The Sleeping Beauty,

Harrogate Theatre

This doesn't have the most star-studded cast and isn't the most lavish show around, but oes the most important thing a pantomime can do, connect with the young audience. The Friday morning spectators, almost exclusively school parties, were hooked from the start as they spontaneously clapped along to the overture. This is just as well as the show demands a lot from the audience in terms of shouting out and joining in, whether it's screaming "Hanky panky" every time Silly Billy sneezes or the splendidly silly join-in-the-chorus number.

Sleeping Beauty has one of the slimmest plots in pantoland but writer Nicholas Pegg has populated the Harrogate version with enough funny characters and old jokes to sustain the slightly overlong two-and-a-half hours running time.

The plot pits Amanda Kernot's good Fairy Forget-Me-Not against Shelly Willetts as the oh-so-evil Fairy Carabosse who puts a bad spell on Princess Aurora in retaliation for not being invited to her christening. Alan McMahon is a suitably outrageous Nanny Clutterbuck, Anna Rose an upright hero Tom and Edward York an unstuffy King Caractacus. Best of all is Tim Stedman's Silly Billy - who is at his wit's end which, as someone points out, is not a very long journey. He's dim without becoming irritating.

Lennox Greaves' production is slick, aided no end by the clever use of familiar pop songs which encourage the youngsters to wave their arms and sing along.

l Until January 13. Box office 01423 502116

Blithe Spirit

Courtyard Theatre, West Yorkshire Playhouse

Director David Giles doesn't attempt to tamper much with Noel Coward's ghostly comedy. The setting has been moved back a decade to the 1930s and the actors are more mature than usually cast in the play but otherwise he's content to let the script and the actors work their magic.

Thelma Barlow, alias Coronation Street's Mavis, is perhaps more restrained than some past Madame Arcatis. She still extracts plenty of visual comedy from the role as the eccentric, cycling medium accidentally conjures up the ghost of Charles Condomine's first spiteful wife Elvira. Terrence Hardiman looks suitably hard-pressed as he tries to keep two spouses happy - vengeful Elvira (Liz Crowther, particularly good) and miffed second wife Ruth (Elizabeth Counsell).

l Until February 3. Box office 0113 213 7700

Steve Pratt