... Lange sure to lure the crowd Theatre Royal, Haymarket A Streetcar Named Desire Peter Hall's revival of Tennessee Williams' most talked about play is only the third since Vivien Leigh introduced his fragile heroine to London a half century ago, and the first to star an American actress. Jessica Lange enjoyed mixed success as Blanche Du Bois on Broadway in 1992, but this has done nothing to ...

... Guards! Guards! Grace Theatre Some people like eating sprouts. I do not. I understand that they are good for you and nutritious, but I simply do not like them. It is the same with fantasy novels of the Dungeons and Dragons style fiction. These are terrifyingly ular but I simply do not get it. Therefore I am completely lost at sea reviewing Guards! Guards!, an adaptation of a book by Terry ...

... The Merry Wives of Windsor Stratford-upon-Avon That this is the most naturalistic, most domestic of Shakespeare's comedies is acknowledged in Ian Judge's production for the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, where Tim Goodchild's set gives us tall, brick and timbered houses with mullioned windows letting in a golden, summer light (lighting: Simon Tapping) neatly clipped, formal gardens and the ...

... Dutiful rather than a cracker London Coliseum The Nutcracker Kirov Ballet is currently presenting Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker at the London Coliseum over the Christmas period. It provides a treat for undemanding tots (especially those with a taste for the dance) and adults dragged along in their wake Others may be less smitten. The first matinee perfor mance was routine. The company is ...

... Showtime ICA A man walks on stage with a bomb strapped to his bare chest. He stands next to a Wendy house and delivers a monologue on how to produce a successful show. Behind him, two pantomime trees break into a fight, hurling boxes at each other. Later, a man with tinned spaghetti clutched to his stomach is interrogated, his every response punctuated with gasps of agony and cries for help ...

... Little Eyolf Stratford-upon-Avon As in Shakespeare's late plays, Ibsen's take place in a landscape of the mind rather than the real world. In Adrian Noble's production at the Swan, designer Rob Howell notes this with just a few items of furniture suggesting a tenuous link with reality, but it is the vast, inky-blue backdrop, mys teriously lit with shimmers of lighter blue and gold (lighting ...

... Cybergeneration Belfast Not even the sub-zero tempera tures in the Distillery Complex on the edge of Belfast city centre could chill the enthusiasm of a packed house muffled in winter woollies, hot toddies in hand for this large-scale community dance explosion, led by the singular presence of dancer/animateur Wayne McGregor. Belfast's Community Arts Forum worked for months on mar shalling the ...

... Cinderella Royal Opera House Ashton's Cinderella is a moralising ballet, aimed at touching our hearts with its contrasting worlds of rich and poor, and good and not-sogood. David Drew and Oliver Symons' self-mocking Ugly Sisters are endearing because their idea of themselves is so at oaas with everyone else s. For example, they are such snobs that they cannot see how Peter Abegglen's ...

... Noises Off Taunton Micheal Frayn's Noises Off celebrates 20 years of the Brewhouse. Red Shift director Jonathan Holloway has been brought in for the annual in-house Christmas production. Noises urt is a play that turns on Act II, as the first is a formality. Act II, showing back stage angst and panic, is proba bly the most difficult exercise ever designed for comedy acting. The front stage ...

... Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat Leatherhead Although no cast names appear on the posters at the Thomdike, it was a dead cert that this new production of Joseph would be first class. The director's programme credits read like the length and breadth of Encyclopaedia Britannica, with Bill Kenwright (producer/director) Henry Metcalfe (choreographer) Sean Cavanagh (designer), David ...

... Exciting miracle of rare delight Royal Opera House Turandot Andrei Serban's staging of Puccini's Turandot remains a miracle of rare delight. Sally Jacobs' evocative single setting still seethes with the restless resignation of the downtrodden. They sidle through smoky shafts of light spilling from dens and ners to catch the bloody power play of those who subjugate them, or impassively ...

... The Nutcracker Royal Festival Hall Not only is English National Ballet presenting Ben Stevenson's Nutcracker for the last time, the company's Christmas season is also its last on the South Bank, marking the end of a 40 year association with the Royal Festival Hall. Next year, ENB will enjoy the rather more spacious stage afforded by the London Coliseum in a brand new produc tion of the ...