... WILDE SET TO MUSIC IN 'HALF IN EARNEST' HALF IN EARNEST, Vivian Ellis's adaptation of The Importance of Being Earnest, stays elose to the original and the story to scrupulously observed. We have Wilde's lines and the laughs that go with them, but there are, of course, certain outs including the Tmrtfin scene. Mr. Ellis has added a dozen or an musical numbers with ingenious and amusing ...

... WHEN the prizes come to be handed out for the best original cast album of 1973. it already seems obvious that RCA's Gypsy is going to be near the top of the list. Of course, it dries have ail those marvellous songs, almost the best thing about the long-delayed Lon don production being the realisa tion that so many of the good songs of the early sixties are to be found in one show Some People ...

... DISC DATA Golden Hour of Shirley Temple Pve Golden Hour GH 833 The United States Ambassador to Ghana when young. And not just 60 minutes of nostalgia either but a worthwhile recollection of the greatest child star of all time. The songs may sound appallingly cute and sacharine, but it is important to rpropnisp the background of the Shirley Temple success story an America fighting its way ...

... The Goof us Five 1925-1926 Parlo- phone PMC 7183 A genuine taste of the New York jazz age and a generous helping of the style of one of the remarkable little bands of the twenties, built around the bass sax playing of Adrian Rollini, who developed this ponderous instrument both as a rhythmic pulse and for fleet solo work. The other notable soloist on this eighteen-track album is trumpet ...

... SADLER'S WELLS 'FLOWER FESTIVAL' ANTOINETE SIBLEY brougnt an added touch of sparkle to the Royal Ballet's varied quartet of works at Sadler's Wells on October 16 by dancing the Bournonville Flower Festival pas de deux with gaiety, impeccable neatness and a last-minute partner. Alain Dubreuil tookover From her scheduled partner, who was injured, and showed his adaptability to a different ...

... GALINA PANOV will now make her first appearance in this country with the London Festi val Ballet in Rudolf Nureyev's new production of Sleeping Beauty. She will dance two performances on April 25 and 26 and will be partnered by Nur- eyev on both occasions. The Panovs will make their first London appearance together on May 1. ...

... Singin' *n' Swingin' Syd Lawrence Orchestra Philips 9299 284 The eleventh album by Britain's middle-of-the-road phenomenon. Though showing little change in style, there is something of a broadening of repertoire. The tracks were made over a two-year period, which means that the personnel is almost completely different in the later cuts. Not that this makes any change in the quality, for Syd ...

... Original Dixieland Jazz Band. World Records SH 221 A different type of music-making, a quintet of players who injected the spirit of the new jazz into a warweary London in 1919. Their initial engagement here was for the revue Joy Bells at the London Hippodrome and their overnight success aroused the star's jealousy. As he was George Robey. an established favourite with the public, the pro ...

... The Rhythm Combination and Brass -- MPS BAP 5058 Recorded live at Ronnie Scott's Club in May last year, this set is by the multi-national band led by Rumanian-born trombonist Peter Herbolzheimer. All those who visited the club during the band's season cannot fail to have been impressed by this worthy successor to the Clarke Bolund Big Band, for it proved one of the most exciting, gutsy ...

... SHOW ON DISC A Little Night Music original London cast RCA LRL 1 5090 Stephen Sondheim's superb musical is not, as has been obvious from the correspondence published in this paper, to everybody's taste, any more than not everybody likes Wagner. But it all depends upon what one expects from a musical. A Little Night Music has been ceived and executed entirely in operatic and theatrical ...

... Disc Data To Fred Astaire, with Love Ruby Braff-George Barnes Quartet (RCA SF 84421 Sheer delight to listen to during their visit to the Ronnie Scott Club a few months ago, the two veteran jazzmen, one playing cornet, the other old-fashioned electric guitar, show what can be done when taste, swing and instrumental skill are applied to great old tunes, all featured by Astaire in films. Ride ...

... McJazz Lives On Sandy Brown (One-Up OU 2092) When Sandy Brown died in March this year, British and, indeed, world jazz lost a strikingly gifted and idiosyncratic musician. These tracks, recorded in the late fifties and early sixties by Denis Preston and mainly released on earlier albums, form an excellent tribute to a man who was not only a clarinettist with an instantly recognisable style but ...