The lighter side of the arts in evidence today with the musicals Bugsy Malone and Hansel and Gretel reviewed.

Bugsy Malone

Olympia Theatre, Dublin

Enter the Olympia Theatre via one of the side streets and you'll get a taste of the gritty street scenes that open Spotlight Productions musical stage show of Alan Parker's Bugsy Malone. Ex-boxer Bugsy Malone (Jack Toner) begins to tell the story of the New York gangland killings and, within minutes, there's another killing at Fat Sam's Speak Easy.

There's no blood and gore, mind you - the splurge guns send out a frothy mess that underlines the mock seriousness which runs right through this show. So when we witness Fat Sam (Adam Bouktila) gathering his gang around him, desperate to find ways to stop his rival Dandy Dan (Ryan O'Connor) from taking over his "empire", we're not too troubled. And neither are we that shocked when the rest of Fat Sam's gang - except sidekick Knuckles (Alan Kavanagh) - is "splurged".

The story of the rival gangs is interspersed with news broadcasts of the killings - presented on a video screen - and lots of singing and dancing in the club. The singing and dancing is the most entertaining, and auditions for Fat Sam's Speak Easy provide some laughs as the contenders - a magician, harpist, fortune teller and dancers - are one worse than the next.

Director Christine Scarry and musical director David Hayes have managed to bring a good flow to this large-scale production (108 child and teenage actors and dancers), and there seems to be a genuine camaraderie between the actors and dancers, many of whom have never performed at this level before.

There are many stars-in-the-making, but the one that shone most brightly for this reviewer was Holly Browne (who plays Blousey, Bugsy Malone's girlfriend). Her powerful voice and strong stage presence left us wanting more from the others.

Overall, the production was like an excellently produced school musical. The addition of a few professional actors would have elevated it to another level and left the audience with a more memorable night out.

Sylvia Thompson

Hansel & Gretel

Pavilion Theatre, Dún Laoghaire

For this musical version of the Grimm fairy tale, the terrifying story that must have caused many a childhood nightmare has been softened just a little bit for comic effect. It's still scary of course, but with gags, humorous songs, and belting performances from a strong cast of only five, this is good family entertainment and a lively and engaging telling of a classic tale.

In Paul Boyd's version - the Belfast man wrote the lyrics and music, and directs this production - the children are left in the woods by their parents, but not because the poor woodcutter and his wife are near starvation and can't deal with two more hungry mouths. Instead, Hansel and Gretel squabble so much - and very convincingly too - that their exasperated parents abandon them in the woods on their own.

There they happen upon a house made of sweets and are befriended by an old woman who turns out to be a wicked witch set on stuffing them into her (rather flimsy-looking) oven and scoffing them.

Hansel (Paul Connaughton) and Gretel (Clare Barrett) are the only two cast members who don't take on multiple roles. Lynda Gough plays the Wicked Witch with gusto, as well as playing the children's mother and one of the birds who helps them in the forest.

Jim Roche gets the most laughs in his roles as the father, a duck who quite hilariously thinks he's an owl and Fats, a blues-singing frog who helps the children. Rody White is a charismatic narrator who also takes on several smaller roles.

The uncomplicated set design by Stuart Marshall is helped greatly by Conleth White's lighting design, which makes the forest frightening, injects magic into the children's experience and builds up the fearsome wicked witch.

This isn't a new musical, but it is a new production of Boyd's work, which has been produced successfully in theatres outside Dublin since 1999.

From their reaction, the children in the audience didn't seem to mind one little bit such song lines as "kids should be displayed, in marinade", and anyway it all ended happily ever after, with a long, song-filled finale.

Bernice Harrison