... The Sleeping Beauty ROH WITH TWO major ballet companies in London last week (and two others arriving this week and next, comparisons may be invidious, but they are also unavoidable. Watching the Australian Ballet at the Royal Opera House in The Sleeping Beauty I missed the richness of movement of the Kirov Ballet. The Australian style in common with most European schools is less deeply ...

... No talent to keep contest going A BIG MONEY talent contest has been scrapped at Blackpool's Bloomfield Club because of a lack of suitable performers. After being widely advertised, the competition was dropped after organiser and local agent Derek Allen, together with club officials, gave the thumbs down to the standard of local hopefuls. We didn't attract as many initial entrants as we ...

... Angry Minute Dance Plays RIVERSIDE ANGRY MINUTE DANCE PLAYS is the title of a collection of vignettes made by Toby Armour and her company from New York. It is a perplexing title since few of the scenes appeared to be either angry or minute-wherever you put the accent. Perhaps it was the audience that was meant to get angry, every minute or so. Only at the first performance at Riverside ...

... Buffery sows seeds THE ROYAL Shakespeare Com pany's assistant director in Strat ford, Bill Buffery, is to take over as the new artistic director of the Orchard Theatre from mid January. He will succeed Nigel Bryant, who will leave for a post with the BBC in Birmingham as a radio drama producer after five years in which saw the audience treble. A spokesman for the company said Buffery would ...

... Spring term HUMPHREY LYTTLETON and his Band start off the spring term of concerts at University College School, Hampstcad on January 26. The Top Brass Jazz Orchestra directed by Bob Wheal, with vocal ists Dennis Lotis and Lee Gibson, follow on February 2, Canadian saxophonist Jim Galloway on February 9, Adelaide Hall (Febru ary 23) and the Jean Toussaint Quartet (March 2). ...

... Dench talks JUDI DENCH speaks at the first 1989 meeting of the Gallery First Nighters Club on January 8, to he held at 7. 15 pm at the Club for Acts and Actors, 20 Bedford Street, WC2. ...

... Dublin Gaiety hit by musicians row Grand reopening may be all at sixes and sevens ANTHONY GARVEY reports A DISCORDANT note is threatening the ambitious plans for the reopening of Dublin's Gaiety Theatre later this month following a £750, 000 renovation. The Irish Federation of Musicians and the Gaiety management are in dispute over the strength of the orches tra for the planned Christmas panto ...

... Time for the north By PETER HEPPLE THE SHOWCASES presented for delegates at Entertainment '88 in Harrogate were particularly interesting for a Southerner because they proved there is an amazing amount of talent which can never be seen in the south because the venues are not there. Moreover, one or two of the offerings were astonishingly elaborate, of touring fringe company numerical strength, ...

... Looking like a thousand dollars PERHAPS we may be pardoned for making a mistake in one of our captions last week, for the lady whom we thought was Barbara Kelly in our picture of the celebrities of the VALGO Autumn Fair was in fact Celia Lipton. For both ladies appear to defy the passage of time, both are equally gla morous, but Celia has been away from Britain for so long that few of those ...

... There's a hole in your contract, dear Mervyn' ANNIE PRODUCER Mervyn Conn is being made to carry the can after a rumpus over child stars who are being paid the equivalent of about £4 a week and have to provide their own metal bucket for the show. Equity spokesman Marilyn Stoddart said the union had received complaints from parents about the children's pay and confusing and irrelevant con ...

... RTE cross Irish sea IRELAND'S LEADING orchestra, the RTE Concert Orchestra, visits England for the first time next month, playing three special Celebration Ire land concerts at Liverpool Philharmo nic Hall, March 14, Birmingham Town Hall, March 16 and the Royal Albert Hall on St Patrick's Day, March 17. Featured in the concerts will be composer Shaun Davey, Rita Connolly, Liam O Floinn ...

... Circuit breakthrough ELECTRICITY circuit breakers are to be mandatory in all licensed clubs and pubs in Edinburgh which feature live acts. The decision was taken by Edin burgh's Licensing Board after it heard how 18-year-old rock guitarist Phillip Hardy was electrocuted in a pub in Stratford Upon Avon last year. The South of Scotland Electricity Board's Consultative Committee and Edinburgh ...