... Dick Whittington Liverpool With a smooth storyline introduced by right-on, seductive Fairy Bowbells (Sylvia Gatril), the Neptune leapt into its rollicking version of Dick Whittington directed by the ever- inventive Ray Cornell. Fresh from his Brookside demise as Little Jimmy, George Christopher gave King Rat oodles of venom to prod the audience into booing loud and long. This zipalong show ...

... Beaten by Toffee Norwich Not every community theatre gets first chew of such a toothsome new play as has the Maddermarket. Admittedly Elly Brewer's script has a few local jokes which the first night audience wisely ignored, although it is a pleasant novelty to meet a wicked witch whose chief ambition is an honorary degree from the University of East Anglia. The rest of the plot concerns ...

... Cinderella Bexhill Once again, music and dance fea ture strongly in the De La Warr Pavilion's Christmas offering. No opportunity for a song is allowed to pass untaken. And another mam moth contingent of dancers and babes injects colour and energy into the show at freouent intervals. Yet it remains basically a tradi tional fun-filled pantomime with plenty of scope for younger mem bers of the ...

... Robinson Crusoe on Treasure Island Ewell Shipwrecks are a godsend to pantomime directors. Just when things are getting a bit thin at home, pack the cast off in a leaky ship, stage a mammoth storm with undersea effects and maroon the whole lot on an uninhabited island. It works every time. RG Entertainments milked it for all it was worth at the Adrian Mann Theatre, moving the show along briskly ...

... Peter Pan Eye, Suffolk If the truth be told, five actors is too small a cast when you are presenting Peter Pan. However, when it is a production at the Eye. even if the whole is not completely successful, you know that there are going to be many compensating factors to intrigue and thrill during the performance. Foremost must be the talents of the five players. Each creates at least three ...

... Bobby Roberts Super Circus Glasgow Bobby Roberts Super Circus is back at the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre with a bright, sparkling and varied show, produced by Ian Christie. This year there are three gener ations of the Roberts family in the ring Bobby, his son Bobby (alias Bobo), daughter Kitty and his grand daughter Summer. Roberts' great specialities are elephants and horses. ...

... Sleeping Beauty llford This is a colourful presentation at the Kenneth More Theatre, with excellent costumes and sets and some stunning laser effects. The production, which is directed by Vtvyan Ellacott. with script by Nigel Ellacott, flows smoothly along with lots of laughs and some witty one-liners along the way. Marc Seymour as Nurse Nelly Never-Ready displays an amazing array of costumes ...

... Jack and the Beanstalk Redd itch Professionals backstage, combined with amateur performers, have produced what is a pacey. family pantomime at the Palace, directed by Clare Owen. Tony Lacey's book puts the story centre stage, with linking scenes in a library where two young boys are eagerly following the tale, told to them by the librarian (Abby Stonehall). Later she turns into the Good Fairy, ...

... Dick Whittington Harlow Finding much good to say about this production is difficult. It is over- long, verbose, badly acted and there is no sense of pace in the proceedings. Many of the lines are gabbled and some members of the cast are barely audible. Laughs are thin on the ground with the cast struggling with rou tines and material quite beyond their capabilities. Do they get paid for this? ...

... Have to look for the laughs Birmingham Mother Goose Paul Elliott's pantomime at the Hippodrome dazzles the eyes. There are Hugh Durrant's richly gilded sets with a French rococco flavour to them, Russ Stevens as the Wizard conjuring up characters, including a White Power Ranger, from nowhere, and a gorgeous array of costumes from pretty to bizarre. Director/choreographer Carole Todd puts ...

... Holland Music Festival THE EXCELLENCE of the offerings savoured during a short visit made the mouth water for those that time did not allow one to see. 1 he three appetisers were: ab- CDEFG, which was the Dutch ver sion of the Previn-Stoppard musico- dramatic hybrid Every Good Boy Deserves Favour (advertised in Holland as dedicated to the Soviet dissidents Victor Fainberg and Vladimir ...

... Murder With Love WORTHING MURDER WITH LOVE, a suspense-thriller with a diverting if somewhat orthodox twist to its tale, never quite arrives at its destination in Worthing Connaught Theatre's production of the Francis Durbridge whodunnit classic. The varied assembly of sound effects that director Ellis Jones is able to call forth do not compensate for what can only be described as an ...