Berkshire

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Fee-fi-fo-fum panto&#8217;s back for another year of festive fun. Jack and the Beanstalk is the production du jour, with not one but three shows being performed in Berkshire. 



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The biggest in terms of audience numbers and budget, is without doubt Reading&#8217;s Imagine Theatre production, performed at <a href="https://whatsonreading.com/venues/hexagon/whats-on/jack-and-beanstalk" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The Hexagon Theatre</a>. It stars panto perennials CBeebies mega star Justin Fletcher (he moonlights as scriptwriter too) and Dame Paul Morse, with a quality cast of supporting actors, and the junior ensemble is back from Covid exile. 



I have to hand it to&nbsp;The Hexagon&nbsp;– it really knows how to deliver on panto. I had enjoyed 2021s&nbsp;Beauty and the Beast, but I think this year’s&nbsp;Jack and the Beanstalk, pipped it. If you&#8217;ve forgotten the storyline – mainlining baileys everyday from 1 December will do that – Jack and the Beanstalk is a rags-to-riches tale. The giant&#8217;s put the village of Rosey Bottom under a cloud and the poor loves are freezing to death – and they can&#8217;t crank up the heating when energy costs more than gold.



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Fletcher, each year playing a version of the kind-hearted village idiot, takes on the role of Gill Trott, the brother of Jack (played with boy band good looks by Carl Tracey) who keeps inadvertently getting him into trouble. Paul Morse is their mother, Nanny Hydrangea Trott, playing the crowd like the pro, with the arch comic timing and warm persona that saw him crowned UK&#8217;s Best Panto Dame two years on the bounce in 2016 and 2017. 



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One thing I like about panto is its disregard for the rules of the theatre – it is, for example, totally random that the first scene&nbsp;should feature Justin arriving in dodgem car. His family can&#8217;t afford to keep poor Buttercup the cow but he&#8217;s flying around in his hot wheels. Made no sense at all, but who am I to get in the way of a dramatic entrance? In previous years, we have been treated to Justin and Paul&#8217;s &#8216;Balloon Ballet&#8217; – a genius bit of comic choreography but this year it was replaced with a ball-breaking pot and wooden spoon skit. I&#8217;m not sure it truly fitted into the action, but it was funny enough that I didn’t care.



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This year’s panto villain, Walter Botemme played by the dashing Ryan Alexander Full, who had raided Laurence Llewelyn Bowen&#8217;s wardrobe for he role. He did a really fine job of giving the character more than an evil laugh and a sweep of the cloak. Intentional or not, struggling to position his beardy disguise had me in stitches. Yes, he was down-right nasty, a little camp but his bad boy good looks won the audience over. He also had great comic timing and you could sense he was enjoying his second outing as a panto villain. It really made a difference to the show.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1500" height="1000" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/berkshire/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2022/12/7-2.jpg" alt="Review Jack and the Beanstalk The Hexagon Reading Justin Fletcher and Dame Paul Morse" class="wp-image-49120" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/berkshire/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2022/12/7-2.jpg 1500w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/berkshire/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2022/12/7-2-800x533.jpg 800w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/berkshire/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2022/12/7-2-1000x667.jpg 1000w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/berkshire/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2022/12/7-2-400x267.jpg 400w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/berkshire/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2022/12/7-2-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/berkshire/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2022/12/7-2-788x525.jpg 788w" sizes="(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px" /></figure>



One thing I’d say about&nbsp;Jack and the Beanstalk&nbsp;is that you could feel the depth of talent this year and how it gave a cohesion and confidence to the performance. In the past I’ve criticised the &#8216;pitchy’ singing of some cast members but there’s clearly been investment in the supporting cast for 2022. Rachel Delooze as Fairy Bluebell has a phenomenal voice and a confidence borne out of musical theatre. 



Boy bander Carl Tracey as Jack one fifth of kids pop group Go!Go!Go! (after my time apparently) was in fine voice and dripping in fromage. Colleen Daley as Queen of Merrydale has had her share of theatre and TV credits too, most notably in the BBC&#8217;s Call The Midwife. Our panto virgin Katsie Fong Frydenberg (Princess Jillianna) had never seen a panto let alone appeared in one. She sang well and didn&#8217;t have the face of a women wondering what the hell was going on. For her first rodeo. I thought this sweet American held her own. 



I won&#8217;t spoil the surprise, but the giant is a theatrical masterpiece. Tricky to pull off in an age of CGI, holograms and technical wizardry. But I loved it.



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Let&#8217;s be honest, panto is never about thesping so much as the sense of fun. The now-famous set pieces of the Reading&#8217;s pantos – the&nbsp;12 Days of Christmas&nbsp;skit with its “bra made to fit three”; the messy slosh scene which ends with Dame Paul on his arse and his wig in the wilderness, plus his outlandish costumes. We live for the the sight of Fletcher panting his way around the auditorium getting into water gun fights with the kids, Dame Paul&#8217;s flirtations with some poor sod in the front row and the endless fart jokes. It made the evening as familiar and fabulous as a pair of boa slippers. 



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-muddy-verdict">THE MUDDY VERDICT</h2>



Good for:&nbsp;Anyone who loves panto is going to get a kick from this performance. It’s udderly brilliant good for those parents who enjoy their own set of jokes that go way over little ones’ heads.



Not for: It&#8217;s loud, flashy and full of cheesy fun, so if the cultural bar is too low for you, pop back after Christmas. 



Jack and the Beanstalk is on at The Hexagon Theatre, Queen&#8217;s Walk, Reading RG1 7UA untl 2 Jan 2023.&nbsp;<a href="https://whatsonreading.com/venues/hexagon/whats-on/jack-and-beanstalk" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Book your tickets here</a>.

Review: Jack and the Beanstalk at The Hexagon

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