives you a sense of the glamour and grit of a dancer's life, and is a nice touch.
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
