... Egged on by his admirers Leeds The Good Old Days with Norman Collier At the City Varieties the music hall season continued with a well- balanced bill, topped by Hull-born favourite Norman Collier, who did one long spot. Not many colliers working now, he quipped as he launched into his working men's club comedy routine, donning a huge cloth cap. A fine commit tee man, was his verdict on ...

... Madam Butterfly London Coliseum Puccini's personal favourite, Butterfly is not just a 'one song, one character' piece, despite what they say. ENO's ninth revival of Graham Vick's popular two-act production proves this with the casting of Christine Rice as Suzuki, her first role as a company principal, winning spe cial applause at curtain-call. This slender young singer makes stunning, ...

... Rambert Dance Company: Second Programme Sadler's Wells Offering pieces by Merce Cunningham, Ohad Naharin and Siobhan Davies, Rambert's second programme was more uplifting than the first. Created in 1991, Naharin's Axioma 7 is but a game of musical chairs at a crazy party. The guests are happily inebriated and, as they shift around the big semi circle of chairs, they gaily chuck their ...

... Cool Classics Kirkaldy/Touring In its mission to bring ballet to the people, Scottish Ballet is touring this feast of dance to the smaller stages of Scotland. And it is an intelligent programme, providing something to please most people without alienating them from that which is not quite to their taste. For starters at the Adam Smith was Faerie Feat, a cool, as in trendy, piece in which ...

... Staying clear of the stereotypes Peacock Tango Y Fuga When presented as a theatrical experience, under a proscenium arch rather than in a Buenos Aires brothel, tango very often loses its grit. One couple obediently follows another in a series of dances, and stereotypical imagery is exploited for an entire evening. Not so with Tangokine- sis, which made its British debut with Tango Y Fuga, ...

... Jazz performer to truly savour Radlett Carla Valenti I have attended some curious showbusiness occasions, and a showcase performance by the American jazz cabaret singer Carla Valenti at the Radlett Centre comes high on the list. I just hope that the enterprise of Ron Hatter, a Radlett local, pays off for both himself and Valenti, for here is a performer to savour, a mature, pencil-slim ...

... Golden mission accomplished Croydon/Touring Andy Prior: The Magic of Sinatra Andy Prior is billed as Britain's leading young bandleader and his mission in life is to re-interpret and give a fresh sound to the big band classics of the past and the golden era of popular song. In that way he hopes to attract a new young audience to join the old faithfuls. Judging by the silvery-haired maturity of ...

... Clive James/Pete Atkin Buxton Few people know that long before Clive James became a TV celebrity, with his chat shows and travel documentaries, he had a career as a songwriter In the early seventies, the man with the ready quip collabo rated with musician Pete Atkin, who set 200 or so of James' lyrics to music, many of which made it on to six albums. These, it seems, are now highly sought ...

... Spellbinding close-up magic Eastbourne 62nd Annual Convention of the British Ring of the International Brotherhood of Magicians It was a whirlwind of wizardry when over 1,300 magicians from around the world attended the 62nd Annual Convention of the British Ring of the International Brotherhood of Magicians. With a few exceptions, it was close-up magic that dominated, performed by some of ...

... Yiddish Cabaret Royal Academy After sellout performances in New York, Minneapolis and North Carolina, actor Bernard Mendelovitch returned to London for his West End debut at the Royal Academy in Yiddish cabaret. It was a first time as well for the Royal Academy's elegant, quintessential^ English, Reynolds Room. Never before had it housed a show that would have been equally at home on the ...

... John Lenahan/Simon Evans/Ian Cognito Red Rose Comedy Club Comic Ivor Dembina was the driving force behind the Red Rose Comedy Club, which ran with great success from 1986 up until 1991 or so, when he decided to concentrate on his own career after serving up the likes of Izzard, Evans, Brand and Hill. Having globe-trotted his act from Edinburgh to Israel, and started another regular night in ...

... Satisfying a morbid curiosity Though it may be morbid to say so, there is no doubt that we humans can become obsessed with the whys and wherefores of death, particularly when the circumstances are sudden and hard to explain. Decades after the public have stopped mourning the loss of Diana, Princess of Wales in their droves, visitors to Paris will probably have the opportunity to officially ...