Thursday 5th December 2024 at Leeds City Varieties
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The City Varieties panto gang are kicking off the festive season with a lovely, characteristically cheeky production of Jack and the Beanstalk – Rock’n’Roll style.
Director Rob Salmon has time flying with another lively production which hurtles along at speed, with Peter Rowe’s script once again full of cracking puns and one-liners – never shying away from a slight stretch or an obvious quip, and making sure local knowledge has its place. It’s a version of the story rather than a definitive version, naturally, and the writing wisely makes the most of its strongest cast members, with plenty of stage time for resident dame, villain and fool.
Music (Musical Director: Rebekah Hughes) remains as thrillingly central as ever and the cast give their all to a wide variety of bops, sung with hilariously over-egged passion or purely for the fun of it – it’s never less than a pleasure to watch this merry band in action.
Our leads – Harry F Brown as Jack and Lucy Ireland as Jill (because why not merge stories for maximum Anything Goes vibes?) – offer a familiar staple of the varieties Panto, with gorgeous voices and West End polish leading the way, allowing peripheral characters to provide all the slapstick and foolery. Such foolery is nicely interrupted by snatches of classic synchronised choreography from Sam Spencer-Lane of course, with songs cutting through anything becoming even a smidgeon too sincere.
And the real Panto fun arrives in the shape of the ever-brilliant, indefatigable Simon Nock at Dame Dolly, Guy Freeman as lovable fool Billy (this time head over heels for the already-taken Jill) and of course the wonderfully wild Kenny Davies as super villain and servant to the giant in the sky.
Other highlights belong to Stephanie Cremona’s winning turn as the giant’s teeny Scottish wife and the cleverly crafted costuming of the giant (and all of Dawn Allsopp’s designs for the dame too, frankly), voiced perfectly and gruffly by Timothy Roberts.
Once again I find myself championing this team for their wide appeal – and for all they achieve with this small but mighty show. It’s maybe not as dramatically brilliant as Beauty and the Beast from a few years ago, but there’s everything you could want for the wee ones here, and the Varieties shows remain uniquely brilliant in the way they cater so gleefully to the grown-ups in the audience too. This is a proper, bona fide something-for-everyone Panto, and it’s well worth a trip.
Jack and the Beanstalk is at Leeds City Varieties until January 12th 2025 – more information and tickets can be found here.
Always Time For Theatre 