... 2,000 Years Down the Drain--From Jesus Christ to Jerry Springer Gilded Balloon II Self-confidence and talent are abun dant in the six performers from the United States who make up Boom Chicago. Although there is a suspicion of a raw-schoolteacher element in the improvisational team's interaction with the audience fixed smiles and slightly patronising that is fagotten once the lengthy skits ...

... TurboZone presents Cinderella The Quad Cinderella is a bright choice of material for this noisy company of DJs, acrobats, trapeze artists, stunt drivers, performance artists and pyrotechnics experts at University Old College Quad. As this is the theatre of spectacle, updat ing a staple of the panto circuit does not need any interpretive bag gage. Theatre, however, it most cer tainly is. ...

... Melodic and mirthful music Edinburgh International Festival: Edinburgh Festival Theatre An Evening of Operette One of the event's token nods to semi-popular culture, this programme of selections from 19th and 20th-century French operettas pleased the audience with its variety of melodic and comic songs. Perhaps deliberately foiling any expectations that the evening would be one waltz after ...

... The Three Sisters Lauriston Halls Chekhov's play is arguably one of the greatest ever written, and is certainly one that has captured and moved audiences in every produc tion I have ever seen. This version by Theatre Alba translated into a Scottish setting by David Purves sets the play some new challenges but Chekhov triumphs in the end. To the untrained ear, the Scottish dialect sounds like a ...

... Thank You for the Music Windsor Prior to a national tour, Thank You for the Music opened at the Theatre Royal to enormous audience acclaim. The show-- simply a concert of songs from the sev- enties--has the makings of achieving a cult following and is modern nostalgia at its best. The fast-paced music virtually ensures that the audiences will be dancing in the aisles and the cast recreate the ...

... The errors of evacuation Sixty years ago this week, the biggest mass-movement of people in British history took place. During the first three days of September 1939, nearly 1.5 million people--including 800,000 schoolchildren aged between five and 15 -- were transported from towns and cities in danger from enemy bombers to places of safety in the country. Veteran foreign correspon dent ...

... Keeping it in the family way London Palladium Flashback 80s This was an oddly titled evening because two of the acts on show are more commonly associated with the seventies. The Village Boys possessed the necessary athleticism and camp for their tribute act. What else can I do on the submarine? asked the sailor as he pulled back the Indian's loincloth to reveal some huge buttocks during ...

... Remembering the brilliance of Berlin By LISA MARTLAND As all the trees and tinsel are packed away for another year, a whole host of new programmes is due to grace the radio schedules- but there is still time to also take a look at what the networks had to offer during the recent festivities. For instance, I suppose it was an appropriate time to hon our the memory of legendary songwriter Irving ...

... Childhood stardom-- on a high note? By John Martland Like England's cricketers following their early exit from the World Cup, the team surrounding Charlotte Church, the remarkable thirteen-year-old soprano from Wales, was very much on the defensive in LJttte Big Voice (Presentable Productions for R4 Tuesday, June 1). Perhaps they had been read ing the review describing her chart-topping album ...

... Gaiety Whirl Ayr This year's Gaiety Whirl is a grand show and probably without peer in Britain this summer, for various reasons, not least that it has two alternating programmes. It is perhaps lighter in comedy content than usual and it has at times an over-abundance of sound, affecting the aural comfort of that significant audience group ing who are not tender in years but faithful in theatre ...

... Blood Vessel Greenwich+Docklands International Festival: Greenwich Physical theatre company. Oh, are you reading on? I thought you might have fallen Into a coma at the mere mention of the words, or run off screaming. Someone somewhere obvi ously thought It a good Idea to bring Stalker Theatre Company all the way from Australia to perform Blood Vessel, directed by Rachel Swain. I had thought ...

... Noel and Gertie Swanage This Patricia Kerins presentation of the acclaimed entertainment devised by Sheridan Morley has no director named in the programme and sadly the production gives every sign of there not being one. The two^ander, at the Mowlem on summer Sundays, while a chronicle of the Inspira tional professional relationship shared by Noel Coward and Gertrude Lawrence, also contains ...