... years now, the Great White Way has not dazzled the public with the smash hits that used to find their way all over the world musicals like, say, Show Boat, Oklahoma!, Porgy and Bess, Guys and Dolls, The King and I, West Side Story, My Fair Lady, to name only a few among many. While we once expected musicals to come from the USA, the flow appears to have reversed, and the smash hits on Broadway ...

... were described as a bit of rascal, for his own life story rather gives that impression. He may have landed on his feet now, but he might have done so sooner had it not been for an easy-going temperament, an eye for the ladies and a taste for drink. On the other hand, if he had knuck led down to his studies in Guyana, he would probably not have become one of our leading black actors and we ...

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... volume, over 1000 pages, from enterprising Rhinegold, publishers of the British Music Yearbook. More than half the book deals with venues, which is the most comprehen sive part, in that it contains details under towns and including the Irish Republic of full address and phone numbers, names of administrative staff, status (concert hall, theatre, civic hall and so on), facilities (capacity, ...

... A legend enshrined in 'mystical waffle' Michael Kilgarriff on the golden age of Ellen Terry Food and Friends, by Beryl Reid (Ebury Press, £8.95). Sir Harry Secombe features as the writer of the foreword to the latest book by the prolific Beryl Reid, who has received help from our own contributor Eric Braun and director William Chap- pell. It is essentially a recipe book of favourite food of ...

... Musician and it makes an important point. Although he has undoubtedly become one of the leading conductors of our time, especially in the opera house, he is not a maestro who has ever sought supestar status. He is content to regard himself as a musician one with an encyclopaedic knowledge, as Lord Harewood points out in his foreword and for this he is respected by all other musicians. He has ...

... Not an easy act to Mow Charles Laugh ton: a Difficult Actor, by Simon Callow (Metbuen, £14.95) To those of us brought up in the thirties, Charles Laughton loomed large in both senses of the word. If impressionists were not imitating his Captain Bligh they were trying to capture his Edward Moulton-Barrett, for with Mutiny on the Bounty and The Barretts of Wimpolc Street Laughton had crack ed ...

... years as Kurt Weill, and David Drew, who is preparing a full-scale biography of the man who is forever associated with Bertolt Brecht, has got off the mark with this volume, which he calls a handbook, mainly because it lists and discusses all Weill's works, very few of which were in volved with Brecht. In fact, David Drew's chief aim is to propagate Weill's own considerable worth as a ...

... by PETER HEPPLE Life stories uncovered or found thrown away in the cupboard THE MANUSCRIPT of Tony Richardson's The Long Distance Runner (Faber and Faber, £17.50) was found on the day of his death, apparently carelessly tossed into the back of a cupboard, which incidentally is where he also kept his Oscar. If this is because he did not consider it worthy of publication, or whether at some ...

... The Lennon Companion: Twenty- live Tears ol Ixrniment, edited by Elizabeth Thomson and David Gut- man (Macmillan, £14.95) Noel Coward's brief encounter with The Beatles in Spain left him bitterly disillusioned by the bad manners of The Fab Four and baffled by the behaviour of the group's fans. After observing a concert audience at uncomfortably close quarters, he wrote: I was truly horrified ...

... Bizarre scenario Polanskl: His Life and Fllnu, by Barbara Learning (HamUh Hamilton, (5.95) The incredible Roman PoUnski is the most theatrical of all film directors. Not only would he like to act in all the films he directs and he frequently has, sometimes in drag but his whole life has been acted out like a bizarre, and sometimes violent scenario. As an explanation, or even as an excuse, ...

... A fairly public affair Liberace, by Bob Thomas fWeiden- feld and Nicolson, £10.95) I nink wnat you like, out Lioerace was the greatest musical entertainer I have ever seen. And on the couple of occasions I met him face to face, under informal circumstances, he was one of the most polite and charming. So it is just well, as far as I am concerned, that Bob Thomas has con centrated on Liberace's ...