Jack and the Beanstalk - Lyric Hammersmith (Review)
Review by David Munro
PANTOMIME seasaon is with us once again and The Lyric Hammersmith is early in the fray with a brisk modern version of Jack and the Beanstalk.
The four writers have set the scene in a mythical Hammersmith where all the characters have surnames and discuss local incidents and affairs.
The proceedings are supervised by a trans-sexual bull, played by Javier Marzan, who quickly endeared himself to the audience, although I’m afraid I found his Spanish accent made some of his dialogue rather hard to follow.
The eponymous Jack, or to give him his full title Jack Windsor Flower, was played by Tom Robertson as a gangly simpleton whose persona tended to grate after a while.
I must admit, however, that I am of the old school who misses the silken clad limbs of the traditional principal boy and deprecate the current trend for male leads in Panto. Mr Robertson was, to give him his due, athletic and in the love scenes with Jill very charming.
His mother, Mrs Wendy Windsor, was however a pantomime dame of the old school and was played with gusto by Martyn Ellis who didn’t miss a trick and wheeled out the old routines and gags shamelessly to the great delight of the audience.
He was ably abetted by a character called Plug, played by Sean Kearns, who started as a henchman of evil but was soon won over by Mrs Windsor’s charms and displayed a remarkable ability to clown and sing in the old tradition.
Evil was represented by a young lady called Evelyn Greedly, played by Angela Wynter, who appeared to covet the giant’s gold and was prepared to stop at nothing (including singing a number of up beat songs) to get it.
Miss Wynter threw herself into the part, demanding and getting boos at every appearance although, of course, she repented in time to join in the finale.
As a twist on the usual tale, after climbing the beanstalk, Jack discovers Jill, played by Natalie Best, as a captive of the giants supervising his marshmallow factory and the plot devolves into the efforts of the two of them to escape the giant and keep singing. He does not kill the giant, who is allowed to participate in the grand finale!
Miss Best has a good singing voice and a very attractive personality; I look forward to seeing her again in a West End musical.
As you will have gathered, this show is a strange amalgam of the old traditional Panto and the modern swinging musicals. I may have missed the subtleties of it as, at times, the cast were inaudible due to the music, accent or just bad diction.
The director, Steve Marmion, has done his best to turn the disparate script into a cohesive whole and the result is a professional piece of entertainment although not, I think, for the very young.
The songs and script are clearly aimed at a 10 to teen aged audience and appeared to go over the heads of a lot of the children when I saw it.
It is, in effect, a curate’s egg of a show (although to misquote the curate, “Parts are very good my Lord”) and certainly not one to be missed.
Jack and the Beanstalk
Written by Richard Bean, Joel Horwood, Morgan Lloyd Malcolm & Ché Walker.
Original music by Arthur Darvill.
Directed by Steve Marmion.
Designer – Tom Scutt.
Lighting – Malcolm Rippeth.
Sound – Nick Maning.
Choreography – Lainie Baird.
Musical Director – Dean Austin.
Puppeteer – Max Humphries.
CAST: Tom Robertson; Javier Marzan; Martyn Ellis; Angela Wynter; Sean Kearns; Natalie Best; Nathan Bryon; Alenah j da Costa; Adebukola Fadipe; Nadine Gray; Jake Hall; Nicolle Hunter; Stuart Mackenzie; Lucy McCann; Courtney Mitchell; Karl Queensborough; Grace Surey; Sam Thompson. And the voices of Patrick Stewart, Jocelyn Jee Esien and Mathew Kelly.
A Lyric Hammersmith Production,
Lyric Theatre, King Street , Hammersmith, London, W6 0QL.
November 21, 2009 – January 9, 2010.
Tickets £10 – £25.
All Under 16s £10.
Family Ticket: £50 (for 4 people)