"Jack & The Beanstalk" by Bingham Musical Theatre Company (BMTC)

Bingham Arena.

Bringing a little sunshine into the gloomy, grey and wet December evenings is this GIANT pantomime that is frighteningly good family fun, and will have you dancing on the ceiling and swaying in your seat.

It must be really difficult to write a pantomime when the stories have been so well known for decades and decades. Keeping that core storyline and adding topical and modern extras though must be great fun, but not the easiest of tasks but Ben Bradley and Emily Hudson have managed to deliver a fresh sheen to a well trod story. The jokes in particular are quite well used in the past, but you can't beat a groan worthy gag in Pantoland, can you? Taking a swipe at Nottingham Council is an obvious target, and panto provides a voice for the man in the street, so making fun of the way that Nottingham Council have mis-managed the funds, and their poor decisions, is something that immediately strike a chord with the public. And it's funny!

Jack Trott is played by Vicki Reckless. She looks absolutely stunning and has an incredibly good voice, which we get to hear quite regularly throughout this panto. A lovely traditional panto role and. of course, the hero of the show.

Eloise Lowe plays Jill, the subject of Jack Trott's affections. Another stunning voice, and the arrangement of "Tomorrow", one of Jill's big songs was wonderful, and Eloise performed it beautiufully.

James Sikora is Dozy Den. James shows just how much he is enjoying his role on stage. The fun he brings to this role is obvious, as well as the energy. Dozy Den's big song and dance number is a parody of the Ryan Gosling song from the film "Barbie" called "I'm Just Ken", changed to "I'm Just Den". James made his BMTC debut last year in "Beauty & The Beast" and had a slight mishap, but this year everything went to panto plan, and the streetwise but dozy Den delivered a perfect performance.

Daisy The Cow is played by Nanda nominated Belle Black. Another fun role played by a fun character, and the costume looks udderley fantastic, and her moooosical ability is plain to see. No bull!

Dame Tilly Trott is played by Paul Green. Paul is a BMTC legend and has played, not only comedy Dame roles, but also villainous parts as well in the past. It looks as if Paul relishes his Dame roles though, if his performance in "Jack & The Beanstalk" is anything to go by.

Simon Hawkins is The King with Emma Robinson is his Queen. One of those couplings that work so well in panto as the King is slightly under the thumb with the Queen being the one who wears the royal trousers.

Mandy Simons is Fairy Wish Heart, Jack's Fairy Godmother, bringing beauty and goodness to Pantoland. 

Sam Middleton is Grab, one half of The King's debt collectors who visits Dame Trott's Dairy. This role is very different to Sam's other roles he has played, and it's a nice surprise to see Sam doing comedy. His third role with BMTC and also the third very different accent to accompany this lovely and fun comedy part. 

Hayden Matthews is Snachit on certain days (Saturday matinee and Sunday) and Jake Looms on others (Friday and Saturday night); tonight it was Hayden's turn. Hayden makes his debut in this role for BMTC. You can tell that Hayden is no stranger to the stage merely due to the confidence he shows as part of this duo of Grab and Snatchit. He's very comfortable and not overwhelmed as part of this pair, and a young singer/actor and dancer to watch out for in the New Year.

Bubble and Squeak are played by Emily Hudson and Emma Nicol. Bubble and Squeak are Giant Blunderbore's personal chef's and "whisk-takers". There are so many one liners that this pair put out, which may have been lost on the Thursday night audience. Panto is full of comedy couplings and Emily and Emma are another couple who have the chemistry. There's a new twist to one of their shared scenes when they are discussing how to cook Jill for Giant Blunderbore, and  the confused shopping list of ingredients is very funny and quite novel.

I've had the pleasure of seeing both ladies previously on stage, but this is Emma's first panto role. It's also not the first time that both ladies have shared the stage together, which is why their chemistry on stage is so strong and natural.

Fleshcreep the Giant's villainous servant is played by Tex, who makes their panto debut in this role. Tex gets the balance just right with the evilness and comedy levels. They tried so hard to extract a suitable level of booing from the audience but in the first half I think the audience were in need of a prod with Fleshcreep's staff. Their perseverance worked off by the second act and the volume of booing increased, to which you could see allowed Tex to play up to the audience reaction. I think Tex enjoyed this role, a very different role to the one played in "Goodnight Mr Tom", earlier this year. A wonderful baddie performance from a hard working actor.

The voice of the Giant is played by little old me. I'm not at all biased, by any means, but I think this Giant vocally is more threatening and evil, as well as more intimidating visually than the one at another theatre in Nottingham.

There are two teams of young ensemble members, Team Bean and Team Stalk, taking turn to perform. On opening night, Thursday, I saw Team Bean. This team consist of Tegan, Harriet, Katelyn, Sylvie, Ellie, Olivia, Emily and Ella.

Team Stalk are Megan, Maddie, Caitlin, Liv, Summer, Elethea and Jasmine.

The featured ensemble are Macy Nugent and Katie Lister.

Directed by Ben Bradley, assisted by Jen Reckless, and everything has fallen into place on stage with this pair at the helm. The pace is kept up throughout, which is why I had to check the time when the first half came to an end because I couldn't believe just how fast the time went. the second half was equally as pacy. Associate Director is Karen Richards.

Choreographed by Jennifer Reckless. You could see just by looking at the faces of the ensemble how much fun they had with this choreography, and when the ensemble look like they are enjoying themselves, then we in the audience can't help but enjoy what they do.

Beccy Burgess is the Musical Director. there are some wonderful bouncy music selections in this panto, and some nice parodied pieces which were relative to the characters or the placing of the songs. Beccy is also responsible for wonderful sounding choir during the interval, who entertained us with some festive favourites. If Beccy arranged "Tomorrow" for this production, I'd just like to say "thank you" because that was one of the best arrangements of that song I have heard.

Costumes are by Amanda Warriner, and these are another highlight in this production. I love the Blues Brothers style suits for Grab and Snatchit, the gorgeous fairytale costume for Fairy Wish-Heart, Daisy the Cow's costume deserves a pat on the back for, and I also loved the Steampunk influenced outfit for Fleshcreep; but I could compliment every outfit and costume here.

Shevawn Green is the Costume Designer where the outfits for Dame Trott's are concerned. 

Loved the set design, by Nik Hudson, which allowed a nice concealed entrance for the centre stage openings, as well as a clever, clear pair of panels which allowed reflection of light as part of the set design at either side of the stage. A simple but effect beanstalk design which also allowed Jack to seem as if he was scaling the beanstalk.

Lighting design and operation is by Nick Elliott. There are some nice elements of shade providing a doom and gloom atmosphere, especially in the castle surroundings of Blunderbore where Jill was kept captive. At the other end of the spectrum, the up-tempo scenes and song and dance numbers were equally complimented with a bright light design.

My only niggle would be that I would have liked to have had the volume turned up a notch as there were times when the backing music was swallowing the vocals. In the second act, I could hear an increase, which is why I really enjoyed the "Tomorrow" section. I also thought that increasing the volume for the Giant's vocals would have also increased the element of fear and menace, but after all, this was opening night and this is where tweaks are noted and carried out for the remaining shows. Dom Mills is the man who worked his magic with the sound and the mix.

I'd also like to thank Ben, Nik and everyone else involved for asking me to voice Giant Blunderbore, giving me the opportunity to do something a little out of my comfort zone, and to allow me to now boast of making my panto debut. I loved every second of it, and hearing how different a voice can sound when you have talented sound technicians involved.

"Jack & The Beanstalk" is at Bingham Arena until Sunday 8 December, and you don't even know how much fun this production is until you've seen it. Hurry though as tickets are very limited!

Photography by Gavin Mawdett.