Jack and the Beanstalk takes on a new twist at Salisbury Playhouse this year. Elvis is in-house in the form of Fairy Fabulous played by Nic James. It wasn’t obvious at first why Elvis was there but all becomes clear and it’s a clever twist on the traditional Pantomime.
Jack Trotter played George Olney is in love with Jill (Isabella Mason), who has firmly placed him in the “friendzone” as she has the City lights of Camden Town in her sight and dreams of becoming a famous singer.
Olney brings the charm of Jack to life as he tries hard to get things right but as we all know ends up with a bag of beans. “Jack is really good” though and he turns things around in the end. No spoiler alert as a Pantomime always ends up good in the end.
The star of the show goes to the fantastic Dolly the Cow played by the hugely charismatic and delightful Eloise Runnette. Taking on the accent, huge blonde wig and persona of the hugely respected Country and Western singer Dolly Parton. Her rendition of ‘I Will Always Love Moo’ is superb.
However, Emma Norman in the role of Fleshcreep the Giant’s right-hand woman and every driver’s nemesis plays a traffic warden although in this instance a music warden, giving out tickets to anyone caught singing or playing music, snd boy is she good at her job. Norman is a close second and plays the Pantomime baddie brilliantly and certainly raises the “boos” in the auditorium.
Writers Plested, Brown and Wilsher have taken the classic Pantomime Jack and the Beanstalk and added a range of music that will be recognised by all members of the family plus a throwback to when the original Pavarotti had performed in adverts (these are available to watch on YouTube). The humour is slightly risqué in places, and teenage audience members are likely to understand and find the underlying references funny.
In the world of Pantomimes, you never know what twists and turns the creative teams will take and this is definitely a different version of Jack and the Beanstalk.
For more information about Jack and the Beanstalk and future productions at Salisbury Playhouse please use the link below.
Four Stars
Photo credit Pamela Raith.
Theatre, Art and Film Reviews 
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