To rescue Kahlo from the clutches of the corporate art market, we need to acknowledge the overt and covert political dimensions of the work, demands GAVIN O’TOOLE
Latest editorial
Dolly good show
JAMES WALSH is relieved to see that Dolly Partonomics hold good in the present day
WHEN MEN WERE MEN AND WOMEN WERE SECRETARIES: the cast of 9-5 at The Polish Theatre Hammersmith
[Phil Conran]
If you can see past the relentless commodification you will be rewarded by enormously powerful work, suggests JENNY MITCHELL
CHRIS SEARLE revels in the one-off collaboration between an American polymath and a British Muslim, and detects the presence of their revolutionary forebear
GORDON PARSONS revels in an ebullient production of Shakespeare’s magical comedy
BRENT CUTLER welcomes a thoughtful analysis of the Erdogan regime, viewed through the evolving history of a neighbourhood in Istanbul
GORDON PARSONS regrets the price, but is dazzled by an outstandingly ambitious study of the way art restoration in particular, and culture in general was weaponised by the Nazis
9-5: The Musical
The Polish Theatre, London
A LINGERING life regret: passing up the opportunity to go to Dollywood, the Dolly Parton-themed attraction in the Tennessee Smoky Mountains.
Driving past the gates, thinking: what madness lies within there? Plastic surgery seminars? Malfunctioning animatronic country singers? Roller-coasters with two enormous humps? I suppose we will never know.
Dolly inhabits a larger-than-life position in the US “self-made” psyche, but she’s one of the good ones: when the revolution comes, we will need to renationalise Parton.
Similar stories
MARY CONWAY becomes impatient with the intellectual self-indulgence of Tom Stoppard in a production that is, nevertheless, total class
DAVID NICHOLSON is thrilled – and shocked – by an opera that seethes and sizzles with passion and the depraved use of power
ANDY HEDGECOCK recommends that these beautifully written diaries from Gaza be essential reading for thick-skinned MPs
MARTIN HALL passes time in the sanguine company of a traditional conservative, recalling their disastrous governments