Jack And The Beanstalk

It appears to be increasingly popular to stage pantomime outside of the traditional panto season, and why not? It was a joy to be invited to Kimbolton on a cold, dark March evening to see Melodramatics’ production of Jack and the Beanstalk. On entering The Mandeville Hall, it was clear to see what a great deal of passion and dedication had gone into transforming the venue into a green kingdom with beanstalk vines suspended above the audience via a netted ceiling. For a small venue, and a small company who only stage one production each year, Melodramatics packed quite a punch in the panto stakes!

The cast and crew provided a splendid evening’s entertainment and our thanks too to the committee who made us feel so welcome. 

Jack and the Beanstalk’s traditional book received some witty re-working by Di Guttridge, Anne-Marie King and Rowan Marshall. We were introduced to Jack and his girlfriend Sophie. Sophie believes in Giants but Jack doesn’t. When Sophie is stolen by the Giant, Fleshlumpeater, Jack must go and rescue Sophie. Vicky Ivell as Jack and Alissa King-Underwood as Sophie made a strong lead pairing. Alissa has great stage presence, with clean, crisp vocals as the young ingénue Sophie. Vicky’s characterisation had innocence and sincerity, allowing her to tell the story rather than purely playing for laughs.

We were introduced to Florrie McFLurry, Jack’s mum, who runs an ice-creamerie of less than favourable hygiene standards. Huw Nadin as Florrie was an absolute tour-de-force within this production. Clearly born to play the dame, Huw’s Florrie showed great comedic timing, skills in improvisation and was big, bold and camp without being overly offensive. Florrie was ably assisted by John Hill as Ernie who “drove the fastest milk cart in the West”. It was nice to see some modern elements incorporated into this pantomime and Florrie and Ernie’s rendition of Pen-Pineapple-Apple-Pen was hilarious.

Anne-Marie King and Jules Riley as Grime and Punishment, the Environmental Elf Service, were the show’s villains seeking to close down Florrie McFlurry’s ice-creamerie. The McFlurries are forced to sell their beloved cow, Marge to pay the fine. King and Riley gave two solid renditions of Money from Cabaret. What the number lacked in choreography, it made up for in energy and King and Riley were a well-matched partnership.

The McFlurries, Annie and Ernie go up the beanstalk to save Jack and Sophie from the Giant and steal the treasure so they can live happily ever after. 

The ensemble sang confidently and made a great sound. Sound design was spot on throughout. Two highlights of ensemble singing were Colour My World from Prisicilla Queen of the Desert, confidently led by Emma Verney as Annie, and Brand New Day from The Wiz with excellent vocals from soloist Marcus Alexander. Emma Verney as Annie was also showcased in a medley of musical numbers in Act 2. Again, nice additions here of some lesser-known shows, such as Jekyll and Hyde. It would have been nice to have seen more movement in the ensemble numbers, the choreography was simple and minimalist throughout. If I had to pick a highlight, The Bean Medley was sheer brilliance and I especially enjoyed “I beaned a bean in times gone by…”

A couple of scenes dragged which caused the audience to disengage at times. These would have benefited from being cut down in length and picking up the pace. Mrs Fleshlumpeater’s scene is a good example of this, Anne Lea’s scene had good clarity and diction but it lacked pace and didn’t enhance the plot. Allie Kidman’s scene was sadly hindered by a lot of heckling which affected her delivery.

Costumes by Anne Lea, Marianne Ethrington and Anne-Marie King were very good and set design by Ken Smith was bright and bold and worked perfectly in the space.

The music really was the highlight of the evening and Rowan Marshall should be commended for the outstanding job he did personally on the keyboards and for the work he had done with the company. All sang with confidence and contributed to the overall enjoyment of this great evening of pantomime. 

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