Jack and the Beanstalk

The Lavender Hill Mob T C benefit greatly from the talents of professionals who are more than happy to give their time to supporting this diverse group of people whatever their needs and abilities. Jamie John has written a script that incorporates everyone, Les Miles with Andy Russell have written the lyrics which Tim Rock has set to music and written the Orchestrations for the show. Together with Choreographer Emily Butler they have produced a show to be proud of and which this diverse group of people can enjoy being a great part of and enjoy performing.

The show more or less follows the traditional story of Jack and the Beanstalk with some interesting twists. We meet immediately the bad ‘fairy’ and the good fairy, dark and light, reflected in their costumes and make-up. Jordan Winn as Fairy Liquid, a wicked Pixie, gave us lots of stern looks and was well cast in this role, good timing and held the audience well with a clear spoken voice, he contrasted well with Gabby Bruscovaite as Fairy Kind-Heart whose clear voice came to the fore in their song ‘Superhero’, she looked every inch the good fairy with graceful movement and style on stage.

This duo was followed by a trio, Jack Trott – Gabby Short, Silly Billy – Sophia Dawson and Dame Trott – Michael Miles. The show revolves round these three characters; therefore, these actors need to be able to project themselves both vocally and visually and they had no problems with this, dialogue was crisp and tight, there was clear singing and they worked well together. Silly Billy was suitably silly and came across as such, an important role this with delivery of Jokes and expectation of silliness, these came across clearly. Jack was equally as silly giving Daisy away for a handful of beans, but he was infatuated with his love of Princess Jill, which was well interpreted in their duet ‘These feelings are true’, Gabby filled the stage and played her lead well. Michael as Dame Trott was as you would expect from the Panto Dame, loud, over the top, outrageous costumes, good timing, out to give the audience a good time. I enjoyed their rendition of ‘Put the Laugh Back into Laughter’ and then Dame Trott’s rendition of ‘Don’t Judge a Book by its Cover’.

Andrew Russell as The Royal Proclaimer did an excellent job, especially in his scene where he ran back and forth behind Dame Trott as his different roles were announced in the opening scene, not sure if he was genuinely out of breath, or acting out of breath, together with Tom Bains as King Crumble they had an entertaining duet with ‘I Han’t Gotta Clew’, these two work well together and bring added humour to the show despite Tom appearing to be a bit hesitant with some of his lines.

The remaining principals, Emilija as Princess Jill and Emily as Housekeeper both performed their roles well, with nice songs and were sure footed with their performances. I did feel that they could both show a little more emotion and conviction in their roles, although that may just be my own opinion.

This was a show that also incorporated many little cameos which enabled the company to show what they could do and paly a full part in the performance, the endearing Daisy the Cow who managed a little dance and always knew where she should be, the Giant, the Chicken, the spider. Of course, the show wouldn’t be complete without the hard work of the Slaves, Villagers and Chorus without whom the show couldn’t take place, their enthusiasm and fun that they had taking part showed through. To see them all on stage and signing as they sang ‘Faith’ at the end was heartwarming. Here a big thank you to Vicky Reed who signed throughout this ‘Relaxed’ but professional performance, without a break or hesitation. 

There were one or two little prompts, but these did not detract from the performance, the company performance was great, Scenery was good, very good back cloths which were changed with speed there was little extra needed in the way of set dressing. I Loved the Cooker in the Giant’s Kitchen and the huge chair, although I did worry that the cage looked as though it might fall over. The Beanstalk was very effective, lighting design was good with good use of spots for Fairy Liquid and Fairy Kind-Heart and the subdued lighting for Fairy Liquid when he appeared. Both he and Fairy Kind-Heart had good make-up and costumes. Overall the show was very colourfully costumed, with a lot of costumes this was very effective on stage. We were a little unsure about some of the Dame’s costumes but her final costume – the cake was very good. Choreography was simple but effective with this large cast.

Congratulations on a fun and colourful show, good original story, with good original music and songs so well done to Director Les Miles, Musical Director Tim Rock and Choreographer Emily Butler.

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