... Don Pasquale Buxton Charlotte Page simply stole the show with a masterful performance that masked a personal battle for fitness on this opening night. She had been stricken with a throat infection-but with the help of antibiotics and an iron will, she emerged triumphant. This production by Crystal Clear Opera, which is touring the English version of this comic opera by Donizetti well into the ...

... Glyndebourne Touring Opera La Boheme Glyndeboume Touring Opera hits the road anew with a revival of its 1991 production of Puccini's La Boheme, which certainly unlocks the tear ducts. Mind you, the new young cast makes a tremendous difference. La Boheme pinpoints with dramatic truth the careless rap ture of the young, the pitfalls of extreme emotions untempered by at least some restraint. ...

... Northern Star Trail Wakefield Unlike many talent contests, the Northern Star Trail organised by Mark Ritchie and Mick McGinley at the thriving Samsons at Stanley, near Wakefield, formerly a WMC, is rooted firmly in north-em clubland. It is probably safe to say that all the 60 entrants in this well-endowed contest the top prize is £1000 and there is no direct outside sponsorship have had ...

... Criminally entertaining Brick Lane Music Hall An Evening with Frankie Fraser It is not often that a theatre gives space for two and a half hours to a convicted criminal to tell his life story and pack the place. In this extraordinary produc tion, real life 'Mad' Frankie Fraser, one of Britain's most noto rious and powerful criminals, who spent 40 years of his life, on and off, in top security ...

... Dave Lynn and Company King's Head Anyone who attempts a Riverdance skit on the stage of the King's Head (a limited space to say the least) deserves a medal, if nothing else--and to do it in heels is an even greater achievement. But after 20 years, having toured all kinds of venues across the country, Jewish drag artist Dave Lynn cannot be afraid of a challenge. For his new show, which was more ...

... Heart of Humph Not content to continue playing the trad tunes requested by fans, Humphrey Lyttelton likes to keep moving, says Peter Vacher Humphrey Lyttelton has been travelling the highways and byways of British jazz for very nearly a half century now. For more than four decades, the trumpeter has been both performer and bandleader, and seems to show no sign of wanting to give up the ...

... Big bands--the return? Don't overlook the potential of big bands even now, says Peter Hepple, for they supply far more than just 'music for crinklies' I am. alas, of that age which grew up with the big bands. Not just Glenn Miller and Ted Heath but a few years before that, when the variety theatres, always looking for new attractions, seized upon the fame acquired by the dance bands that ...

... Emporium of history full of surprises Michael Dynan visits the treasure trove of information that is the National Jazz Foundation Archive Loughton Central Library may seem a surprising place in which to find the National Jazz Foundation Archive, or the NJFA, as it is more easily known. After all, jazz is more often associated with smoky, late night clubs and cellars, so one might expect to ...

... Trent's on top Making the most of his stay in London, where he is currently playing Eat Moe in Five Gays Named Moe at the Albery. is Treat Kendall. Since be has arrived here, be has recorded a 16 track album at die prestigious AIR Studios for release on the Dress Carle UbeL on which he displays a prodigious ver satility, tackling classic rmianlir fra**** from Rodgers and Hart, Porter and ...

... CAA Annual Ball Marriot Hotel In this house-full evening of speeches and cabaret, several names were guests of honour, including Peter Elliott, Peter D'Arcy, John Roscoe, Ann Zahl and The Stage's Peter Hepple, with CAA president Ruth Madoc presiding over proceedings with her witty and entertaining opening speech. The same, alas, cannot be said for that otherwise brilliant actress Jean ...

... Something original at last BY LISA MARTLAND Although my policy towards reviewing radio is always to 'accentuate the positive', the standard of recent comedy offerings across the networks has frequently tested my patience. How pleasant it was then to discover two examples of much tighter. innovative and downright funnier writing during the last couple of weeks. Radio 1 is hardly regarded as a ...

... Boring as the hits came out Royal Festival Hall George Shearing Listening to the revived George Shearing Quintet gave me as strong a feeling of deja-vu as I have experienced in the jazz field, recalling those MGM 78s with the yellow label which introduced the mellow and sophisticated sound of the unit around 1950. Three years before. Shearing had emi grated to the USA and the quintet was ...