This review is based on the 13:00 showing of Jack And The Beanstalk at His Majesty's Theatre in Aberdeen on Sunday 01 December 2024.
Panto Land has made itself in Aberdeen as Jack And The Beanstalk begins its run at the prestigious His Majesty’s Theatre until January 2025.
Alan McHugh yet again plays double duty in The Granite City’s pantomime as in addition to performing in the production, he also wrote the whole play.
You’d think with the play being called Jack And The Beanstalk, the character Jack Trot (portrayed by Michael Karl-Lewis) alongside Princess Jill (portrayed by Jemma Ferries) would be at the forefront of the story but, unusually, it was Dame Trot [Jack’s mum] and Gary Trot [Jack’s brother] (portrayed by Alan McHugh and Gary McHugh/Gary: Tank Commander respectively) who took centre stage for the majority of the performance with questionable Aberdeen-related jokes, some going down like a lead balloon, others a little dated.
Danielle Jam did a great job as The Spirit Of The Beans, telling the story in a narrator-like capacity and had great input but could work on her Aberdonian dialect because some of it sounded like those Factory Direct adverts off of the TV.
This year’s lead antagonist came in the form of Julie Coomb playing the aptly-named Mrs. Blunderbore who was the least-convincing baddie I’ve ever seen in Pantomime with her over-elaborate facial expressions and out-of-tune singing. Julie needs to unleash her inner villain a bit more.
Paul J. Corrigan played a great Pat The Cow who drove hard all the cow-related puns known to man and womankind for most of the performance. It was comical how Gary Trot pointed out a hole in the plotline in Paul’s cow costume which didn’t have any udders attached but the River City actor recovered well from it.
Panto Land has made itself in Aberdeen as Jack And The Beanstalk begins its run at the prestigious His Majesty’s Theatre until January 2025.
Alan McHugh yet again plays double duty in The Granite City’s pantomime as in addition to performing in the production, he also wrote the whole play.
You’d think with the play being called Jack And The Beanstalk, the character Jack Trot (portrayed by Michael Karl-Lewis) alongside Princess Jill (portrayed by Jemma Ferries) would be at the forefront of the story but, unusually, it was Dame Trot [Jack’s mum] and Gary Trot [Jack’s brother] (portrayed by Alan McHugh and Gary McHugh/Gary: Tank Commander respectively) who took centre stage for the majority of the performance with questionable Aberdeen-related jokes, some going down like a lead balloon, others a little dated.
Danielle Jam did a great job as The Spirit Of The Beans, telling the story in a narrator-like capacity and had great input but could work on her Aberdonian dialect because some of it sounded like those Factory Direct adverts off of the TV.
This year’s lead antagonist came in the form of Julie Coomb playing the aptly-named Mrs. Blunderbore who was the least-convincing baddie I’ve ever seen in Pantomime with her over-elaborate facial expressions and out-of-tune singing. Julie needs to unleash her inner villain a bit more.
Paul J. Corrigan played a great Pat The Cow who drove hard all the cow-related puns known to man and womankind for most of the performance. It was comical how Gary Trot pointed out a hole in the plotline in Paul’s cow costume which didn’t have any udders attached but the River City actor recovered well from it.
We had home-grown talent in the form of Michael Karl-Lewis and Jemma Ferries who should have been utilised a lot more. The role of Jack in Jack And The Beanstalk needs to be in a leading capacity, not taking a backseat to the show’s writer otherwise it should have been renamed Dame Trot With Gary And The Beanstalk. The fact they’re credited on the bottom of the billboard away from all the other lead cast members makes them seem like an afterthought which shouldn’t happen. Especially in their home city.
I appreciate the show is written months in advance but in the news recently the UK Government aren’t being kind to family-run farms - many who are striking over the terrible situation they’re in. I felt some of the story was in bad taste given current events in the news and, perhaps, could have been re-written slightly.
It didn't have much of a plot line and deviated from a traditional Jack And The Beanstalk pantomime.
Parts of the show were hard to hear as their microphone levels were being drowned out by Harry Thompson’s fantastic in-house orchestra and I’m still trying to make sense of the dialogue said in the TikTok scene.
The performance does not contain any of the scenes featured in their advert so if you’re going to see Alan McHugh as a giant roast chicken, you’ll be disappointed.
Pantomimes are mainly for the children so more up-to-date songs should be used.
Looking at the schedule, I see there are performances with a British Sign Language interpreter, and others which are Audio Described, but it would be good to have shows that doesn’t rely on 3D for most of the second half as people like me with Keratoconus struggle with viewing 3D movies and at today’s performance I didn’t get to enjoy the benefit the rest of the audience as I couldn’t see the special graphics.
You’re very welcome to purchase tickets through Aberdeen Performing Arts and tell me how wrong I am.
STAR RATING: ⭐⭐
I appreciate the show is written months in advance but in the news recently the UK Government aren’t being kind to family-run farms - many who are striking over the terrible situation they’re in. I felt some of the story was in bad taste given current events in the news and, perhaps, could have been re-written slightly.
It didn't have much of a plot line and deviated from a traditional Jack And The Beanstalk pantomime.
Parts of the show were hard to hear as their microphone levels were being drowned out by Harry Thompson’s fantastic in-house orchestra and I’m still trying to make sense of the dialogue said in the TikTok scene.
The performance does not contain any of the scenes featured in their advert so if you’re going to see Alan McHugh as a giant roast chicken, you’ll be disappointed.
Pantomimes are mainly for the children so more up-to-date songs should be used.
Looking at the schedule, I see there are performances with a British Sign Language interpreter, and others which are Audio Described, but it would be good to have shows that doesn’t rely on 3D for most of the second half as people like me with Keratoconus struggle with viewing 3D movies and at today’s performance I didn’t get to enjoy the benefit the rest of the audience as I couldn’t see the special graphics.
You’re very welcome to purchase tickets through Aberdeen Performing Arts and tell me how wrong I am.
STAR RATING: ⭐⭐