... PORTHCAWL THIS YEAR'S production of Sleeping Beauty at Porthcawl's Grand Pavilion is the best pantomime staged in the area during the past decade. It has so much to offer. Spectacular scenery, gorgeous costumes, delightful singing and dancing, and, most impor tant of all, plenty of good, clean comedy. Heading the talented cast is Welsh pantomime favourite Kenny Smiles, whose larger-than-life ...

... Council row over fee for outrageous Starr OUTRAGEOUS COMEDIAN Fred die Starr seems likely to make his debut at Swansea's Brangwyn Hall in May for a fee of £7,500. But members of the city council's leisure services committee saw stars over the booking, and claimed the price was too much to pay. Sports and recreation director Ber- wyn Price said: We must expect to pay over the odds for a top ...

... Police band faces the axe in £1½m cuts GMP band in bitter constitutional row ALAN JOWETT reports GREATER Manchester Police Band has been the subject of a bitter constitutional clash between GMP's controversial Chief Const able, James Anderton, and the chairman of the police committee Cllr. Gabrielle Cox. Financial officers insist that £300,000 will have to be cut from the band's ^a^a^a^a^^--- ...

... Pro-am mix BLACKPOOL'S Bispham Childrens' Pantomime is set to break new ground for the second successive year at Black pool Opera House. This time last year's pro-am mixture is to be repeated with Preston-based Red Rose Radio presen ters Alan Beswick and Barry Riley joining the cast for Jack and the Beanstalk. This year's show has a cast of more than 120 including Lindsay Dawson and Rebecca ...

... LEICESTER A SHOW has to be bright at Christmas to compete with all the other dazzling distractions around. And Hansel and Gretel at the Phoenix Arts is the cheeriest and liveliest spectacle on the Leicester scene. There are no nightmares here. Just plenty of knockabout fun with colourful costumes and props, multi-talented per formers and plenty of action, including gorilla chases round the ...

... IRVINE CINDERELLA is an ambitious production for a small theatre company like Borderline to attempt, and certain concessions have had to be made in the scripting and staging at the Magnum, Irvine. But it is cleverly done, and the lasting impression is of colour, spectacle and a young cast revelling in what is today called traditional pantomime. And it is very much a show for children. ...

... CRAYFORD THIS BRINGS together a very experi enced cast and the Bexleyheath Stage School of Dancing, who supply the talented chorus aged from eight to 13, and the Babes, themselves Carolyn Wil son, 11, and Natasha Brown, 13. all under the watchful eye of their mentor and choreographer Janette Castle, who is also the Fairy Godmother. A modern disco opening with the chorus and Maid Marion played ...

... MUSSELBURGH THE BABES in the Wood seems like a pantomimic exercise, so apt is this pro duction in the Brunton. First there is the cast's willingness to entertain and their pleasure in doing so, secondly they play steadily to the children who form the mass of the audience. Also the show has pace springing from the sense of one scene being established, black out fol lows and on to the next. ...

... For Three GLASGOW THERE IS an elliptical quality, re miniscent of Harold Pinter, about two new plays by Bernard Rudden, per formed in tandem at Glasgow Drama Centre by AZ Theatre, a locally-based professional touring company. Rudden writes in a cool, clipped, oblique style. Long silences and occa sional explosive moments punctuated fragmented trains of thought in For Three, as the characters ...

... SB on target with schedule THE FIRST phase of Scottish Ballet's building development appeal has been completed at a cost of £144,000. The appeal, launched ten months ago, has already raised £181,000 from corporate and private donations to wards a total of £250,867 needed to repair and renovate a former drill hall and gymnasium. Before the completion of Phase One, the company was spending £14 ...

... BEXHILL DID you know that Bexhill-On-Sea has the largest number of people over the age of 65 than any other town in Europe? A daunting prospect for those who stage the annual pantomime at the De La Warr Pavilion demanding as it does unity of purpose and lashings of season al goodwill. Charles Haley's Puss In Boots was generally a well-devised and slick show which bounced along with perpetual ...

... NORWICH AS THE AUDIENCE enters the Theatre Royal, Norwich this Christmas, the spirit of pantomime comes to greet them A stiltwalker parades the foyer and clowns lurk in the bars In the auditorium, miniature^iierrots pose prettily and then become children, playings games with a giant cat. For this is Dick Whittington, pro duced and directed by Dick Condon, who contrives a feast so varied that ...