Jack and the Beanstalk

Blue Beans Optional

Jack and the Beanstalk

by Jonny Danziger

OSO at the OSO Arts Centre, Barnes until 23^rd December

Review by John Davies

The great thing about pantomimes is that everyone knows the story, so you don’t have to worry about not following the plot and I don’t have to do a full synopsis here.  

The tricky thing for a pantomime is that everyone knows the story, so the risk is the audience are always ahead of the action and not fully engaged!   So, tweaking the tale is a recommended approach – and essentially de rigueur with pantomimes. 

The OSO production of Jack and The Beanstalk does a great job of managing the balance of familiarity and surprise.   We have still have the somewhat dim-witted Jack (Toby Baddeley) – who really loves animals – and his larger than life Mum (William Relton) as Dame Trott – “I’m a man in a bra” he says at one point, in case we weren’t sure – plus Yeasty Jill (Kaitlin Reynell) as the bright and ambitious girl next door.   But then there is an evil Tech Giant (Maddy Maguire) – played hilariously as Elon Musk – and a particularly sexy cow, Daisy (Emelye Moulton), taking a much more central role.   Add to this the Golden Goose and the Giant’s incompetent secretary, and you have your full cast.

The writer and director, Jonny Danziger, has created two versions of the pantomime: the traditional family fare and a more adult version, with a lot of innuendo, risqué miming and direct sex references.   I saw the latter, which was very very funny – but check the schedule if you think you might be offended!  (The “no-holds-barred version” is called Jack and The Beanstalk After Dark.)  The audience on the night I was there were mostly adult, but rightly still referred to as Boys and Girls – and we all responded as required to the participation elements – sometimes after a little encouragement.   The cast made the most of the small venue size, frequently coming amongst the audience to engage, interact or just insult – adding immensely to the overall fun.   There was a good mix of traditional pantomime humour, some very current political barbs, innuendo and a few Barnes-related jokes.   And while they didn’t all land – there were more than sufficient laugh out loud moments.

In the adult version Jack should be focused on trying to tell Jill he loves her and win her heart, but he is torn between her and his very alluring cow, Daisy, who talks to the audience, but just says Moo to the cast – including in a particularly funny duet with Jack.   Jill has a yeast problem (I’ll say no more), but that isn’t going to stop her securing her dream of running a company.   The Tech Giant (cue boos) is trying to drive out the local villagers, but doesn’t enjoy business and is finding it hard (snigger – and cue song).   The Dame is on hard times – she put helium in her sofa and inflation sent it through the roof (groan!) – and she has to sell Daisy.    Jack is scammed into buying “magic” beans, but thanks to the Golden Goose, they do grow into a towering beanstalk that climbs up to the Tech Giants “Cloud-based” company HQ, allowing Jack and Jill to penetrate his business (Oo-er!)  Obviously, everything is set right in the end, but no more plot spoilers!  

The five talented actors brought a huge amount of energy to the show and the pace rarely let up – even with the occasional prompt!  The cast delivered songs, corny one-liners, physical comedy and pathos – often simultaneously.   And I thought the music performances were particularly good.   We were treated to multi-part harmonies, live instruments, jazz crooning and pop standards – all with words adapted to suit the action – and with limited amplification the cast comfortably filled the space with a great sound.   It would be unfair to highlight individual performances, but suffice to say, Daisy stole the show (oh no she didn’t; oh yes she did…)!

Jonny Danziger also did the Costume and Technical Design, and the lighting and sound were particularly good – often a disappointment in small venues.   Given the high quality of the production he is evidently as multi-talented as he is multi-tasking.   Congratulations to all the cast and crew on an extremely entertaining evening.

John Davies, December 2023

Image courtesy of OSO