"Jack And The Beanstalk" by Kristian Thomas Company.

Duchess Theatre, Long Eaton.

After missing KTco's 2021 pantomime, I was adamant that I was not going to miss out on this year's show. And I am so glad that I didn't.

Written by James Peake and Kristian Cunningham, it tells the story of Jack Trott, Jill and the giant, Grot Snot MaGoo and his evil henchperson, Madame Mouldspore who abducts Mimsy the cow, Ryan the Gosling and Sharpay up to the giant's castle.

Dame Arabbiatta Trott had sent Jack to market to sell Mimsy to the highest bidder so that they could pay their energy bill when Mouldspore hypnotised Jack into accepting a bag of tinned beans for the cow. The rest you all know.....

Local panto productions can sometimes be a bit hit and miss, but knowing the quality of KTco's productions, this lived up to their reputation and is a resounding hit.

The sets are wonderfully constructed and designed with an excellent light design, operated by Helen Blakeman. Dimmed and menacing lighting for Mouldspore's scenes, and bright and colourful for the other scenes. The choreographed pieces were, at times almost clubby, which matched the great, pumping sound for the show, operated by Phil Simcox.

Loved the costumes for all these characters, especially Dame Trott, and the giant was actually quite gigantic. Sometimes you just hear a booming voice, but here you get the real giant on stage, bringing realism to the fantasy.

There are some brilliant new jokes written for this production along with some classic old jokes. Some I felt didn't quite hit the mark, but on the whole the audience lapped up and appreciated the comedy crammed into this production. I was surprised that the "Les Miserables' "Castle In The Clouds" joke went un-noticed!

There are two teams of youngsters; Team Runner Bean and Team Baked Bean. The team I saw was Team Runner Bean. James Been (Young Jack) heads both teams and Effie Lennon Ballard and Grace Hindle share the role of Young Jill.

Natasha Cartwright (Fairy Fall) has a lovely sense of comedy, reminding me of a cross between Stacy Solomon and Su Pollard. Loved the broad Derby accent, the setting being Elvaston, and even more, I love Natasha's voice which started those tingles on the back of my neck.

Siân Scattergood Grantham (Madame Mouldspore) is an excellent evil pantomime character, and until I looked in the programme, I didn't even recognise her. Mouldspore is a real nasty piece of work which I imagine Sian had an absolute ball bringing her to the stage. Wonderful costume, make-up and physicality.

Anthony Beaumont-Mills (Jack Trott) is a real triple threat find. I have not seen Anthony before but as soon as he stepped on stage you were captivated by his stage presence. He has one of those voices that would sound great coming out of any speaker. It's modern and has a very natural range. A talented young actor who can deal with choreography well and has boy band looks.

Emily Corner and Millie Gilks (Mimsy the Cow) worked heifer so well together and didn't milk the role at all.

Megan Singleton (Jill) looked and sounded lovely and also brought a more modern panto woman to the stage, refusing to be type cast by allowing Jack, or her Father, Duke Luke, marry her off. A nice twist to the normal female panto stereotype.

Lu Anthony (Loopy Lou) plays Jack's brother and they provide another update to the standard panto "silly Billy" style character. They confirm the pronoun Lou goes by and bring a wonderfully camp character right up to date. They have a lovely sense of comedy timing, something that Lu has honed over the years. There really is no character that Lu can't bring to the stage perfectly, oh and I loved the really naughty joke Lu came out with in the "beans" section that only a few of us in the audience practically choked on!

Kheenan Jones (Duke Luke) also got to show his comic delivery side, which we don't often get to see. Hopefully in 2023 we may get to see Keenan do more comedy. As usual, he smashes the part he plays.

Chris Grantham (Dame Arabbiatta Trott) is wonderful as Dame. Playing Dame is possibly the hardest theatre role in panto; I've spoken to enough actors who have donned the Dame frock who have told me the pitfalls of Damedom. Chris is great fun to watch, and such a change from seeing him perform in serious musical theatre.

David Page (Ryan the Gosling) is another new name and face to me, but once more, a real theatrical find. Very camp character which gives rise to some great script writing surrounding ducks, geese, Ryan Gosling and the even work in an airline in there as well. A great panto character brought to life by an actor to look out for in 2023.

Ella Greenwood (Sharpay) - do I detect an HSM connection here? We get to hear Ella's incredible vocal range in this role as the classically trained Sharpay who wants to become Britney,Whitney or Christina.

And finally we get to Giant Grot Snot MaGoo, played by Bailey West. We do not get to see Bailey underneath that amazing, massive costume. You must admire how he manages to facilitate his costume without it toppling over as it towered above the whole cast.

This wonderful panto was directed by Kristian Cunningham and Tom Samuels with Tom Bond in charge of the music direction. The song choices really worked with the characters and actor's vocal skills, especially "World Of Our Own" and the gorgeous "Run". I also liked how some of the lyrics were amended to match the panto, especially "Allergies", a parody of Steps "Tragedy".

Lydia Thacker's choreography looked great performed by this large adult and young ensemble and cast, making an enjoyable and exciting watch.

I mentioned the lighting earlier on and this was designed by James Cladingboel and the sound design is by Harry Greatorex.

Showing that local theatre can indeed match the professionalism of any big theatre pantos, and they don't need well known names to get bums on seats, Kristian Thomas Company have produced a wonderful show that will have you laughing and loving this cast and this show.

"Jack and the Beanstalk" is at the Duchess Theatre until Saturday 3 December.