Jack and the Beanstalk Review – ‘Crazy’ Caper Gives Cow’s Eye Vision | Bantu season

Do Don’t be fooled by the title. This is a takeover. Not only has Jack and the Beanstalk gone from fairy tale to panto to musical, but Jack has been moved to second billing. To be precise, this “new conceit” by Jonathan O’Neill and Isaac Savage should be called “Caroline and the Beanstalk”, as Caroline is the name of the Highland cow that was adopted by Jack’s family and became the sole supplier of milk for Glenn and Cherry’s ice cream brand.

Played by the excellent Susie McAdam, red-haired and stoic, she is treated as an equal until the business fails. Then, it only takes a few magic beans for her to end up at the Happy Smiles Petting Zoo, where she’s goaded by invisible children while trying to devise an escape plan with a chicken, a llama, and a pig. After some shenanigans by Wallace and Gromit, she returns home and is ready to solve the problem of volatile Jack (Ronan O’Hara) and his pesky beanstalk.

In Stephen Whitson’s production, the film is done with great excitement by a 10-strong cast (plus the titanic voice of Brian Cox), but the shift in focus comes at the expense of the tale’s typical gravitas.

Gone are all the senses of the magical wonders of the land, the terror of being a child in an adult world, and the David and Goliath struggle between good and evil. Instead comes a hazy drama about a single-minded cow, peppered with mockery not only of Jack’s mother Cherry (Laura Lovemore), which is what you’d expect, but of Jack himself, which feels completely wrong.

The story strays from its essence, and relies on expository dialogue to illustrate the lessons learned: telling, not showing. It doesn’t help that many of the songs only serve to delay the action.

Yet those songs, an Americana-influenced collection that moves from Broadway to vaudeville to rap, build the entertainment industry’s illusion that something greater is at stake: McAdam’s powerful song Udderly Alone is a case in point, major change and all. With crisp choreography by Lisa Darnell and some great harmonies under Savage’s musical direction, it’s superficially energetic but emotionally up in the clouds.