... Council pays up after strike threat A STRIKE hv backstage crew at the Kings Theatre, Edinburgh, which would have forced the can cellation of the Hogmanay per formance of the theatre's panto mime Jack and the Beanstalk, was narrowly averted last week when the district council blamed a com puter error for a shortfall in the technicians' overtime payments. But BETA shop steward at the Kings. ...

... BROADWAY Into The Woods INTO THE WOODS, the new Stephen Sondheim musical at Broadway's large Martin Beck Theatre, is as controversial as Sweeney Todd and Sunday in the Park with George. Less horrific than the first and less selfconsciously highbrow than the second, its ingenious mixture of a number of tairy stories maKes it a on more accessi ble and enjoyable for average theatre goers. Its ...

... SCARBOROUGH The Woman In Black A SKILFUL adaptation of the highly successsful thriller by Susan Hill, The Woman in Black, is a masterpiece and its world premiere at the Stephen Joseph Theatre must certainly be fol lowed by a presentation in the West End. Brilliantly adapted by Stephen Mal- latratt, who uses a clever series of theatrical devices to bring this haunting work to the stage, the ...

... COLISEUM Hansel and Gretel THE TIME is past for presenting Engelbert Humperdinck's Hansel And Gretel with the sentimental fairytale value he put on it himself. David Poutney, in his new production for English National Opera, stops short of making it a study of child abuse but lets in a good measure of Freud in treating the relationships between parents and children quite seriously. The ...

... MANCHESTER A Simple Man NORTHERN Ballet Theatre has been given a new lease of life with the addition to its repertoire of the dance' drama A Simple Man, choreographed for them by Gillian Lynne. Based on the life and works of the famous northern artist L. S. Lowry, perhaps best known for his pictures of matchstalk men and matchstalk cats and dogs, the work was conceived originally for BBC ...

... OLIVIER Countrymania IN MIKE Alfred's version of Goldoni's Villegiatura, three late 18th-century plays satirising the laziness of the aristocracy who go to their country estates not to improve them but to indulge in the fashionable 'season', Shared Experience is in superb form. Alfred's ability to suggest an entire society, moving from town to rural retreat, from expensive chitchat to ...

... THE DUKE OF CAMBRIDGE Hippolytus CLASSICAL Theatre Company's pro duction of David Grene's translation of Euripides' Hippolytus is a straightfor ward traditional reworking of the Greek tragedy. Which just goes to prove that while they don't write 'em like that anymore they still play 'em like that. The production is none the worse for being traditional. A small, able cast inject both drama and ...

... A potion without emotion FRANK GRANVILLE BARKER has his fill at the R0H ROYAL OPERA L'Elisir d'amore FOR THOSE of us who regard Donizetti's L'Elisir d'Amore as the most pcrfect of all Italian comic operas, magicallv combining wit and sentiment. scintillating patter, songs and melting lvrical arias, this Covent Garden revival was a surprisingly glum evening. John (xjpley s lively production in ...

... QUEEN ELIZABETH HALL Monsieur Offenbach's Christmas Party A PROGRAMME of favourite numbers from Offenbach operettas is always welcome, and this Christmas Party was ingeniously staged by Christopher Ren-shaw as a colourful theatrical entertainment. Set in a Paris cafe, designed by Sarah-Jane McClelland, tables and Christmas trees occupied the sides of the stage with the orchestra at the back ...

... CWTDA fights to counter racism THE Conference of Women Theatre Directors and Administrators has launched a major membership drive for 1988 through which it hopes many more Afro- Caribbean and Asian women, who it claims are the hardest hit by descrimination, will join writes asmine Kartal. The CWTDA claims that although opportunities for women to enter theatre administration have improved, ...

... Ladies' day at the New Year's honours MANY THOUGHT it was overdue in at least one case but this year's New Years Honours list saw the recognition of the work of three of Britain's best loved actresses, Judi Dench, Patricia Hayes and Diana Rigg. Dench, 53, has long been hailed as one of this country's best actresses and has encompassed everything from leading Shakespearean roles such as, most ...

... 17 companies chosen to undergo Arts Council probe By JEREMY JEHP A SECOND group of publicly- funded arts organisations has been picked to start in the New Year under the Arts Council's microscope. The funding body has chosen 17 subsidised companies to have every aspect of their operations investigated after what it claims was the success of a pilot scheme which produced detailed assessments of ...