Just beyond the glow of the Broadway Shopping Centre’s flood lights, lies the Bradford Playhouse Theatre, down a side street, just off Leeds Road. The building was wonderfully colourful, and has a bar, filled with dated and mostly musty furniture and more mirrors than a house of fun. Once I had finished my drink, I made my way upstairs to find my seat for the house’s first show of 2019! It is apparently still pantomime season, (I thought that was just over Christmas and New Year) and tonight’s performance was ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’
Everyone knows the tale of our ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’, Jack and his mother are the picture of poverty. They're starving and can't afford to eat or tend to the farm. Jack decides to sell the cow at the market. He is about to sell it to a butcher, but a stranger convinces him to buy magic beans instead. Jack's mother feels that he was cheated and punishes him for being so gullible. She throws the beans out the window where they are watered overnight by rain. In the morning, a tall vine has grown into the clouds. Jack climbs the beanstalk and encounters a giant and his giantess wife, who means to eat Jack. Jack narrowly escapes the wrath of the couple and takes with him the giant's treasures: a magical harp and a hen that lays eggs filled with coins. Well, author Peter Denyers script took the plot that we are mostly used to, intertwined it with songs from modern musicals, and pop culture, humour, of all types, and dancing.
At 7:15 sharp, the lights dimmed and we were greeted by Moonbeam (Chloe Broadbent), the Fairy who only spoke in rhyme, who explained what was going to happen, even giving away the whole story, by telling us that our hero, Jack (played by Chloe Rushworth), would eventually conquer the evil Giant, Blunderbore (Carl Murray) Who only made an appearance for one scene, and had pre recorded many lines which were played back throughout. The giant's henchman, Fleshcreep (Stephen Maloney), throughout the show, proved to be a great baddy, with a great catchphrase of ‘don’t you just love me’. He was on the scene to deceive Jack into selling the family cow Daisy (Matthew Ward & Kirsty McNulty), Kidnap Jill (Siobhan Devanny) and gee up the rather rowdy audience. Comic interludes were given by Owner of Merrydale Milk Co. Dame Trot (Joseph Burke) and her son, Billy Trot (Luke Walker) who had a vast amount of one-liners and slapstick scenarios. Dame Trot, although not the greatest singer in the troop, made up for it with comedic acting and mostly good timing. And of course, a wealth of comedy costumes. My particular highlight of the show was from Dame Trot, as she tried to seduce the King, Maurice (John Mawson), whiles singing Miley Cyrus’ hit song 'Wrecking Ball', whilst bouncing up and down on a very stressed looking Space Hopper and chasing him around the stage, This had the audience is fits of laughter, the chap seated next to me in particular. The King had a servant, Grabbit (Cian Mawson) who appeared most of the time along side the king, and at one time, prompting a forgotten line, saving the day.
After Fleshcreep had Stolen Jill from Merrydale, and purchased Daisy for some Beans, and taken them to the giants empire, Cloudland, we finally saw the beanstalk growing next to Dame Trots rather unstable looking house (which looked likely to topple at any point, and didn’t fulfil its purpose of shielding the actors from being seen getting on and off the stage). And 1h,15 into the show, we arrived at the interval.
After much more comedy and tragedy in the second half, the whole show came to a close with Billy stalling the audience while Jack and Jill changed into their wedding outfits, explaining about the charities the company, Drama Unlimited, were supporting this term, (Bradford Sea Cadets and The Motor Neurones Disease association (MNDA)), and then singing a very strangely re-worded version of the T-Rex song, 'Nelly The Elephant', the whole cast were brought back on stage, the dance troupe, Dance Factory, who were excellent all evening, started the closing ceremony with a routine to the LMFAO tune 'Party Rock', the whole cast came on, taking their well-earned applause, sang a final song, (Disco Inferno?!?!?) and the whole cast partook in the routine. Then, just as you thought we’d seen it all, bang!!! The inhouse pyrotechnics went off, scaring the life out of a vast majority of the audience!
What a fun evening watching amateur dramatics, the cast and crew did well, the choreography was mostly simple, yet highly effective thanks to Kathryn Ford's leadership, the singing was mostly in tune, and in time with the help of Musical Director Bethany Brewer, and I’m sure, by the end of the run, the whole show will be running a lot smoother, and some of the pregnant pauses will be gone. Hopefully the sound technician will start the song intros under the dialogue so that when the cast are ready to sing, they don’t have to just stand and look lost for 10 seconds as they listen to the opening of each song.
Thank you to director David Walker for putting on this show, It was an evening well spent. There was a lot of work going on in the background, with the endless scene changes, many props, some which needed manning while on stage, the sound and lighting crew were doing a good job, and you could see that each of the 25 members of the cast were having a great time on stage, which is what the theatre is all about. I wish you all the best for the future.
Reviewer - Simon Oliver
on - 20/2/19
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