... The Scatterin' DUBLIN JAMES McKENNA's rock'n'roll musical is set in the Dublin of 1958, but the dreams and frustrations of his working class Teds are curiously contemporary. Change the songs cover versions of hits by Gene Vincent, Eddie Cochran and Elvis Presley and the costumes, and it could just as easily be 30 years later. Frank Hallinan Flood's excellent first act set suggests a Dublin of ...

... Playing against the odds PETER HEPPLE on a charmingly youthful musical revival REGENT'S PARK Babes In Arms THE MOST interesting feature of the Rodgers and Hart musical Babes in Arms is in discovering the context of some of their best songs. For example, My Funny Valentine, usually crooned by a male singer outside its original setting, turns out to be a song sung by a girl to a boy named- ...

... The Met Season NEW YORK NUREYEV'S Paris Opera Ballet was at the Met, he was also at the State Theatre (with New York City Ballet) and on tour with his 'Friends', and the Opera's ballet students were at Juilliard. It was a three-week feast of dance. The season at the Met began dis appointingly, with Isabellc Guerin, Laurent Hiiaire and seemingly most of the company off-form in Nureyev's ...

... Robin Hood and the Babes in the Wood Newark Robin Hood can be a gutsy, swash buckling tale and always goes down well in Nottinghamshire. But in a long and over-padded show at the Palace, the storyline gets very frag mented and there is never any real sense that the Babes are in danger. Fine talent like that of Lisa Jane Williams, a tall and truly impressive Robin Hood is squandered with too ...

... Aladdin Bournemouth Lavishly-staged, this presentation from E&B Productions at the Pavilion offers a wealth of fun, spectacle, music and dance. Jeremy Beadle's Wishee Washee may be short on characteri sation but he proceeds to wow the crowd with all manner of buffoonery and audience participation antics. Gareth Hunt earns ear-splitting boos as Abanazar, and temporarily relaxes into a classic ...

... Jack and the Beanstalk Potters Bar Chris Cavanagh has returned to the Wyllyotts Centre to write, direct and choreograph another inventive pantomime for which this venue has acquired a reputation. Though there is not much new that one can bring to the story, it is the incidentals that count here bright design, lively and original dance routines, the inclusion of such apt but less-used songs as ...

... Peter Pan Lincoln Peter Pan is flying higher than ever at Lincoln this festive season, not just because of the high standard of Chris Moreno's production but because the sternest critics of all the kids raise the roof in their delight. Stars in Their Eyes winner Katrina Davey's talent as Peter shows that she is destined for greater things, while experienced professionals David Griffin as ...

... Cinderella Mansfield I take my hat off to the Palace Theatre for doing its research, know ing its audience and giving it a thor oughly good time. Schoolchildren munching their way through goody bags in the shape of Cinderella's coach loved seeing their head teacher singled out for attention by the Ugly Sisters, even to the flaunt ing of his Christian name alongside their smalls on the washing ...

... Dick Whittington Redditch Devised and directed by David Vickers and Richard Chandler, this year's production at the Palace is stocked with all the usual panto paraphernalia. Jeremy Turner-Welch (Emmerdale heart-throb Tom Banbridge) stars as Dick with easy charm and an aura of calmness about him. Brian Croucher (Ted Hills from EastEnders) plays Alder man Rtzwarren with real panache his vast ...

... Aladdin South port Produced by Duggie Chapman and directed by Bill Maynard, the South-port Theatre's Aladdin is a winner all the way. With a cast full of TV personalities from Heartbeat to Coronation Street via Granada Tonight, this is a modem-day pantomime which still manages to retain all the traditional touches. David Lonsdale (Heartbeat's David) is excellent as the hapless Wishee Washee ...

... Dick Whittington Radlett The Brighton-based Upstage Prod uction Company has made the Radlett Centre's cosy creative space its home for the last few Christmases, having upped the regional pantomime stakes for others to match with last year's excellent Sleeping Beauty. Even if this year's Dick Whittington never quite reproduces that production's 'joie de festive vivre', this is still thoroughly ...

... Dracula Barons Court Theatre Dark, oppressive, the air laden with emotions of love, lust and repressed Victorian sexual desire. Not the kind of atmosphere usually associ ated with a Christmas show. Fullface and Profile's production of Bram Stoker's Dracula is however overflowing with these emotions. Excitement, suspense and a good measure of blood and guts literally ooze and overflow from the ...