... The Jolson, Formby, Crosby Show Blackpool There have been busier opening nights. But, if there is anyone out there who loves a trier then they will adore this night of nostalgia at South Shore's once thriving Tangerine Nightspot. The idea for this event origi nated at Great Yarmouth's Wellington Pier before arriving in Blackpool for an early season at North Pier in 1995. But, the cur rent ...

... Vanessa Bloomsbury Theatre Samuel Barber's Vanessa is the composer at his best, an old- fashioned grand opera carried upon succulent harmonies skilfully orchestrated, the rhythmic momentum seamlessly sustained within the formal structure of each act. Menotti's trashy libretto, how ever, does not deserve its fine score. Vanessa, having waited 20 years for her lover, instead finally meets his ...

... Cosi fan tutte Longborough Summer opera for the wealthy gentry is proliferating alarmingly. Eavesdropping revealed a fair percentage of the Longborough crowd had already notched up Glyndeboume, Garsington and Grange Park. The Longborough Cosi was an Opera 2000 import. Making the lovers English travellers in Italy circa 1820, with Don Alfonso a waggish visitant friend stirring it with the ...

... Warren Vache and The Zephyr All-Stars Conway Hall Zephyr is a record label, run by John Bune, which has made its name by presenting the music of British jazz mainstreamers, chief among them the durable pianist Brian Lemon. The label's roster of artists has been supplemented by occasional American guest stars, with trumpeter Warren Vache appearing often enough to qualify for honorary ...

... Seaside Special Cromer Seaside Special is everything that a summer show ought to be. It is funny, fast-moving and colourful, and sends you out of the Pavilion knowing you have had a great time. Underlying it all may be the old-fashioned concept of the end- of-the-pier show, but this produc tion is, more than ever, bang up to date. Robert Marlowe devises, directs and choreographs for its 18th ...

... 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 ...

... Showstopper on home turf Cardiff Peter Karrie--Unmasked With or without that famous half-mask, Peter Karrie's Cardiff concert demonstrated the charismatic authority which he has stamped on more than 2,000 performances of The Phantom of the Opera. From the West End to Toronto via Singapore and Hong Kong, his Phantom has been received with understandable enthusiasm. But it can rarely have ...

... The Comedy Zone Blackpool Full marks to Leisure Parcs ror thinking it could establish an alternative comedy outlet here--nil points for not actually thinking the thing through. The Comedy Zone is actually the old Central Pier Theatre, later Maggie May's, more recently Peggy Sue's Rock'n'Roll Showbar and last summer the setting for a Frank Carson variety bill. Hosts Phil (son of Roy) Walker and ...

... Fitting tribute for a legend London Palladium Judy Garland Gala Tribute This sold-out tribute, produced by Barry J Mishon in aid of the mental health care charity MACA, would have delighted the tormented and talented legend Judy Garland, who died thirty years ago. But Garland would have had still more pride in the contribution made by her second daughter, Loma Luft, who co-hosted, linked the ...

... David Soul in Concert Reading Twenty-odd years after I recorded on to cassette Don't Give Up on Us Baby as an eager teenager listening to the UK Top Ten, it was a strange experience to be reviewing the blond half of Starsky and Hutch at the Hexagon. What was even more surpris ing was that this hit record now pales into insignificance against some of the songs that David Soul performs during ...