What to see and do this weekend: From a lush new album by a former cowgirl to a Ted Lasso star taking on Chekov, the Mail’s critics pick the very best of music, theatre and film
Awesome new albums, great gigs, spectacular stage performances and a host of fantastic films, – they are all featured in our critics’ picks of the best of music, theatre and film. Read on to find out what to see and do this weekend…
MUSIC
ALBUM OF THE WEEK
Kacey Musgraves Deeper Well Out now
She cut her teeth as a dime-store cowgirl in Nashville and her home state of Texas, but Kacey Musgraves has always been happy to upset the country establishment. Her first two albums — 2013’s Same Trailer Different Park and 2015’s Pageant Material — were musically traditional, but she’s gone on to blend rock, disco and electronics in a mix she calls ‘galactic country’.
For her fifth LP, she’s taken a leaf out of Taylor Swift’s book. When Swift made 1989, her first ‘official pop album’, she moved from Nashville to The Big Apple and opened the record with a song called Welcome To New York.
While Kacey Musgraves has taken a leaf out of Taylor Swift ’s book for her new album, she also shows she still has an ear for a stinging couplet and a respect for country-style storytelling
Musgraves is now following suit: she made Deeper Well in the city’s fabled Electric Lady Studios, made famous by Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Wonder.
The singer, 35, says she was seeking ‘a different environmental energy’, and Deeper Well maintains her admirable habit of doing something fresh with each release. The onus this time is on soft vocal harmonies and lush acoustic arrangements. If there’s a musical connection to New York, it’s in the legacy of reflective singer-songwriters such as Carly Simon, Carole King and Simon & Garfunkel.
When Musgraves made her last album, Star-Crossed, she was still reeling from her 2020 divorce from fellow country star Ruston Kelly. A tale of ‘two lovers ripped right at the seams’, it was an emotionally bruised break-up record. She’s now more footloose and fancy-free and these songs are the calm after the storm, but she still has an ear for a stinging couplet and a respect for country-style storytelling.
The New York backdrop is apparent on Nothing To Be Scared Of, set on Manhattan’s West Side. The city is in the frame again on Too Good To Be True. The latter has a lilting melody based on US singer Anna Nalick’s 2004 single Breathe (2 AM), and it finds Musgraves taking a new lover to New York: ‘Made some breakfast, made some love… this is what dreams are made of on a cloudy Monday morning.’
Elsewhere, helped by regular producers Daniel Tashian and Ian Fitchuk, she sings of the importance of love over money (Lonely Millionaire) and not letting the bad times grind you down (Sway). Her songs grow more stripped-back as the album develops, but her voice retains its powerful, creamy timbre. When she first emerged, fellow Texan Willie Nelson hailed Kacey as a huge talent. She went on to win the prestigious Album Of The Year Grammy for 2018’s Golden Hour, and is now building further on that promise.
Adrian Thrills
Kacey Musgraves is touring the UK from May 9 to 15
TWO MORE AWESOME NEW ALBUMS
AND TWO GREAT GIGS
THEATRE
SHOW OF THE WEEK
Uncle Vanya
Sir Trevor Nunn, former RSC and National Theatre frontman, has descended on Richmond to re-create Anton Chekhov’s Russian masterpiece, Uncle Vanya, in his own image. To this end, he has cast Ted Lasso’s James Lance (aka Trent Crimm of The Independent) — an actor blessed with even more luxuriant hair and goatee than the 84-year-old Nunn in his pomp — in the title role.
The play is about a forlorn estate manager in provincial 19th-century Russia, and it has clearly been a labour of love for Nunn. The result is a period piece in more ways than one: a traditional costume drama, yes — but as Chekhov was performed 30 years or more ago (in Sir Trevor’s middle age).
James Lance, aka Trent Crimm of The Independent in Ted Lasso, plays Vanya with humility as a wry and rueful roué, wallowing in a lifetime of disappointment
Happily, that means we are treated to a rigorous and thoughtful performance centred first on a sturdy samovar, and later a circular sofa.
Nor is it too gloomy. Initially, it lets off steam with light comedy as the small family group is visited by Vanya’s rich, famous and ageing brother-in-law — a professorial stick insect who arrives with pretty young wife in tow.
But Nunn’s tightly drilled cast get to blow the lid off their respective pots with tears and declamations when their stewing passions finally boil over.
It can’t be easy for James Lance to look despondent beneath that magnificent mane. It’s an independent life form that might pull crowds in Kew Gardens. Yet he plays Vanya with humility as a wry and rueful roué, wallowing in a lifetime of disappointment.
Even better is Andrew Richardson’s dejected doctor, besotted with the professor’s wife (Lily Sacofsky). He is an early Russian eco-activist who has an amazing ability for his eyes to detach from his charming good humour and drift into a parallel reverie of sadness.
There’s also a great turn from Madeleine Gray as Vanya’s lovelorn niece Sonya, the plain and overlooked daughter of the professor, who pines for the doctor. Bossy as she is, she’s also hugely sympathetic, because as a reluctant martinet, she craves affection but commands obedience.
She bears her burden of unrequited love with the courage of a saint; and delivers a heart-breaking closing hymn to hope and eternity.
Patrick Marmion
Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond. Until April 13, 2hrs 40mins
FOUR OTHER SPARKLING SHOWS
FILM
FILM OF THE WEEK
Drive Away Dolls Cert: 15, 1hr 24mins
Weighing in at a succinct 84 minutes, Drive-Away Dolls does not hang about. Within moments, it has comprehensively set out its cinematic stall. A famous actor – in this case Pedro Pascal but others follow – has taken on the sort of small part they normally wouldn’t bother with, a central-looking character meets a swift and grisly end, and suddenly there’s an awful lot of rather startling lesbian sex going on, albeit obviously played for laughs rather than titillation. It is quite the opening five minutes.
Ethan Coen’s Drive-Away Dolls, starring Margaret Qualley and Geraldine Viswanathan, is like a freewheeling cross between Thelma & Louise and the Coens’ own No Country For Old Men
And what well-crafted fun it all turns out to be, as director and co-writer Ethan Coen takes a break from making films with brother Joel and instead creatively partners up with his wife (Ethan’s, not Joel’s), Tricia Cooke. She edited several of the brothers’ earlier films and, it feels pertinent to point out, describes herself as a ‘queer film-maker’. Hollywood, eh?
What ensues is like a freewheeling cross between Thelma & Louise and the Coens’ own No Country For Old Men, with two young women – promiscuous, motor-mouthed Jamie (Margaret Qualley) and buttoned-up, Henry James-reading Marian (Geraldine Viswanathan) embarking on an impromptu road trip from Philadelphia to Tallahassee in Florida.
Jamie needs to remove herself from a difficult break-up, while Marian wants to reassess her life and possibly end a long sexual drought. But their respective plans are forcibly put on hold when they discover that the car they are supposed to be delivering contains a hat box and an executive briefcase, and that a pair of bickering bad guys are suddenly after them.
Yes, the basic plot is familiar – that’s clearly deliberate – but the execution is highly enjoyable, with Qualley having a ball as the loquacious Jamie and cameos from the likes of Bill Camp, Colman Domingo, Matt Damon and an uncredited Miley Cyrus adding to the considerable fun.
Matthew Bond
FOUR OTHER FAB FILMS STILL IN CINEMAS