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Jack and the Beanstalk
Redditch: Palace Theatre

07 December 2009 to 03 January 2010

Jeffrey Holland ("Hi-de-Hi")
Jake Maskall ("Eastenders")
Judy Buxton ("On the Up")
Andy Steed
Ian Jones
Peter Jamieson
Abigail Dever
Phil Price

Directed by Debbie Flitcroft
Musical director Michael Lovelock
Choreographed by Mitch Rumin

Photo Gallery

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Reviews

A Great Traditional Pantomime

Peta David, The Stage - 14 December 2009

A big hairy giant played by Phil Price puts this pantomime in a league of its own. More often than not you only hear the giant's booming voice from off stage so it makes a pleasant change to see him in person chasing around the stage. He stamps up and down doing his 'Fe fi fo fum' stuff, only to be put in his place by the gallant Jack (played by the diminutive Andy Steed) who slays the giant and rescues the princess played by Abigail Dever. Both Steed and Dever have pleasing singing voices and do justice to a number of popular songs through the show… Read more...

Jack is a true giant of a show

Andrew Powell - 18 December 2009

The Palace Theatre panto has been superb for a number of years, especially since the services of Paul Holman Assocaites were brought in… Read more...

A Great Traditional Pantomime

Peta David, The Stage

14 December 2009

A big hairy giant played by Phil Price puts this pantomime in a league of its own. More often than not you only hear the giant's booming voice from off stage so it makes a pleasant change to see him in person chasing around the stage. He stamps up and down doing his 'Fe fi fo fum' stuff, only to be put in his place by the gallant Jack (played by the diminutive Andy Steed) who slays the giant and rescues the princess played by Abigail Dever. Both Steed and Dever have pleasing singing voices and do justice to a number of popular songs through the show.

Jeffrey Holland of Hi-de-Hi fame plays an understated Dame Trott with a modest wardobe by today's standards. Her half-wit son Simon, played by Ian Jones, provides most of the topical and slapstick humour aimed firmly at the youngsters in the audience. However, he talks so quickly in parts it is sometimes difficult to catch what he says, which gives the impression that everything is getting faster and faster.

Jake Maskall, who recently played Danny Moon in EastEnders, plays a wonderfully wicked Fleshcreep adding all the essential audience participation necessary for a great traditional panto.

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Jack is a true giant of a show

Andrew Powell

18 December 2009

The Palace Theatre panto has been superb for a number of years, especially since the services of Paul Holman Assocaites were brought in.
And it was difficult to image how the shows of particularly the past two years - especially the brilliant Beauty and the Beast with the side-splitting Bernie Clifton in 2007, and last year's Cinderella starring ex-Corrie star Sean Wilson - could be surpassed, but somehow this year's show has shifted up a gear or two!

Polished, funny, quick moving, relevant and thoroughly enjoyable from beginning to end - the whole team at the Palace have put everything they have into this, and it really shows.

Working through the cast in order of their influence on the show, it has to be said that Ian Jones as Simple Simon keeps the whole thing together and moving with his antics and quick fired humour. He is great with the adults in the audience and the kids who come up on stage too.

Now onto the source of all the booing, and EastEnders' Danny Moon, aka Jake Maskall makes a wonderful hate character in the evil Fleshcreep - loud, nasty and a thoroughly objectionable character, he does a great job of being horrid.

Hi-de-Hi's Jeffrey Holland is a classic as Dame Trott, with all the blingy outfits and outrageous behaviour, and he comes complete with his off-stage wife, Judy Buxton as Fairy Organic, who is equally charming.

Then of course there's the lively pairing at the centre of the plot, first series X Factor contestant Andy Steed as Jack Trott and Abigail Dever as the lovely Princess Amelia. They have been well cast as a clean pair, in love and set to get married if only they can get rid of the horrible Giant Blunderbore.

Daisy the Cow (as herself) makes a lovely old cow (sorry Daisy!), while Phil Price is priceless as the Giant who makes a nice surprise in his production of Jack and the Beanstalk as one gets to see the ...(well, go and see it for yourselves).
Old jokes and predictable routines, slap stick and audience participation are all part of the bread and butter of British tradition, and this has them all in heaps.

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