by Shannon Murray

I'm a little too young to remember true music hall. I was, however, raised with television's version, the Muppet Show, and in that secondhand way, I developed a taste for songs like My Old Man Said Follow the Van and I Wish I'd Looked After Me Teeth.

The songs were tuneful, good-natured and very funny and showed the tendency to poke gentle fun at what is ridiculous in ordinary life.

It's this kind of song for which Gracie Fields was best known, and they form the centre of Pamela Campbell's and Nancy Beck's show, Amazing Gracie.

Dame Gracie Fields or, as she was more commonly known "our Gracie," lived from 1898 to 1979, and in her time was one of the world's most popular singers, comedians and actresses. Born over an English chip shop, hers is an archetypal rags to riches story. Her career spanned an incredible 70 years, through silent films, talkies, musicals and shows for the troops in the Second World War. She even has a P.E.I. connection, visiting the Island for a performance in, of all places, a boxing ring.

Both Beck and Campbell wrote, researched and perform the show, with Andrew Zinck providing piano accompaniment and, if you can believe it, burping on cue.

Many of the songs for which Gracie is best known are comic novelty tunes, and both Campbell and Beck shine at the broad, good-natured and often just plain silly tunes that made her so loved.

Songs like What Can You Give A Nudist on His Birthday? and The Biggest Aspidistra in the World are great fun.

And Beck never misses an opportunity (in good old music hall style) to work local and topical references into some of Gracie's old favourites. Pat Binns, Cows, Founders' Hall, The Guardian and, of course, Anne of Green Gables all find themselves inserted into I Took My Harp to a Party (But Nobody Asked Me to Play) and He's Dead, but He Won't Lie Down.

Those comic turns make up the bulk of the show, but Campbell's beautiful voice is perfectly suited for some of the other old standards that Gracie did so well, like Danny Boy, Now Is the Hour and Send in the Clowns. Beck punctuates the music and fun with the stories of Gracie's life and work.

No one plays the part of Gracie in this show; it's more a tribute than a dramatization. But it's perfectly entertaining and helped me understand again what the real appeal of music hall was -- even without the Muppets.

Most people in the audience the night I was there were old enough to remember Gracie, but this is a show that the whole family can enjoy -- my nine-year-old left singing and smiling.