... Cheryl Robinson Blackpool Birmingharrvbased singing star Cheryl Robinson has been working through the summer season in various Pontin's Holiday Centres. Here in Blackpool, she looked elegant and stylish in a superbly tailored purple trouser suit. A most natural entertainer, she has only just turned pro, after years of plodding around the talent contest circuit. Her choice of opening num ber, ...

... Jane McDonald's Summer Spectacular Bournemouth This entertainment presented for a seven week season at the International Centre is a diva-style concert preceded by a star comedian. In fact, the two acts appear to be in different shows, neither of which can be termed spectacular, particularly as all. participants are invariably clad in sombre hues. Nevertheless, the production opens with the ...

... Summer 60s Show Blackpool With Freddy Garrity in hospital at the time of the first of this new look Sunday featuring old luck chart stars at Blackpool's Grand Theatre, his backing band The Dreamers were told not to bother carrying on without him and the proceedings were left to the north/south divide of Brian Poole and Dave Berry. Poole these days comes across as the kind of cheery uncle ...

... Sweet singing, flat comedy Torquay Comedy Bonanza This is the best attempt at a summer show that Torquay has seen for a long time. It has the stars, although the production at the Princess Theatre is still skimpy. It features a permanent set and a three-piece band, but there is trouble with the sound. The three comics, (four if you include straight man Tommy Cannon) perform with their usual ...

... Summer Cabaret Show Blackpool The cabaret room at the Cliffs Hotel in Blackpool lends itself very well to traditional cabaret. It is lamentable that the days of live backing musicians playing in hotels seem to be in decline and following this trend the acts at the Cliffs now work with backing tracks. All the more reason then to employ a compere as versatile and professional as Bobby Bennett to ...

... 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 ...

... 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 Doll's House Royal Lyceum Who better to turn to for a bench- manVsetting production of Ibsen than the Norwegian National Theatre? Not that this Doll's House, directed by Kjetil Bang- Hansen and starring Anneke von der Lippe as Nora, is a museum piece, but one that speaks directly to the 21st century. Bang-Hansen and von der Lippe's only updating is to the depths and nuances of Nora's ...

... Devilishly good entertainment Pleasance 666 Surprising. Shocking. Grotesque. Cruel. Yllana's 666 is all of these, and a major Fringe hit at that. With only grunts, death row prisoners 666-DE, 66&flE, 666-MS and the initially meek 666-BB are encased by a gate at the rear and a force field at the front of stage. It kicks off a basic narrative made up of lengthy sketches of violence, cruelty and ...

... Garth Marenghi's Fright Knight Pleasance For their late night amusement, a bunch of funny bods have invented the trashy horror writer Garth Marenghi. And a in piece of Fringe comedy that works best as a brief interlude from the bar but works very well indeed it must be said they have brought him out on a cod author's tour to read from his latest piece of execrable nonsense with the aid of mood ...

... Oram & Meeten Gilded Balloon The key here is: hope to catch them on a day when everything goes wrong, for they are at their best when improvising. Their pre- prepared sketches and characters are sometimes amusing and sometimes merely wacky but generally strung together without a sense of progression or connectedness. They kick it off at full speed but immediately pace it down with a point ...

... Darling Bea Gilded Balloon Richard Vergette's salute to the legendary Bea Lillie follows a familiar format. On the set of her last film. Thoroughly Modem Millie, the veteran performer is haunted by fading mental powers and growing insecurity. Alternately comforted and bullied by her companion/ agent, she escapes into memories of her life and career. As she relives the journey from would-be ...