... Rory Block Blackheath Halls Having grown up in New York's Greenwich Village, WC Handy Award-winning artist Rory Block is a leading exponent of prewar Delta blues. A slight figure, clad in T-shirt, jeans and boots, she nonethe less has the ability to hold the attention of an audience with a solo performance, as she showed in this concert. Sitting with guitar in hand, slamming the strings while ...

... Cavelleria Rusticana/ I Pagtiacci Plymouth Love, betrayal and murder are the key elements of Opera South West's potent double bill at the Drum Studio. The cast, under the polished musical direction of Derek Kitt, captures the nuances of the marvellous melodies in these Italian masterpieces. The power and beauty of the Easter Hymn, On with the Motley and the famous intermezzo are fully ...

... Shakespeare on Broadway Leeds As part of Opera North's Shakespeare weekend of opera, recitals and talks, members of the fine chorus had a ball putting across a range of songs inspired bv the Bard at the Citv Varieties. Sympathetically accompanied by Jim Holmes and Philip Sutherland (keyboards), who themselves occasionally entered the action, they brought infectious enthusiasm to songs culled ...

... Palladium Nights Blackpool Who better to reopen a long lost summer season venue than Danny La Rue? He may have a bus pass in his clutchbag, but La Rue is one of the last of his generation of performers a tireless profe ssional who always fills his shows with new and established talent. The first season show in the revamped Winter Gardens Pavilion is at once a look back and a step forward. For ...

... Alone It Stands Traverse Five actors, one actress 62 characters on an empty set; and it works for every minute of it. The play written and directed by the awardwinning Irish director John Breen marks the 22nd anniversary of Limerick rugby club's historic victory against the invincible New Zealand All Blacks. Whether or not you are a rugby fan, The Yew Tree and Island Theatre Company's ...

... A bohemian alternative London Coliseum La Boheme The line between genius and talent is a thin one, which is why Puccini's 'bohemian' opera has eclipsed Leoncavallo's, in many ways a more truthful depiction of Murger's essentially tiresome and self-regarding Chararters Leoncavallo's libretto (he dev ised his own) lacks the economy and concision of Illica's and Gio- cosa's for Puccini. Acts I ...

... Don Giovanni Glyndebourne/Touring Graham Vick's production of Mozart's Don Juan masterpiece, first seen at Glyndebourne this summer, was thoroughly panned by the critical fraternity. And although it remains literally a pile of pooh, its new cast and conductor miraculously make irrelevant the perverse staging. The opera blazes into life. Conductor Martyn Brabbins' secure grip on the score ...

... Les Ballets Jazz de Montreal Peacock Theatre Television, music and the movies exert a powerful pull on the young, both as light entertainment and theatrical career choices. This can leave dance in general, and ballet in particular, trailing in their wake, a factor that has surelv insDired the ethos and repertory of this company. Since its founding in the early seventies, the Canadian troupe ...

... Masterclass in cabaret Jermyn Street Theatre Kaye Ballard One very damp evening recently, as six youngish singers were pulling out all the stops in their efforts to become the Voice of Musical Theatre on BBC Radio 2, a group of rather more mature souls sat spellbound in this tiny theatre while a Broadwav and popular music legend held court. Dispensing with an opening number on the grounds ...

... Tosca Royal Opera House With 15 performances spread throughout the season, Tosca heads the popularity stakes in the Royal Opera's 2000/01 schedule. The production's second cast is not quite as starry as the first, and less satisfying as a whole. The principals go through the motions under Jeremy Sutcliffe's direction, but at a deeper level there is a lack of contact between Maria Guleghina's ...

... Criterion Mountview West End Showcase This immensely enjoyable showcase, featuring postgraduate students from Mountview's intensive four-term performance course, was thoughtfully divided into four sections-two each from the acting and musical theatre options. First up was the full acting company, who before displaying a wide range of comedic and dramatic skills strutted their stuff with a ...

... Talent on show is no illusion Eastbourne British Ring of the International Brotherhood of Magicians Convention When 1,200 wand wielders gathered from around the world for five days of action packed magic at the Winter Gardens and Congress Theatre there had to be something for everyone. But it was the close-up kind, currently so ooDular at corporate functions, that produced some of the most eye ...