Stagefair is an event that is held primarily to promote London Theatre and is aimed mainly at Group organisers. The event started with a celebrity opening by Ben Elton followed by the Stagefair Awards Ceremony sponsored by Stoll Moss. The main exhibition in the Grand Hall and Balmoral suite had many stands again this year ranging from The National Theatre, Cameron Mackintosh Ltd, Chicago - The Musical, The Royal Shakespeare Company and many more from the leading names of London Theatre. I must admit that I found the exhibition a little boring as most of the stands, like last year, only consisted of handing out leaflets about their shows etc. I was not at the exhibition very long!

Stagefair also has seminars that are normally quite popular, unfortunately I was unable to attend any this year due to other commitments. However, this year's seminars were '2001 A Ticket Odyssey', which talked about the future for Theatre Tickets: 'Wicked and Cool?' Developing Young Audiences and 'Getting the Most From Your Theatre Visit'. The fourth seminar and the most popular was 'From Page To Stage', Sir Peter Hall discussing his innovative repertory company, and the fifth and final one was 'A Coach Operator's Survival Guide to London Theatre'.

The highlight of Stagefair every year is 'Window on the West End', and this year was no exception. This show was held at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane and hosted again by the ever popular Sheridan Morley. The show consists of music from current and expected West End shows and interviews from various celebrities. There were songs from 'Smokey Joe's Café', and the up coming 'Bugsy Malone'. Jean Ferguson performed an extract from her show that opens at the Vaudeville his month, 'She Knows You Know', which is about the life of Hylda Baker. There was also a sketch from the Reduced Shakespeare Company's 'The Complete Works Of Shakespeare (abridged).

The interviews by Sheridan Morley were not as good as previous years. He spoke to Glenn Carter and Ramon Tikaram who are the latest actors to play Jesus and Judas in Jesus Christ Superstar at the Lyceum Theatre. He also interviewed Lynda Barron, Graham Bickley and Summer Rognie, all cast members of the recently opened 'Maddie' at the Lyric theatre. For some reason the interviews seemed low key with very little revealed about the actors themselves or the characters they play.

To end 'Window on the West End' we were treated to an extract from 'Chicago' with Ruthie Henshall and Nigel Planer, and then a musical number from the show performed by Ute Lemper, and this was the highlight of the day for me. 'Chicago' looks like it is going to be a big hit here in London.

My main complaint about Stagefair is that everything is geared to getting you to buy tickets for their shows. Of course that is the purpose of the event, but frankly it was a bit too much. All I kept hearing and reading was messages and thanks to the sponsors and supporters over and over again. This made the whole atmosphere feel like a 'Time Share' sales seminar, instead of being a celebration of London Theatre. However, this is only a minor gripe, overall Stagefair is a good event that helps keep London Theatre alive and gives the paying public a chance to talk to the producers and makers of the shows that grace our fine London theatres.

(Darren Dalglish)