Jack and the Beanstalk, Olympia Theatre, Dublin:It's really only in panto season that a production with a mostly amateur cast gets to take over one of the capital's main stages, though that doesn't mean expectations are any the lower, writes Bernice Harrison.
June Rodgers, the star of Jack and the Beanstalk, is a panto veteran and she's a dynamo in this production - funny, quick and larger than life, belting out the songs and Christmas-cracker gags that come thick and fast in the script by Killian Donnelly. He has strayed far from the original fairytale, so there's not too much emphasis on the business of the beans and the selling of the cow, (which is a pity), and here Jack (a precociously talented 14-year-old Kevin Keeley) has acquired a twin sister, Jill (Rodgers).
The principal parts are played by teenagers Alan Kavanagh, Sean Carey, Robert Murphy, David Crowley, Niall Bruton, Ciaran O'Neill and David Doyle - all students of various stage schools.
It's a big ask for such youngsters, obviously talented and all as they are, to carry the adult roles that make for a good panto - particularly a truly scary baddie and an over-the-top dame.
Rodgers is not the only "name" in the production. Nine-year-old Little Becky (Rebecca Barry) will be known to listeners of 98FM's Morning Show where she is a regular contributor. Here the script probably doesn't make enough of her talent.
She has no particular role, although she is in most scenes, and sings with her mini girl band, the Kool Pops.
There's nothing amateur about the (hired in) set, musical direction (David Hayes), choreography (Stuart O'Connor and Ciara Armstrong) and direction (Christine Scarry) which is as it should be in such a major venue and with a large group of dancers that includes some very young children.
The Olympia has recently reinstated its ornate entrance canopy. Hopefully the renovation programme will make it inside the door of this grand old theatre, as sitting on a tatty grubby seat that seems to be held together with tape and standing on sticky flooring makes it difficult to get in to the spirit of the bright and shiny fun that the performers on stage are working so hard to achieve. - Bernice Harrison
Until Jan 6th
