Boisterous, full-throttled and cheery it may be, but it’s hard to locate the heart in this Jack and the Beanstalk. You would expect to find it in Sam Glen’s Jack, the uncertain child gullible enough to sell a cow for a bag of beans. But although he has no trouble enlisting the children into “Jack’s army,” he shows none of the hangdog vulnerability you associate with the role. Like the song-heavy production as a whole, he comes into his own while belting out the musical numbers rather than winning our affections.
Richard J Fletcher, taking on the role of the Dame after 11 years as the Coliseum comic, is bold and brassy but the script, by Fine Time Fontayne and acting artistic director Chris Lawson, skirts over the poverty on which the story hinges and gives no sense of her neediness.
By rights, Shorelle Hepkin’s spirited Jill Grabbmuch should be the one we care most for, but her transition into female role model is constrained by a script that lacks the courage of its convictions. “Why me?” she says when offered the lead role. “It’s Jack’s name on the poster.” Indeed it is and she’s given little room to muscle in.
By the time we get to the second act Giant’s lair, we’ve forgotten who to root for. It doesn’t help that the whole cast show up. What used to be one boy’s coming-of-age struggle with a tyrannous ogre, is now a free-for-all fight to reclaim an energy-consuming haul of stolen iPads. Topical though it is, the environmental theme seems stapled on. Like the bright smiles and rosy cheeks, this noisy production is brash, cartoony and all surface.
•At Coliseum, Oldham, until 11 January.
