... Norma Winstone Pizza on the Park Norma Winstone's first set at the Pizza on the Park began so well. Johnny Burke and Jimmy Van Heusen's delicious Like Someone in Love slithered smoothly into Frank Loesser's If I Were a Bell, and then, as far as the sparse audience was concerned, it all seemed to go downhill. Tasteful versions of Dave Grusin's Wait for Me, along with Cloudy Morning, and the ...

... Robert Habermann Purcell Room At a time when aging swingin' lovers all over the world were digging out their 40-year-old original Frank Sinatra albums and realising again just how good they were, it was a brave move by cabaret singer Robert Habermann to sing an evening's worth of w on ig ai i cvci hi ig o nui u I ui songs associated with 01' Blue Eyes in celebration of his 80th birthday. ...

... BY LISA MARTLAND Some of us 'ordinary' people are pretty content if we begin to succeed in our chosen careers by the time our late teens or early twenties come along. In A Man for All Music (R4, from Monday. January 8) Andre Previn modestly joked that he probably wasted his time a bit before entering a conservatory at the age of six. How lazy can you get! Previn is a unique musical fig ure ...

... A performer of real quality Green Room, Cafe Royal Iris Williams Last year went out on a high note at the Green Room with the appearance of Iris Williams, one of Britain's great unrecognised singers, so unrecognised, in fact, that much of her career is based in the USA these days. The quality of her voice was plain to me when she made her debut as a young girl, fresh from the Welsh College of ...

... Partners in pantomime A little over a century ago saw the genesis of a partnership that was to bring joy to generations of theatregoers across the land. Gordon Irving charts the achievements of two remarkable impresarios In the world of pantomime the name of Howard and Wyndham was prominent in the fifties and sixties of this fast-disappearing century. Theatrical productions under the H&W ...

... Breeze casts hypnotic spell Billingham Michele Breeze's Millennium Show With so many cutbacks in entertainment schedules nowadays, what a pleasure it is to see a lavish production where no expense is spared, and audiences can escape, if only temporarily, from the bleakness of our early winter to the razzle dazzle and brilliance of bnght neon lights, reminiscent of glitzy Hollywood ...

... JUST LOOK AT 'GYPSY' NOW It would be wrong of me to conceal the fact that actress Tracy Whitwell is a friend of mine. Back in Gateshead when Tracy, who has always known her own mind, went off to drama school in the Smoke, there were weird stories tillering back to us about how she had become a gypsy. What sort of gibberish is this? Well. I didn't really like drama school when I was there ...

... NO MORE A NOMAD was once a nomad of the industrial north moving from job to job. Had it not been for a lifelong friendship with playwright John Godber, Andrew might never have appeared on stage and still be TTirilVIII^, (4 V.V/U1 IIIW 1(1111 around Castleford, near Leeds. Andrew may be familiar to you as the man who sits in the bus shelter with Victoria W(xxl on her TV show, but more ...

... An Evening with Ken Morley Halifax An advert in The Stage changed the life of a supply teacher working in Brixton. The teacher was Ken Morley, now better known as Reg Holdsworth of Coronation Street. Morley, who has just left the Street, is now touring the the atres meeting fans and talking about his rareer being expertly interviewed on stage by John Farrow. I saw the pair at the fog bound ...

... Jimmy Tarbuck and Kenny Lynch Blackpool Even Jimmy Tarbuck cracks on that he can't remember how many years it is since he last performed a Blackpool season. But it certainly wasn't in anything like the luxurious surrounds of the Pleasure Beach's flagship cabaret venue the Paradise Room. And it wasn't in the middle of winter either, bemoans Jimmy Tarbuck. My agent missed that bit out when ...

... Haze's Circus of Horrors Crystal Palace When the stewardess aboard our flight to Transylvania was shot dead on take-off at Haze's Circus of Honors, we knew what sort of show we were in for. Directed by the creator of Archaos, Pierrot Bidon, and presented by Gerry Cottle in a Big Top on The Parade it was the circus from hell. Set in the decaying, futuristic Sin City, vampire and ringmaster ...

... Danny La Rue Wimborne After 14 performances in a week, Danny La Rue used his panto 'day off' to travel from Wimbledon and freely present a charity event at the Tivoli. I Shining professionalism dis- guised that this smooth produc- tion, which was cheered r throughout, had in fact been r assembled only hours previously but the legendary star dazzled as always and had carefully chosen I his four ...