... Rock Garden 'What' I'M NOT AT ALL certain what extremes of emotional reaction in the audience Paul Marcus and Colin Ludlow were attempting to produce with their What at the Rock Garden on February 1, but they were successful in driving four members of at least one audience away. I stayed, determined to discover what the many surprises and. it is hoped, some delightful ones were ...

... Bush 'German Skerries' THE BUSH Theatre's commissioned play by Robert Holman German Skerries turns out to be a winner. It runs for about an hour and a half, concentrating on four precise times in a 1 9-day period, high on a cliff jutting out into the North Sea at Teesside. There are four and they could so easily be types, mouthpieces for the author's theo ries rather than flesh-and-blood ...

... Richmond Fringe The Island' JAMES SAUNDERS' latest play at the Orange Tree, Richmond, is an odd mixture of nonsensical comedy; and philosophising, a sexy variation on Robinson Crusoe and The Admirable Crichton, with a dash or two of Huxley and Orwell for good measure. Womankind has how to reproduce herself without male intervention (though the lower orders of mammals are not as self ...

... Drury Lane 'A Chorus Line' I HAVE an inestimable advantage over every other critic in London in that I never saw A Chorus Line before. Some years ago I had the pleasure of Donna McKechnie's Company and wot a performance. to quote Sid Field, which makes it easy for me to why such another outsize talent as Elizabeth Seal might have tilted dangerously the fine balance of this latest All ...

... Soho Poly 'Gimme Shelter' TWO SHORT PLAYS by Barrie Keeffe. Gem and Gotcha, have now been summed-up in a third. Getaway, and the completed trilogy is currently on show at the Soho Poly under the collective title Gimme Shelter Both Gem and Gotcha are familiar from lunchtime perfor mances. The first deals with Kev, an extrovert young trades unionist who makes a token stand against ...

... Ridley to step in over Lambeth block By BRIAN ATTWOOD ENVIRONMENT secretary Nicholas Ridley looks almost certain to intervene in the battle to build Britain's largest ever theatre after Lambeth council warned it would block the scheme. The County Hall Development Group which bought the former GLC headquarters this year still intends to make a bid for the nearby Jubilee Gardens and build a ...

... Summer's sewn up in Blackpool BLACKPOOL Opera House has snap ped up Cannon and Ball for the July to September Sunday shows next summer. Comedian Jim Davidson then takes over for the rest of the season's Sunday shows his first appearances in the resort since a less than personally satisfying summer on North Pier sever al years ago. The Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Cats occupies the Monday to ...

... Freddie and his new North London Dreamers VINTAGE SIXTIES singer Freddie Garrity has made a dream come true for London rockers The Rapiers. For the rock V roll foursome are to become the famous Dreamers in a resurrection of his old sixties band. Freddy snapped up the lads from Edmonton in North London, when he spied them playing at the 50th birthday party of sixties rebel Terry Dene. After ...

... Avoid pain in Spain Benidorm club manager offers advice to British artists By STAGE REPORTER ARTISTS who want to work in Spain and stay out of gaol next year have been given a guide through the legal minefield by the entertainments manager of a Benidorm night club. Ian Russell of the Bermudas Nite Spot has come to the aid of performers, who think they can simply step off the plane and on to ...

... Soviet trip for National Youth THE NATIONAL Youth Theatre is to follow in the footsteps of the National Theatre and make its first ever trip to the Soviet Union next year. The company has been planning to make a trip ever since Margaret Thatch er's visit to Russia in 1987, when it was announced there should be a drive towards a feeling of glasnost between the two countries. This week the ...

... Charity La Cage line-up finalised THE LINE-UP for Barry J. Mishon's chanty gala performance of La Cage aux Folks on January 22 has now been finalised. From the casts of various La Cage productions are Denis Quilley, Van Johnson, Walter Charles, Larry Kert, Harvey Evans and Steve Barton, while others taking part arc Donna McKechnie, Cantabile, Ian Macken zie Stuart, Linda Mae Brewer, Robert ...

... Hotels duped by counterfeit tapes Conman cashes in on another man's talent By ROBIN DUKE A CHEEKY CLUBLAND conman has been accused of ripping off Blackpool hoteliers with a bogus tape. Singer Carlo bantana claims mat Scottish entertainer Mark West is get ting £10 deposits from hotels on the strength of a cassette which, in fact, features Santana singing a selection of songs. Santana, a former ...