Jack and the Beanstalk review – bright and cheery but lacking heart

Coliseum, OldhamWhat used to be one boy’s coming-of-age struggle with a tyrannous ogre is now a free-for-allBoisterous, 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. Continue reading…
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