... Turning the spotlight on variety's high-flyers COMPILED BY PETER HEPPLE Emerson and Jayne is one of the best remembered acts of the variety era. The most distinctive of specialities, it featured a man and woman who were obviously top-flight dancers in their easternflavoured routines, but what made it special was the element of illusion incorporated into the act, which culminated with the ...

... Oscar's out on show Compiled By Peter Hepple Robert Tanitch, who compiled Oscar wade on Stags and Screen (Metftuen, £18.99), might well have thought that he had set himself a relatively straightforward task. In the upshot, however, he has filled 436 pages with details, not only of screen ana television proauciions of Wildes plays, but of all the other productions that have been based on his ...

... Academic look at gay theatre COMPLIED By PETER HEPPLE It is no secret that a measurable proportion of those working in theatre, whether as writers, actors, producers or directors, are gay. But it is only during the last 20 years that we have seen the rise of what is called gay theatre- plays and shows written and performed by gays primarily for gay audiences. For some, this may be regret ...

... Never forget Novello Although they were friends, Ivor Novello has in recent years been overshadowed by Noel Coward, at one time thought to be his great rival. Yet apart from the fact that they were both homosexuals, they did not have much in common. Coward was an international figure, equally at home on Broadway as in the West End. Novello, although he had his early successes in the States, ...

... Stormy chronicle of high offstage drama Compiled By Peter Hepple As the English Stage Company settles down in its new auditorium, with restaurant attached, it is as well to be reminded of its bumpy ride over the last 44 years. It was in 1956, five years after the idea of a theatre dedicated to new writing was first mooted, that the Royal Court reopened with Angus Wilson's play The Mulberry ...

... Instructive acting account COMPILED By PETER HEPPLE It is human nature, I suppose, to speculate more about the private lives of actors than about how they entered the profession and go about preparing for a role. In the Company of Actors, by Carole Zucker (A&C Black, £12.99 paperback), does, however, fulfil an excellent service for those who are serious about becoming actors. Sixteen of ...

... FIFTIES THROWBACK It is right that theatre in the fifties should be reassessed and that Look Back in Anger should not be regarded as the seminal play that ushered in a theatrical revolution. In fact, John Osbome's play, while still interesting, by no means comes across as a classic by today's standards. Far more important, and first seen here in the fifties before Look Back in Anger, was ...

... You could call Nell Gwyn the most famous actress of all time. Or the most notorious. She was certainly not the best, though in the mid-17th century she was one of the most popular. In these days we would probably call her a comedienne, for although she occasionally played a senous role, it was her humour and personality that drew the town. But then, of course, most people today think of her ...

... Girls who want to have fun COMPILED BY PETER HEPPLE Stephen M Silverman has done us something of a service by reminding us that female comedy in America has always been several jumps ahead of Britain. Right from the early days of the silent screen there have been comediennes like Polly Moran Louise Fazenda and the great Mabel Normand. The arrival of talkies produced a dazzling new crop, ...

... ORCHESTRAL MOVES It is strange that while books about individuals usually have a fair degree of interest, those about organisations do not. Edmund Pirouet has made an excellent job of Heard Melodies Are Sweet (Book Guild, £18.95), which is a history of the London Philharmonic Orchestra. But it is the personalities who are really absorbing, notably Sir Thomas Beecham, who founded the LPO. ...

... TV insider's fascinating story COMPILED BY PETER HEPPLE you will nave to pay a high price to read Peter Graham Scott's British Television (McFarland, £33.75) but this is because, surprisingly, no British publisher has taken up this exceptionally interesting insider's history. There have been previous histories of television in this country before, of course, and many books about television ...

... Playwright's biography is mind over matter COMPILED BY PETER HEPPLE If there was ever a playwright in whom art and life were equated it was Eugene O'Neill. Most of the events of his life, marriages, parenthood, childhood, education, early manhood, are in his plays. So too are the drinking, whoring, illnesses, infidelities, and appetite for the seamy side of life that characterised his ...