Theatre .sx Henry IV Part I .sx RST , Stratford .sx THIS is Adrian Noble's first production since he took over the RSC's orb and sceptre , and it is one which suggests that , whatever the company may lack during his reign , it will not be intelligence , subtlety or feeling for language .sx Perhaps significantly , there is something casual and cursory about the purely physical comedy of the scene in which Falstaff robs the Kent travellers , only to be unrobbed by Hal .sx Certainly , there is no doubting the finesse of the teasing post-mortem that follows , or of their next encounter :sx the prince and his favourite wittily play-acting his impending confrontation with the king .sx There is much play-acting here .sx Robert Stephens' Falstaff does a comical imitation of Michael Maloney's Hal , who in turn cruelly mimicks Julian Glover's King at his most plummily sombre .sx Again , Maloney has different accents for the pub and for the patrolling sheriff , whom he greets in spoof-Sandhurst tones .sx Even Owen Teale's bold Hotspur has a mean vocal line on Glendower , among others .sx Whether or not the text asks it , everybody seems able to put on funny voices at the expense of everyone else .sx This is so marked it must be deliberate policy on Noble's part .sx But why ?sx Perhaps merely to add to the evening's humour or to emphasise the characters' relatively sophisticated sense of fun .sx Or perhaps to bring out the amount of role-playing to be found in the play .sx After all , many characters have their hidden agendas :sx the rebels , Hal's retinue , the prince himself .sx The last is the evening's prime emphasis .sx Maloney's Hal is a good , energetic fellow , and genuinely cares for Falstaff .sx But his most private monologue is packed with what might , paradoxically , be called an intensely mystical longing for admiration , fame and glory .sx It is equally evident that Peto has his ambitions , and that there is a deadly jealousy between Poins and Falstaff .sx There is a surreptitious battle for the heart of the prince and , through him , for Britain .sx The likeliest to gain is , of course , Falstaff , in Stephens' wonderful performance much more a droll , canny observer of himself and others than the carousing jester of tradition .sx Perhaps the reading edges too far towards wry sobriety .sx This Falstaff would never have spent six shillings on sack to a halfpenny of bread , as the text claims .sx Again , the great speech on honour almost becomes a Socratic dialogue .sx But there is no missing Stephens' emotional force when , in that celebrated play-acting scene , he gets a hint of his coming rejection .sx He dives at the prince , half-blubbing out his plea that everyone but him be banished .sx There , unforgettably , is the character's desperation for friendship and power .sx Until Eastcheap unfolds , the staging is simple , a matter of backing a throne with a vast cross or importing a few stark chairs .sx Then , suddenly , we are confronted with something beyond a mere red-light district .sx There are red sofas , tables and stairs and , cut into a vast red wall , a red upper-room in which a whore is absently-mindedly sic !sx serving a priest .sx As for the battle scenes , they begin excitingly , with both armies rising from the stage's bowels in a huge pyramid of heaving chivalry .sx But can we have better fighting in Henry IV Part II ?sx If Part I is anything to go by , we can expect still more complexities from Stephens , Maloney and Glover , a Henry IV who begins the evening full of confidence and zeal and ends it wanely clutching at his evidently dicky heart .sx I for one can hardly wait .sx Benedict Nightingale .sx THEATRE .sx Matador .sx Queen's .sx IF BIZET'S original story for Carmen Jones is included in the tally , this is the third musical with a Spanish theme to open in a week and , as its title indicates , the bullfighter this time is not the bully boy but the hero :sx Domingo Hernandez , El Ni n-tilde o de la Nada , or The Boy From Nowhere .sx His rise from a nowhere village in Andalucia is thrillingly staged by Elijah Moshinsky against a succession of William Dudley's spectacular sets .sx A bull ring opens out to become a steep hill-town ; a grove of moonlit trees gives place to a horizon of pasture , and from the towering silhouette of a black bull the six dancers who personify this animal advance upon the raw young matador .sx Arlene Phillips is credited with the overall choreography but the flamenco dances for the bull men are the work of Rafael Aguilar .sx With upraised arms held forward , the dancers approach in their tight phalanx , turn , stamp heels or pause with toes poised on the ground like the point of a hoof .sx In their presence the glamour of a bullfight and , though I hate to say so , its glory , seizes the imagination .sx The other dancing is hardly less arresting .sx Village women , crashing pebbles together for emphasis , enact the atrocities of the civil war while the brass section of the orchestra zigzags up the scale .sx Hooded penitents , Moorish maids and orange-sellers weave amongst each other ( a mite kitschy , this ) to suggest the richness that is Spain .sx The orchestration of Michael Leander's music is also ingenious - note the sound of steam punctuating the melody when Domingo and his pal Tomas ( Alexander Hanson ) are sheltering in railway sidings .sx For the first half the story is workmanlike , not too fettered with clich e s , and Edward Seago's lyrics contain clever half-rhymes .sx The hero's rise is told from the point of view of the disillusioned Tomas , and the Nicky Henson , Domingo's would-be Svengali , takes over .sx But what happens after the interval ?sx Stefanie Powers arrives , playing a Hollywood film star power-dressed in heliotrope , and utters fearful banalities aimed at showing our hero that shedding blood is horrible .sx The drama collapses , and John Barrowman , who has a toreador's shape and his sulky grin , and who sings " A Boy from Nowhere " as though he truly feels it , must take on the role of representative of the oppressed .sx I hesitate to suggest leaving at the interval , but the evening will seem better by so doing .sx JEREMY KINGSTON .sx Theatre .sx Eight Miles High .sx Octagon , Bolton .sx THE Sixties were the best of times and the worst of times , an era of such extremes of hope and horror that Jim Cartwright , author of the blisteringly angry Road , could have hooked out some of the decade's most typical fish and served them up garnished with flower petals and napalm .sx But Cartwright , author of Eight Miles High , is a changed person , content to give us an amiable , uncontentious trip back into Flowerland .sx Director Andrew Hay turns the Octagon arena into some corner of a festival field where half the audience can sit on the floor , lie back and prop their heads on one another's legs , while nymphettes in cheesecloth and crushed velvet wander among them , blowing soap bubbles .sx Up on the dais the actors take turns to sing period hits from Jimi Hendrix , The Who , The Rolling Stones and others of that kidney ; between the songs a bit of dialogue between characters is allowed , or a longish monologue .sx These lengthy speeches are a Cartwright characteristic and , at their best , they catch the spirit of a part of those times , the " Turn On , Tune In , Drop Out " faction , confident that love was here to stay , and the spicier Hell's Angels fringe , treated here as a monstrous but merry sideshow .sx Cliff Howells , who rides in on his Norton , showering the audience with beer , is entertainingly awful , but his arms are too clean for us to believe his claim to be wearing unwashed underpants .sx More convincing is Bob Manson's benign traveller , making appearances in various parts of the theatre to report on his circumnavigation of the hippy globe .sx Jason Yates and Paul Kissaun make a likeable pair of workers taking time off to groove :sx when he sings , Yates recalls the strutting postures and tilting torso of Mick Jagger , but he has a nicer grin .sx A sprinkle of harsh irony is added at the end but the piece is essentially a three-hour gig :sx pleasant to hear and see , but too pretty .sx The Sixties were something of a Golden Age , where even the light shows , attractively reproduced here , were simple ; but the decade was shot through with iron and hot steel and to reduce this harshness to so little is to falsify the past .sx Highs come with lows and Cartwright has withheld them .sx JEREMY KINGSTON .sx Theatre .sx Getting Attention .sx Royal Court Upstairs .sx THE prolific Martin Crimp's new play , arriving in Sloane Square from the West Yorkshire Playhouse , comes over more like a sketch than the finished article .sx Battered children make horrifically commonplace copy in the news these days , and Crimp's attempt to enter the mind of a young man who mistreats the little girl of his common-law wife has a dreadful topicality .sx Good intentions - to show the confused human being behind the monster's mask - fizzle out in clich e and stereotype , elliptical hints and oblique suggestions .sx The abrupt ending , the beaming social worker's approval of the couple's birthday treat for a child who might even be dead , is less ironic than perfunctory .sx Much of the action is seen through the eyes of the neighbours .sx Bridget Turner , a matchless comic actress , is wasted in the part of the thin-lipped old woman , respectable , inquisitive , unforgiving , but defensively demanding her right to interfere .sx Predictable she may be , but the character hangs together , unlike her male counterpart ( Paul Slack) :sx a slob deserted by his wife , his own children in care , and half conniving at the couple's abuses through prurience .sx If the message is that all men are potential abusers , it needs more coherent expression than the shapeless writing it gets here .sx The second half brings the neighbours forward to their shared landing to address us as witnesses .sx Meanwhile , nothing much illuminates the behaviour of the brutal couple :sx a pair closely bound sexually , whose dialogue has the terse repetitiveness of the non-communicating .sx Sal ( Diana Hunter ) is physical , amiable , a bit clueless .sx Nick ( Nigel Cooke ) is nervy , tense and demands respect , especially from the child , who is a constant reminder of his predecessor .sx He is quite capable of breaking a toy through carelessness or scalding a baby , with no malicious intent .sx The exploration of motives goes no further , and the rather superficial exercise is not helped by the unvaried pace of Jude Kelly's production .sx Rob Jones's design , interiors and exterior of south London council flats sprawling over the acting area , mirrors the play's uncertain social location somewhere between decaying squalor and entrepreneurial acquisitiveness .sx Martin Hoyle .sx Popular Music .sx Harry Connick Jnr .sx Albert Hall .sx SOMETIMES miracles do happen .sx Harry Connick's London debut last year was a mesmerising display of all - round talent and charisma .sx It scarcely seemed possible that the American entertainer could reach those heights again .sx Rest assured , the opening night of his Albert Hall season was every bit as impressive .sx Despite the standing ovation , I doubt whether it was good enough to silence the curmudgeons in the jazz community .sx Connick , they say , is just a Sinatra imitator with a cute haircut .sx As for his piano playing , they will tell you that it is a bare-faced copy of Thelonious Monk .sx He might well plead guilty on both counts :sx he is still in his early twenties , and is still learning .sx Besides , Sinatra took out copyright on these songs many moons ago , and nobody can recreate the sound of Monk in full flow at the Five Spot .sx But equally , no other contemporary artist brings together jazz and popular song with as much panache as the man from New Orleans .sx What is more , he is reaching an international audience without resorting to gimmicks or Gaultier jockstraps , but getting by with a natty striped jacket , phenomenal stage presence and bubbling swing orchestrations .sx His musical director Marc Shaiman and his young musicians - who all deserve credit - have proved that , after all these years , there is still nothing quite as thrilling as a well-drilled big band .sx Connick's trio was , alas , shunted into the background on this occasion , with a string section being added to the orchestra after the interval .sx The pure jazz material was mainly confined to the first half .sx