Review: Jack and the Beanstalk, Salisbury Playhouse, until January 7 (From Wiltshire Times)

Review: Jack and the Beanstalk, Salisbury Playhouse, until January 7

12:00pm Friday 16th December 2011 in Theatre & Arts By Kelly Vaughan-Watkins

This contains all the required traditional elements for a good pantomime: goodies and baddies, audience participation, a dame and plenty of jokes, both good and bad, aimed at both older and younger members of the audience.

Although finding it a bit loud at first and being a bit scared of the giant, my children, aged three and five, enjoyed it thoroughly with my daughter’s favourite character being Rose, the beautiful heroine, because she was so pretty and wore pink!

They joined in the singing, dancing and booing and looking around I saw that was the case for the entire audience, which ranged from young children to young adults – the girls seemed to especially enjoy scenes that Jack was in! – to an older generation.

For me, the stars were most definitely Denise Hoey as Silly Jilly and Alan McMahon as Dame Trott, whose comic timing was spot on.

The set and the costumes were vibrant and charming and my only criticism was of Jack’s Wiltshire accent, which appeared and disappeared as often as Bogey the baddie and shouts of “He’s behind you!”