... Fluid Miro avoids the Rut Peacock Ballet Comunidad de Madrid Making a first visit to Britain, Ballet Comunidad de Madrid divides into two distinct categories: wonderful dancers and less than wonderful choreography. The effect is of momentary excitement-- but the morning after, little of substance lingers on. What characterises the com pany is a style of movement that derives from hybrid ...

... Full house sees slick show Rochester Armstrong Academy Agency/Aaron Paul Stone There was a full house at the imposing Casino Rooms Entertainment Complex where, in the main cabaret setting, the young owner, Aaron Paul Stone, presents showcases two or three times a year. It is a slick and professional operation. about the main act this time. Actor Shaun Williamson carried the night on his broad ...

... Frankly Scarlett King's Head With a title like Frankly Scarlett, there are no prizes for guessing which cinema epic is the focus for Phillip George and Peter Morris' fast-paced, manic farce. Peter Polycarpou plays David 0 Selznick, a movie producer with a dilemma. Gone With the Wind is all ready to go into production, but he still has not found his Scarlett. One would-be actress (Sophie Louise ...

... The Spanish Tragedy Stratford-upon-Avon Thomas Kyd's early revenge tragedy is hardly a reflective play, but director Michael Boyd does offer some food for thought in his style of presentation. He makes a virtue of the play's weaknesses--its crude psychological base and declamatory, style--by posing the characters as a group portrait at the beginning of several scenes. Stiff and formal ...

... Frankie & Tommy Watford I never round Tommy Cooper particularly funny and was seriously reminded of the fact seeing Garry Lyons' Frankie & Tommy at the Palace. My face remained totally still when all around me (or so it seemed) people roared with laughter when Christopher Brand brilliantly imitated the style and humour of one of the nation's most popular funny men. I found a certain negative ...

... Surprise Party Southampton/Touring Jewish New Yorker David--the hero of American writer Ivan Menchell's new play, receiving its world premiere at the Nuffield--is a top-flight insurance salesman who takes his sales pitches a little too closely to heart. A man who rushes to the doctor at the slightest provoca tion, and who knows the actuaries' life expectancy tables off by heart, he has been ...

... Les Miserables Harlow/Touring Six performers and a mobile, placed 'pageant' have to suggest the epic story of Jean Valjean. Fantine, Cosette, Inspector Javert and the myriad peasants and gentry caught up in revolutionary times in the France of the early 19th Century. All six performers remain on stage at the Playhouse throughout, acting, playing instru ments, creating sound effects, changing ...

... Tragic role up with the best Newcastle-under-Lyme Overture If the definition of a tragic hero is one who carries the seeds of his own doom within him, then Martin Rydall, the main character in Peter Whelan's Overture, is up with the best. Premiered at the New Victoria, this long play tells of an industrialist who sells his factory to restore a great house and its estate. Immersed in his dream, ...

... Tweek The Place The press release promised the most fierce mix of technological blag and performance ever to be allowed visitor access and for once the intriguingly worded claim was not far off. Presented by Barriedale Operahouse Initiations in tandem with an unconventional rock band passing itself off as Schizoid, Tweek challenged the senses alarmingly with its reckless deci bels and visual ...

... Accidental Collectors Wakefield It might seem rather frivolous to reach for a football metaphor when a dancer is injured and the company choreographer has to reach for her leotard, but Janet Smith really did tremendous when she stepped up from the sub's bench. Janet Smith and Dancers' 21st anniversary tour, launched at the Theatre Royal, is high lighted with a new work, Accidental Collectors, ...

... The Return of Ulysses Leeds What a pleasure to encounter a production of a Monteverdi opera which has not been emasculated by Early Music authenticists. Annabel Arden's staging for Opera North at the Grand imbues the circumstances of Ulysses' return to the faithful Penelope with a poetic power and a narra tive excitement to warm the cock les of Homer's heart. Tim Hatley provides a versa ...

... Blue Murder Manchester Award-winning playwright Peter Nichol's Blue Murder at the Library is, as it is billed, a play or two which is a must for those interested in the theatre. Act I is a disarming mix of The Real Inspector Hound meets Orton, while the second half is more Pirandellian in style, as it leaps in and out of reality with a veritable treasure trove of ideas, providing almost a ...