Jack and the Beanstalk: What a Whopper What A Whopper - Laura Buhagiar, Keanu Adolphus Johnson, Laura Anna-Mead, Fin Walton - credit Steve GregsonProving, if proof were needed, that Brits can’t get enough of their seasonal dose of ribald revelry, the writing team of Jon Bradfield and Martin Hooper are becoming an annual mainstay at the Charing Cross Theatre, where their brand of gay-centric frivolousness and fanciful frippery, packs-out the intimate venue for weeks. This year, we meet Jack Trott (Keanu Adolphus Johnson) a farm lad who still lives with his minor celeb, former TV actress mum, Dame Dolly Trott (master of the cheap and tacky costume change Matthew Baldwin). Frustratingly, for lusty love-lorn Jack, he’s many miles from the nearest hook-up app user and the closest city Leeds, is over the hill and far away.
Thankfully, relief comes in the form of the new and preppily-handsome, CofE vicar (Joe Grundy), who has recently moved into the parish and into Jack’s affections. Graveyard trysts and sexual fireworks ensue, as the sub-plot involving a malicious, land-grabbing Lady Fleshcreep (Jordan Stamatiadis) is revealed. The villainess has spread stories of a marauding giant, intending to scare poor folk off their land holdings… but might there be a real giant lurking in the wings, and if so, might he be voiced by a certain celebrated thespian?
Directed by Andrew Beckett, the piece is peppered with a plethora of au courant social and political references with digs at everyone from the outgoing Archbishop of Canterbury to the disgraced Duke of York.
Whilst this effort may not have quite the edginess and sharply landed gags of last year’s scorcher, the cast still ensure that the humour is delivered with the same knowing, tongue-in-cheek innuendo which is fast making these shows an institution. Certainly from the reaction of some members of the audience, they have been pent-up with anticipation and ready for release, for weeks.
Other characters delivered by the hardworking inhabitants of Upper Bottom, include: Fleshcreep’s ninny niece Simone (Laura Anna-Mead), local nurse (Caitlin Swanton who leads the stand-out dance number), Dale (Chris Lane) as the fairy who assumes all manner of roles which gel the narrative together, a glorious living harp (Laura Buhagiar) and a walking set of bagpipes (Fin Walton) who needless to say, gets blown.
The corny comic capers run until 11th January 2025.
