... THE SPARKLING revival by Sadler's Wells Opera of Die Fledermaus brings glitter and gaiety back to the Coliseum. This stylish production has all that a superb musical should have in abundance--with glorious Strauss melodies sung by super voices. Of course members of this par ticular Wells cast are past masters in the field of operetta and give per formances of case and elegance which could ...

... International Cabaret BBC-2, May 9. PRESUMABLY the word international does not mean the same thing to everyone, but to me it conjures up a picture of world famous entertainers of all nationalities. In International Cabaret. Buddy Bregman seems set on making it more Atlantic than international, and in last Saturday's edition (the second) he gave us Nancy Wilson and Jack Carter as the guest ...

... Benbow Was His Name BBC-I, May 7. THE new-style documenary with contemporary music is well understood by Caryl Brahms and Ned Sherrin who were in at its birth. Not surprisingly, therefore, Benbow Was His Name was a technically successful piece of expertise. With the aid of Gordon Jackson as a narrator-cum-commentator- cum-participant we were moved painlessly from shore to ship, from ...

... A Kiss Before Dying BBC-2, May S. IRA LEVIN'S novel, A Kiss Before Dying, the story of a psychotic young man who murders two sisters and tries to marry the third in order to get in on the father's wealth. It is not easy to produce an American play in a British studio, but Peter Sasdy, directing his first BBC production, managed with the use of intermittent library shots of the real thing, ...

... Ashton's abstract magic THREE ASHTON ballets were danced by the Royal Ballet at Covent Garden on Thursday last--Monotones, The Dream and Enigma Variations. For me the Trois Gymno- p6dies of the abstract Mono tones was sheer magic, danced by Vyvyan Lorrayne, Anthony Dowetl and Robert Mead. Here are three exquisite creatures, in spired and inspiring, enchanted and enchanting, dancing ...

... Noel Coward Exposes Hugo Latymer in Song at Twilight' by R.B. MARRIOTT VEARS ago, a famous novelist 1 wrote a book called Cakes and Ale, in which, it was widely believed, Thomas Hardy and Hugh Walpole were pilloried. When Walpole. himself a generous, sympathetic, rather humble man. realized that in the character of Alroy Kerr he was being exposed as a pompous, mean-spirited fraud, he ...

... 'THE deepest roots of drama lie in the Greek tragedies, and Sophocles' Oedipus Rex is one of the strongest with its eternal story of incest, murder and guicide. The National Theatre of Greece presented this play at the Aldwych on April 14 as their second production in the World Theatre Season, and one expec ted a well-nigh definitive inter pretation. Alexis Minotis. who also directed, ...

... I WANT you to murder me for £3,000, the strange Mr. Franklyn asks down at heel and out of work Henry Scrubb, who considers the idea. After all, Franklyn said he was dying of an incurable heart disease, but if he was murdered the realisation of his life insurance policy would be doubled. Such is the plot of Derek Benfield's Murder for the Asking, the premiere of which was given at the De La ...

... THE ' was the subject of a talk liven by Peter Moro at the Institute of Contemporary Arts on January 10 and illustrated by lantern slides showing the form of theatres past and to come; in fact, from the Greek amphitheatres to the new Nottingham Playhouse designed by the speaker and yet to be built. Theatre will always be a minority art form. said Mr. Moro, but the health of the theatre ...

... WHATEVER else is happening in South Africa today, Live Theatre is booming, and since the war many new theatres have been built. Regular theatre-going is confined to the large towns, and, the great majority of the theatre goers is drawn from the English speaking section of the Community. Ot toe eight organisations in more or less continual production, live are permanently based in ...

... 'Iphigénie en Tauride' AMONG classical operas Gluck's Iphigénie en Tauride is still one of the noblest in musico-dramatic conception. A fine musical performance, but a poor production, marked the presentation by the Covent Garden Opera at the start of the company's first Edinburgh Festival appearance. The guest producer, Goran Gen- tde from the Swedish Royal Opera, has settled for a ...

... JOKE OVER SO now we know. While John Whitney and Geof frey Bellman were collecting material for their hygienic, cellophane wrapped, cosy series Harpers West One, they were also observing life in a big store at a deeper (one might say, basement) level. The result was this ATV Drama 61 offering, a neat little story of a practical joke that misfires on its instigators. The trouble was that a ...