Theatre
The Comedy of Errors ... The National Theatre, London
by William Shakespeare
The National has come up trumps again. Lenny Henry is part of a terrific ensemble with this fast-paced mistaken identity comedy — with twins galore, jealous wives, and fathers searching for long lost children. We had a great time. Highly recommended.
Concert
Buddy Greco ... The Broadway Theatre, Barking & Degenham
Now based in the UK but only does limited runs and one-offs, so catch him while you can — Mr Buddy Greco is a consumate performer, who learnt his craft in Vegas as a contemporary of the Rat Pack. A great night of music, song and repartee ... Talk to me, piano.
Film
The Artist ... directed by Michel Hazanavicius
French. Silent. Black & White. A homage to Asta the dog from the Thin Man series. We can't wait. Limited national release.
Music
Chances ... Jill Barber
We stumbled across this Canadian singer-songwriter over Christmas ... and what a lovely surprise she is. She's charmingly voiced, and Chances is full of lush, orchestral, timeless songs evoking decades past. We'll be buying up her other albums and keeping our fingers crossed for a tour.
Non-fiction
Theatre Buildings - A Design Guide ... ed. Judith Strong, ABTT
Will be a standard reference for anyone building, refurbishing or creating a performance space. Best of all, Arts Team's own Barry Pritchard (Front of House) and Julian Middleton (Auditorium Design) are section editors. We are pleased as punch that their expertise is recognised internationally. Highly recommended!
DVD
Clint Eastwood: 35 films 35 years ... boxed set
OK, so his credits include more than 35 films — there are obvious ommissions. But this set has a Clint film for each year from 1975-2010 and includes absolute corkers such as Dirty Harry, Pale Rider, Unforgiven ... If you're a fan but never really collected Clint, then this is a brilliant place to start..
