Jack and the Beanstalk

As always it was a pleasure to join an excited audience at The Dolman Theatre Newport, where Newport Pantomime Society were getting ready to entertain us with their 2026 Pantomime production, “Jack and The Beanstalk”.

The marketplace opening was bright and colourful  and benefited greatly from an excellent stage setting, including the introduction of a very impressive Beanstalk at the appropriate time.

The leading characters were introduced to the audience  in the way of a traditional panto and the audience very quickly joined in  with the well-loved participation, with much cheering and booing. The cast maintained an excellent rapport with the audience throughout the performance; a skill much appreciated and should not be undervalued.

The principal boy Jack Trot played to the best of tradition by a thigh slapping Jess Jones, looked and sounded superb. Excellent diction, great posture and a vocal capacity to reach the back rows. Well, done, a super performance.

Princess Primrose played by Megan Norris gave us the sweet but feisty  young royal, with a mind of her own.[ring any bells] ? Once again excellent diction and a lovely emotional vocal range. 

A lovely bumbling character from Billy Moorcroft as King Crumble paired very nicely with a widowed Mrs Blunderboar played by Georgie Moorcroft. With the Giant gone I guess it was Happy Ever After. Well, done.

Boris The Butcher [what a name] played by Ffion Norris [excellent beard] didn’t gain many friends in wanting to chop up Daisy the Cow played by the hidden assets of Katie Churcher and Amber Symonds. A Moooooooving performance.

Zack Stone as Silly Billy gave us all a first-class lesson in how to win over an audience. With excellent comic timing and a stage personality that shines, he made the stage his own. An excellent performance that looks unbelievably natural. 

In all Pantos you must have someone to cheer and someone to boo. Good and evil must exist. Ryan Salter as Fleshcreep, really did live up to his name and that I must confirm is a compliment. If you are going to have a villain, then let them be a villain. An excellent performance. Really worth a good loud” BOO”.  It must be said however if you are going to have a fairy, why not a Vegetable Fairy as  played by Ffionn Bassett, ultimately good but very feisty. Just the sort of fairy you need, with Giants around.

Panto could not be a Panto without the incorrigible Dame and George Rees as Dame Trot gave us Glamour, and Comedy in a larger-than-life character that certainly didn’t look afraid of any old Giant. He sailed around like a Galleon in full swell and totally owned the stage. A great performance. Well, done

My congratulations to the Defying Gravity dancers and the ensemble on the full cast scenes. The choreography was excellent from choreographer Emma Anderson and executed by the whole cast with skill and enthusiasm. Well, done. My compliments also to the orchestra under the experienced leadership of Gareth Rawle Jones; the sound was impressive and really enhanced the whole performance.

My congratulations to you all on an excellent production, thoroughly enjoyed by everyone. A traditional panto at its best.

 

The views in this report are solely of the author.

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