... Tennis stars work on video smash TENNIS champions John McEnroe and Pat Cash are rumoured to be the stars of a new spoof rock and video venture to help victims of the Armenian earthquake. The sportsmen will be banding together for a single which is expected to be in the record shops early next vear. Joining their antics will be several leading international rock musicians. A substantial advance ...

... The Enemy Within GATE ONE HUNDRED per cent improvisation is the name of the game in Major Brickbat's production of this submarine 'drama'-well, maybe 99 per cent. Five sailors (Peter Wear, Lee Simp son, Mandy Knight, Cuthbert Clarke and Simon Godley) find themselves stranded at the bottom of the ocean, with only 36 hours of oxygen left. Such a situation of necessity gives rise to reflection ...

... Coriolanus BARBICAN DIRECTED by Terry Hands with John Barton, Shakespeare's ruthless study of power and self-deception is dominated by an appropriately strong performance from Charles Dance as the great warrior. Tall, golden-haired, and martial in aspect, he looks the living proof of the praise bestowed upon him by the consul Comimus (Frank Moorey), That valour is the chiefest virtue ...

... Too Little Toulouse WATER RATS THE DELIGHTFUL intimate music hall ambiance of the Water Rats Theatre is the perfect venue for Rhubarb Alley's production of Too Little Toulouse by Simon Towrtley and Gary Willis. Set at the turn of the century in the Naughty Nineties, this pastiche of Feydeau farces and romantic operettas of the time takes an amusing look at the hypocritical moral values of the ...

... Die Meistersinger ROH LAST seen in 1983, Warner's epic comedy has been given a new staging by John Cox, with a new set design for the finale of they third act by architect Michael Hopkins. This new rendering of the prize song ceremony, with its waving flags and good folk seated in a kind of perspex stadium inept to remind us of all that with reunification imminent is the least successful ...

... Elektra ROYAL OPERA HOUSE IT WAS A great night for Hungary when the new production of Elektra burst upon Covent Garden, with Sir Georg Solti conducting Strauss' orchestrally spectacular score as ebuliently as ever and his compatriot Eva Marton singing the title-role with ferocious involvement. The production by Gotz Friedrich was set in Hans Schavernock's design of a forward-curving corrugated ...

... EC pirate crackdown EAST European states who apply to join the European Community may be forced to prove they have cracked down on music industry pirates before they can qualify for membership, writes Brian Aawood. Record industry watchdog the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry wants to use the EC as a lever to put a stop to the growing black market trade which has ...

... Snow-business! AVID fans of impressionist Joe Longthorne (right) will brave anything, even atrocious weather conditions, to see their hero perform. Jean Carbutt one of his most dedicated followers, ploughed her way through the weekend snowstorms with three friends from Broxbourne in Hertford shire to Central Television's Nottingham studios where Longthorne was to record the last programme in ...

... Cavalleria Rusticana/I Pagliacci BROMLEY AFTER their disappointing venture into modern-style British opera with Benjamin Britten's Peter Grimes, written 1945 in Suffolk, Kentish Opera returned this year to the familiar ground of late 19th century Italian masterpieces, staging excellent performances of the popular duo, Cav and Page at the Churchill, Bromley. Since the two operas take place ...

... d2 SPITALFIELDS ROSEMARY Butcher is one of Britain's most controversial choreographers, whose search for what is pure and abstract in movement has often appealed more to visual artists than to the dance public, particularly because of her use of non technical and non climactic movement. In other ways too she is non-conformist, for example by her frequent use of spaces not tradi tionally ...

... Up Against It NEW YORK UP AGAINST IT, Joe Orton's abortive screenplay for the Beatles, has now become the basis of a zany, mildly misogynistic musical at Joe Papp's Public Thetre. With music and lyrics in a variety of styles by Todd Rundgren, very lively and witty choreography by Jennifer Muller. and camp direction by Ken neth Elliott, the director of the very successful Charles Busch drag ...

... Identity crisis KING'S HEAD Health Farm THE PATRONS of Elmore Hall seek redemption through trim tummies and firm thighs. But for Dora Fox (Rosemary Leach) and Jenny Nightingale (Isla Blair), two housewives struggling late in life to find their identities and assert their independence, happiness is not so easily purchased. I In Peter King s posihumously pro duced play, the Health Farm is an ...