Review: JACK AND THE BEANSTALK, Aylesbury Waterside Theatre
UK Productions’ Jack and the Beanstalk, starring Andy Collins as Simple Simon, is a gag-filled tale with everything you expect from the narrative; an excellent cow with animated ears, a wonderful sneering Fleshcreep (Nigel Harman), and a brilliant Dame Trot (Leon Craig). There is a strong sense of anticipation from the very beginning as the audience arrives armed with huge water pistols and super soakers and the website warning of a “live water fight in Act 2” becomes ominously, worryingly threatening. It is a few years since we last visited Aylesbury Waterside, so we were not quite prepared for how the ‘12 Days of Christmas’ routine had developed in recent times but as we took our seats and noted that young Harris next to us had brought TWO super soakers, we knew it had grown into the most anticipated moment of the year for many in the audience.
The script by Tom Whalley packs in the puns (some so quick that the audience misses them) but does add some good localisation to the surrounding towns, enough innuendo to amuse the adults and bemuse the kids, and a little political comment to show it is fresh this year with the Giant’s Added Tax (GAT) and a reference to having “not seen such poor judgement since Keir Starmer was elected”. The tone is well set from the opening audience banter of Andy Collins, followed by the entrance of the Dame. She invites a member of the audience on the stage to chase her around and then recreates the lift from Dirty Dancing. They also reference the Coldplay couple and Jet2 Holidays like so many other shows this year!
The sets are impressive with a two-storey interior to Trot’s cottage, a good gate to cloudland with built in gags, the Fun-geon, and three beanstalks, one growing spectacularly out of centre stage. The use of 3D glasses for the Giant’s appearance and the Ghost scene may have been done before but it remains very effective, and the Snake, Bees, Spiders, Catapult, Ghosts and Jasper still generate squeals of delight from the audience. The Spirit of the Beans (Shani Cantor) ensures that Jack (Joe Sleight) and a feisty Jill (Emma Crossley) navigate it all safely. The ambitious milking scene with a huge chute makes a big impression but does not quite deliver the expected laughs.
There is a good range of music choices from the opening ‘Let Me Entertain You’, ‘Burn Baby Burn’, ‘One Short Day’, ‘Up, Up, Up’, ‘Confident’, and ‘The Power of Love’, all sung with good clarity and energetic routines. We are briefly treated to a group of nuns doing the cancan… it is these small details that add to the fun. When the Dame’s personal mic fails and she is given a handheld microphone, Fleshcreep has fun taking the mickey out of the karaoke look.
Yet for all that, it is the extraordinary ‘12 Days of Christmas’ that the audience has come for and for a few short moments, all hell breaks out in the Stalls as Jack and Simon run the gauntlet in protective gear of the heavily armed audience. We have never seen anything like it, especially one chap who they were encouraged to turn their sole attention on! The good news is that when the claxon sounds, they stop and by the time the show ends, we had nearly dried out! To cap it all off, the songsheet of ‘Old MacDonald’ is a joy when eight-year-old Mabel proceeds to explain the derivation of the name Hedgehog, which she has chosen to make the sound of. This is pantomime at its very best and when Collins steps forward at the final curtain call to wish the young audience members a Happy New Year, highlighting the importance of the family support and telling them all “You’ve got it kids”, it feels warm, sincere and heartfelt, and sends us home a little damp but very happy!
**** Four stars
Reviewed by: Nick Wayne