The Snowman, Theatre Royal

There was only one question on the lips of the audience as the lights dimmed for this truly magical experience...

“Will he fly?”

And as James and his cool new friend gracefully left the ground we too were taken on a journey in this masterpiece of dance, drama and fantasy.

The Snowman truly is a tale of friendship and discovery as a young boy enjoys the trip of a lifetime packed with the colourful characters we're now so familiar with from television. 

The freedom of the stage, rather than being a constraint to the action, allows for so much more imagination and colour.

The first section set the scene for young James's home life, his discovery that the world outside his front door was white-over; building a snowman and making the amazing discovery that it could come to life.

This is the Birmingham Repertory Theatre's acclaimed production and with no dialogue, the story is beautifully told through music and movement. So we are treated to real musicians in the orchestra pit and what seems like a cast of dozens – although the programme assures us the actors are doubling up during the show. 

The opening night's child actor, Archie Durrant, is a fizzing ball of life with the many strings to his bow including dance, mime and acrobatics. But he looks very assured and comfortable, despite being centre stage for almost all of the hour and 20 minutes.

Aside from raising a laugh with his clever creation of the snowman, he sparks a kitchen scene of limbo-dancing fruit, plays a major role in the North Pole dance routines (with the big man in red there too) and helps defeat the naughty Jack Frost. The traditional toys in the playroom come to life in a most charming manner and it's all so easy to believe in.

The flying sequences (always magical in theatre) are gracefully done with child and snowman perfectly co-ordinated as they travel the globe.

There are some 60 costumes in the show, and it's said the 11 snowmen costumes take up more than 11 miles of white netting to create. The spectacular has more backstage crew than dancers, such is its complexity. 

Attention to detail is key, from the expressions on the performers' faces to the snowman's familiar hat and scarf. 

For all the world it's as though the actors have been plucked from the pages of the book and it's clear that 20 years of The Snowman on stage have honed the polite doff of the hat, the seamless scene changes, and energetic choreography that never lets up.

So does the tale end in the sadness of a lost friendship as the thaw sets in? There's only one way to find out... get along to enjoy the all-dancing festive conclusion!

Punt and Dennis, Nottingham Playhouse

This show felt catapulted direct from a Footlights revue as the boys reprised their trademark roles of Steve Punt as the straight man – with Hugh Dennis amusing the sell-out crowd with his knockabout approach.

It was for all the world a Radio 4-style audience in on this wet Friday night, and Punt and Dennis may have been surprised to see so much grey hair (or no hair) in their demographic.

But with radio's The Now Show their main satirical vehicle and Hugh Dennis involved in gentler televisual comedy pursuits, perhaps they come to expect that.

Clipboard-holding Steve ran through their carefully-chosen topics in time-honoured style as the perfect foil for Hugh's commentary. There was a plethora of digital television channels to describe, such as the curiously named ITV2+1 – surely that's just ITV3? A smattering of Jimmy Savile jokes “Half my act's gone”, says Hugh – while softly singing Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Old Yewtree.

Easier to identify with what people are overheard saying while shopping at Waitrose: “Do we need parmesan for both houses, darling?”, or how we're suckered into buying from the shopping channels when we get home tipsy.

The duo were here three years ago and while it's nice to enjoy some of their best-loved material again, there was a lingering feeling that too much of this current show was reworked.

We'd seen before Hugh asking us to laugh in the style of a pirate, or a Frenchman, and while World of Wine was a superb ending to the evening, it felt like another digital channel repeat.

Micky Flanagan, Capital FM Arena

Appearing at the Concert Hall earlier this year, this was Micky Flanagan's second visit to Nottingham in a single tour.

But he packed the place out and warmed to his themes with his East End swagger growing ever more lively and vociferous as the show progressed.

We've seen him on TV more and more over the past couple of years but he's restricted by that format and laps up the atmosphere created by a live stage act.

A late starter to comedy he's had a “real life” before becoming a performer and draws on this to tell his tales.

There are tales of his – and our – younger days which ring true with the middle aged members of the audience and educate anyone younger.

From the days when pet dogs weren't in charge, when instead of them ordering you to pick up their poo, old men used to come out of the pubs at night and kick them. When you could round up kids with a lit cigarette and when you used to see more old folk with warty faces.

Simple observations of a days gone by and a Britain we'll never return to. When his cooler schoolmates used to affect a pretend limp, when he used to stay up all night to see a fleeting shot of female breast in an old vampire film, or when he was sent to the corner shop to pick up his mum's over-sized sanitary products.

We learned of the tricks of the trade of being an adult married man. The difference between girls' nights in and boys' nights out.

Having two off-licences on the go: one for the trendy bottle of wine at 7.30pm and another who's more compliant for the 11.30pm old-school snifter. As Micky tells the shopkeeper: “I won't say anything about you splitting the multi-packs of beans if you don't say anything about my late night wine.”

He does a neat routine on the various drugs someone of his age might have had access to as an ordinary manual worker (he's over 50 now) – a trail of discovery that seems almost romantic now.

And even the tale of how 9/11 saved his relationship somehow rings true. A slick show, and the evening just flew by.

No support for Micky, though. He's got plenty to say himself, plenty of front and an uplifting, energetic delivery.