... 'THE GINGERBREAD LADY' AT THE PHOENIX R.B. MARRIOTT REVIEWS Opened October 23 YOU MIGHT call Neil Simon's The Gingerbread Lady, at the Phoenix, a very black comedy, though it isn't one really. It is about Evy Meara, a former cabaret star singer who has ruined her career through drink, and her frightful trio of friends. All are in a state of failure and unhappiness; they wise-crack like mad ...

... OVERGROUND 'THE GUEST' YOU CAN argue the vices and the virtues of studio theatre (which I think I prefer as a definition to fringe, alternative or experimental) until the literary and dramatic cows drag home, but it has a time and a place, as well as, hopefully, an audience just as much as the lished variety. Overground, who have taken over a depressing upper room in the Kingston Hotel for ...

... Personality of the week STEPHEN JEFFERIES in his six years as a dancer with the Royal Ballet has shown remarkable development in his interpretative powers. All along he has had a fine dance technique, and was in fact entrusted with the part of the Prince in The Sleeping Beauty at Covent Garden five years ago when he was only eighteen But now, as his portrayal of the Prodigal Son has just ...

... FARNHAM THE LORD'S LIEUTENANT' Opened November 13 'THE Lord's Lieutenant, a new play, and a serious one, by William Douglas Home, was given its premiSre at the Redgrave, Farnham. It had been specially written for the Redgrave by the author, who lives locally, and is president of the theatre appeal fund. All the action takes place inside a village church. A pop- singer, asked to open the ...

... ROYAL COURT THE CITY Opened November 12 THE TOKYO Kid Brothers company are at the Royal Court with their production of 'The City, a rock musical with book and lyrics by Yutaka Higashi and music by Itsuro Shimoda. In a series of scenes which have the effect of revue sketches, though there is the link of a continuing relationship between the char acters, we are shown sections of youth in a ...

... 'PAPER FLOWERS' NEW plays are like plum duff. Some are full of plums, some mostly duff. Paper Flowers by Egon Wolff, presented by the Horseshoe Theatre Company at the Haymarket, Basingstoke, comes into the second category. Whether the fault Iies with. author, translator or company is difficult to determine. Eva, a forty-year-old deserted wife, sexually frustrated and half inviting rape, ...

... Personality of the week BILL SHINE, who is giving one of his most diverting and accom plished performances at the Thorndike. Leatherhead. as the Earl of Littlehampton in Maudie the musical diary based on Osbert Lancaster's Pocket Cartoon, made his first appearance at the Winter Gar dens. New Brighton, as a Stork in Princess Posy and his London debut at the Q as the Butcher's Boy in The ...

... CAMBRIDGE 'HAMLET' THE CAMBRIDGE Theatre Company has, in its repertory season at the Cambridge Arts, been alternating Hamlet with 'The School for Scandal and follows these with Six Characters In Search of An Author. In Hamlet. Richard Cot- trell's production is firm and sound, and, because the set contains only what a mathema tician would describe as neces sary and sufficient elements ...

... THE HIGHWAYMEN' AT THE ROUND HOUSE R.B. MARRIOTT REVIEWS Opened November 12 SCHILLER's The Highwaymen (Die Rauber) was presented at the Round House as part of the Germany Facets festival, when, in spite of crude, inept production and some very bad performances, it emerged as a great work, teaming with fine ideas, full of passion, and delving deep into social and political problems. ...

... OLD VIC 'EQUUS' MEMORY CAN play strange tricks when recalling past theatre performances, often making them seem much better than they actually were. Equus is a magnificent exception, confirmed by a return visit to the Old Vic on November 15 when the new cast made the play a completely fresh and exciting experience. John Dexter's direction of Peter Shaffer's finely wrought text creates the ...

... LEATHERHEAD 'MAUDIE' Opened November 12 IF THERE is a matter for regret about Maudie, the musical diary based on Osbert Lancaster's Pocket Cartoon, at the Thorndike, Leatherhead, it is that Mr Lancaster did not design the decor. Apart from this artist's known brilliance in this field, he must surely know more about Drayneflete and its envir ons than anybody. In fact the sets were by ...

... Optical effects THEATRE Sound and Lighting (Services) Ltd have opened a new Optical Effects Division with Eddie Biddle, for so long the effects specialist at Strand Electric, as manager. TSL, as the company is now familiarly known, was founded a few years ago by a group of established theatre technology specialists of whom several, including Joe Davis, Ian Dow, and Cyril Grif fiths, had ...