... Honky Tonk Nights Lytham St Annes Think rhythm and you think blues, think country and you would normally assume western-but at Europe's biggest custom built C&W venue the invitation is now to also add on comedy. In a bold move Fort San Antone at Great Birchwood Leisure Park is staging its own version of a summer season with a five week Tuesday to Thursday run of the country's (and country ...

... Rising stars raising laughs Hackney Empire New Act of the Year 2000 Walking into the foyer of this famous venue, it is easy to imagine the ghosts of audiences past roaring with laughter at the great comics who have trodden its boards. The fresh-faced comedians on trial at this year's final had battled their way through heats held in an adjacent pub over the past few months. Arthur Smith ...

... 51st Annual Blackpool Command Performance Blackpool Packed to capacity, a Horsehoe Bar audience consisting mainly of prominent northern clubland figures gathered for a show which has become a key date in the clubland calendar. Backing musicians Steve Cox and Tony Lea could have been a much more substantial asset to the event had their sound been better balanced. They were not loud enough to ...

... Barry Mason--Remember Delilah Blackpool There are singers of songs, writers of songs and singer/songwriters. Blackpool-raised Barry Mason falls into the second of these categories. Mason penned the words to songs with sales of around 50 million since the early sixties, so who cares if his delivery of them is not quite as polished as that of Tom Jones (Delilah) or Engelbert Humperdinck (The ...

... Cosi fan tutte Holland Park Theatre London's answer to Garsington provides an opportunity for upcoming artists to perform with a full orchestra in a semi-alfresco setting. The cast of Tom Hawkes' playful Mozart revival are doubly blessed by Turkish maestro Cem Mansur whose light, elegant accompaniment is never in contention. Set in a sumptous, louvred garden room designed by Peter Rice, the ...

... Darkness and Disgrace Rosemary Branch This cabaret, inspired by the songs of David Bowie, could have so easily been a pretentious joyride, perfect for the singer/ songwriter's fans, but lost on the uninitiated. Fortunately, it is nothing of the kind, and so much more. Those people who count Let's Dance as their favourite Bowie track may at first be disappointed by the programme. It is a show ...

... Keeping us at arm's length Pizza on the Park Neile Adams There is bound to be a buzz about Neile Adams' London cabaret debut-not only did she perform on Broadway in Kismet and The Pajama Game, but she was also married to Hollywood legend Steve McQueen. However, Adams' first set at the Music Room is not quite as interesting and glamorous as her past seems to have been. She may hint that her ...

... Gaiety Whirl 2000 Ayr This year's resident summer show at the Gaiety Theatre has a reduced season and features only six performers. However, the production has much to commend it. Its extrava gance is probably the onstage musical ensemble which provides accompaniment, the splendid seven-piece Irvin Duguid Big Band with Irvin Duguid as musical director and on keyboards, Ed McFartane on bass, ...

... Hale and Pace Blackpool There is a double irony that after 20 years together Hale and Pace are performing their first ever summer season- and that as far as a lot of their North Pier audiences are concerned they are still new boys. Although their roots are in live performances it is from televi sion they are better known. But on stage they are as classy and classic a double act as you will see ...

... Stunning cast needs more to do Traverse Shetland Saga Live music has become something of a motif to recent Traverse Theatre productions, instantly establishing a sense of place. And so it is in Sue Glover's new play, with Paul Johnston's excellent tunes and elegant refrains given a bold onstage rendition by Annalie Hayward and bringing a sense of the wildness of Shetland to the stage. It is ...

... The League Against Tedium: I Am, I Will Meadows Theatre It takes a brave or foolish man to tempt the fates the way Simon Munnery is doing in his new show. He makes quite an entrance on the top of a customised Ford Transit, wielding a computer key board like a guitar. Framed by a fast-moving multimedia backdrop fizzing with lines and images, he proceeds to attack the Internet revolution in ...

... All That Mullarkey Gilded Balloon It is not every day a comedian finds vicious critic (me) and vicious magi cian (Jerry Sadowitz) at either end of a pew, faces grim, arms folded in defiant 'so make me laugh' mode. Well, Neil Mullarkey got me pissing myself (and I swear out of the corner of my eye I caught a flicker of a smile from Jerry). It is a simple enough formula: Mullarkey lures you into ...