Review 2 - Liverpool Echo

December 19, 2013
Catherine Jones gets festive at an animated panto

JACK AND THE BEANSTALK at Floral Pavilion

You don't see many panto animals on parade these days. So the arrival of the eyelash-batting Daisy the cow in the midst of the Jack and the Beanstalk mayhem is a retro delight.

Daisy dances, Daisy runs rings around her owners the Trotts, and Daisy emotes soulfully when  she’s packed off to market to help pay the rent.

The production team at the Floral Pavilion, have worked hard on creating the visuals which make the fantastical fairytale real for its young audience.

There’s a proper giant, who has  giant furniture, and a beanstalk that rises magically from the ground and up into the gods.

At the centre of the theatricals is the story, such as it is, of farm boy Jack  (Childrens TV favourite Ed Petrie) and his battle against the fe-fi-fo-fumming giant to rescue the beautiful princess (Emma Nowell) and win her hand in marriage.

Nick Wilton’s colourful Dame Trott, pitched somewhere  between Les Dawson and Ken Dodd delivers mildly blue innuendo with a twinkle,  and Simple Simon, played by the energetic Mark James certainly knows well how to work a young audience.

Sonia too delivers a couple of rousing songs, and a jolly performance as the forgetful fairy, while Child Catcher-esque Mark Moraghan gets the best lines of all as the evil Fleshcreep, threatening to “come down there and paint all your Smarties the same colour.”

The big numbers are belted out with conviction – one involving a surprise and entertaining cameo from a gang of puppets.

As with most pantos, there’s a surfeit of musical numbers. Still, although every show on Merseyside seems to have featured Maroon 5 this season, at least here it’s Daisy the cow who MOOS Like Jagger.