Culture

Turning the $1bn stage musical into a Hollywood blockbuster brought high expectations for the maker of the Oscar-winning Crazy Rich Asians

For the Irish actress this Christmas will be ‘incredibly bittersweet’ as she mourns the death of her dad and celebrates her much-fought-for daughter

Ciaran Cassidy’s fine documentary is filled with much sadness but also allows a fair degree of celebration

Spot-on lead performances and canny supporting players elevate a nuts-and-bolts script

Patrick Freyne: here are my favourite corporate psy-ops of the season – or Christmas TV ads, as I believe you call them in the suburbs

Bailey’s irrepressible humour and boyish joy are a welcome antidote to the grim news cycle of 21st-century life

Nine-part series Say Nothing deals with abduction and murder of Belfast mother by Provisional IRA in December 1972

A new work by Aifric Mac Aodha, translated by David Wheatley

Best known as the long-time political editor of UTV, he had previously spoken publicly about his battle with leukaemia

Theatre: Shaun Dunne and Brokentalkers’ collaboration portrays the challenges of looking after a partner with a long-term illness

Get ready for Brat summer 2.0 as the English pop sensation is set to play two outdoor concerts

Former One Direction band members, friends and family remember singer who died in a hotel fall in Buenos Aires

Michael Patric’s play misses the opportunity to pull the drama of the end of Ireland’s sugar industry into the story of its craic-loving factory worker

“It’s about people … people are funny,” he would say of his comedic philosophy

Kate Hamill’s adaptation, starring Toni O’Rourke, explores the psychology of what drives the much-loved protagonist, says director Claire O’Reilly

Plus: What is the name of the upcoming Bruce Springsteen biopic starring Jeremy Allen White?

Mary Hosty introduces DLR Lexicon writers’ group’s first anthology and her own short story

Elizabeth Sankey looks to cinematic tropes of occult-adjacent women in her fascinating documentary about mental health and motherhood

Wisdom and deftness were tools of writer whose subjects ranged from the lyrical to the sectarian

Dua Lipa and Simone Biles among celebrities known to imagine success in belief they will achieve it

Television review: West plays a school student struggling with a sound only he and teacher Rebecca Hall can hear

Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande are well paired. It’s easy to shake off the outside world and soar along beside them

Inevitably for an out-take album, it’s a bit glued together and rough at the edges, but even U2 agnostics will like a lot of the tracks

Jungle campmates rally around former boxer as he opens up about Nika McGuigan’s death in 2019

Television: Occasional sparks insufficient to draw viewers out of their pre-election stupor