... MICHAEL CROFT's Youth Theatre production of Julius Caesar which began a short season it the Oueen's on August II. opens on a note of brilliant unconventionality with teenage Romans living in the streets to the strains of traditional jazz. And with thi^ Mr. Croft transforms v into a tale which b Tiding relevance to MoUcm-UiV ?.ire has often been i pon-- and more times tli. -vith gootl ...

... CRANKO'S COMIC BLOOD- AND-THUNDER BALLET by Eric Johns THE LONDON PREMIERE of John Cranko's music-hall burlesque of Sweeney Todd was given by the Royal Ballet at Covent Garden on Tuesday evening last. With tongue in cheek Mr. Cranko has re-told the tale of the Demon Barber of Fleet Street, using a highly eloguent dance vocabulary. Most ingeniously he has chosen movements which are the ...

... THE Brighton and Hove Repertory Company were in top form for the opening Ust week of The Gaye Affair, a comedy by J. Barry Roach which concerns a novelist, Gaye by name and nature, particularly where the ladies arc concerned. His generous use of sex and medium has put him in the best-seller class and his publisher as clamouring for the completion of his next novel. He choses a luxury hotel ...

... WHAT she claims to be the first Welsh television puppet series is the creation of Jane Phillips. It all started, the says. when she gave a five-minute glove-puppet show in Welsh last Christinas as part of the BBC's Welsh children's magazine gramme. Telewek, which goes out in the mornings on Satur days. Following (he Initial ven ture, Ifan O. Williams, the pro gramme's producer, invited ...

... THOSE rare birds who have never had the pleasure of seeing Twelfth Night, and all those who have seen it seldom, will enjoy the current Old Vic production by Colin Graham, which is the same as last season but with a new young cast. They will find in Eileen Atkins, the Viola, a young woman of char acter who, with proper guidance and opportunity, should make the grade to an established ...

... by R. B. MARRIOTT YOU should not miss Peter Cotes's fine production of William Inge's A Loss of Roses, with its three brilliant performances in the leading parts, which opened at the Pembroke, Croydon on Monday last. Joan Miller has rarely been better, Jane Griffiths establishes herself as an actress of formidable talent, and Alan Howard gives an outstanding study of youthful frustration ...

... RICHARD GILL'S Travellers, presented by the Repertory Players on Sunday last, has for characters the circus and fairground folk with whom the author, now an actor, once worked. In consequence, the characters and dialogue have an air of authenticity which makes the unsua' and to some extent unfashionable theme dramatically exciting throughout the first act and even succeeds in holding the ...

... FOR as long as one cares to remember the work, of Gilbert and Sullivan has. apart from the D'Oyly Carte, been presented by amateur companies with hearty gusto and moderate finesse. There can be few who Have not joined in the fun on one side or the other of the foot lights, cherishing memories of harmonious music and worthy witticisms of an individual style which has no equal. One therefore ...

... RICHARD MARKS, designer for ihe Liverpool Repertory Com pany, has excelled himself in the boiuifuHy s'.agcd and dressed pro duction of Glad Tidings, an American comedy by Edward Mably, presented on Tuesday last, at (he Liverpool Playhouse. The whole spirit of ihe play is gay and exhilarating, with wedJ- clched and well pUived charactci studies. Taking place on (he terrace of Steve Whitney's ...

... by John Montgomery CASTING has started for The Password is Courage, which Andrew and Virginia Stone will produce and direct on location for MGM and Boreham Wood. Production begins February 12 on this true story about the courage of a prisoner of war in Germany. The atones are casting tne picture mcni- selves. The report that Connie Francis will arrive in April for a Metro musical is ...

... BERYL REID, heading the cast of Leonard Schach's revue, Something New, is the biggest box-office draw in Johannesburg. Following up her success at the Hofmeyr Theatre, Cape Town, she is now appearing at the Playhouse with John Boulter. Valerie Miller, Francois Swart, Eatelie Kohler and Ron Shelton as supporting company, and the dance trio of Janice Fellows-Smith. Jimmy BeH and Lucille ...

... 'Love's Labour's Lost' FOLLOWING the slovenly misrepresentation of Henry IV at the Assembly Hall last week, the Bristol Old Vic production of Love's Labour's Lost came to the Edinburgh Lyceum on August 25 as a heart-warming reminder of just how effective a Shakespearean comedy can be when staged with understanding and intelligence. The verbal wit and visual humour are kept bubbling along ...