 Jack,
magic
beans and a princess
LICHFIELD Garrick has
built up a well-deserved reputation for providing one of the best family
pantomimes or Christmas shows around the Midlands, particularly for
younger family members.
Writer
Ian Adams as Dame Mary Trott,
Graham Cole as Hemlock and
Jo-Anne Stevens as Princess Jill
and Dominic Griffin as Jack Trott.
Which is not to say they are
children’s shows, far from it; just traditional stories told in the
age-old traditional way with writer Ian Adams ensuring the odd risqué
moment never strays over the line into vulgar.
He is a great
believer that panto lines that are supposedly above the heads of
children have a tendency to elicit awkward questions as to why adults
are laughing. “If you can get a laugh from a clean joke, good.”
This is his 18th panto and 13th
as dame, with the last 10 at the Garrick. “I did my first when I was 20,
a sort of Wishee Washee character, the second one when I was 35, playing
the prince, but that was the end of that, getting too old for it, then
Ugly Sister at 40 and I have done it every year since and I have been
writing for 11 or 12 years.
“Jack
and the Beanstalk was the first one I
ever id at the Garrick so we have gone full circle. It is the
traditional story with a few little twists in there, and a lot of music.
“There is a
big beanstalk, well five actually. There is always five beans in the
story so I always wondered what happened to the other four.
“There is the
giant, with a twist, and the castle in the clouds, and the princess gets
kidnapped, the golden harp and the golden goose, it’s all there.”
For the first
time in 10 years Adams will have a new musical director after Adrian
Jackson, the former Garrick artistic director and chief executive – and
MD and conductor – left to take up the role of Chief Executive at The
Grand in Wolverhampton but the transition has been seamless.
“It is
all set in the Wild West . . . Midlands in the kingdom of Packington. We
have a nice
cast, and of course Graham Cole (PC Tony Stamp in
The Bill) is
coming back – we had such a good time on Christmas Carol with him (he
played Scrooge in 2012/13) and he is a baddy, which is different because
he is a lovely man.
The hero of Adam's traditional tale of
giants, castles in clouds and dramatic rescues, Jack Trott
“There are 11
in the cast, but there will be a fair amount of doubling so it looks
like we have a bigger cast but it also means they all get plenty to do,
they are not stuck in the dressing room for 40 minutes.
If they are off-stage they are changing. That is how I like it.
" There is not
really a star, the show should be the star.”
So people can expect a traditional panto with the milking of the cow,
custard pies and plenty of slapstick around a traditional story.
Taking the
lead as Jack is Wolverhampton-born
Dominic Adam Griffin, who went to school in Shifnall and whose parents
still live in Telford, which means a novelty in the life of an actor,
Christmas at home between matinees on Christmas Eve and Boxing Day.
Dominic, aged
22, passed through the Garrick on his way to Shanghai where he was
appearing in Ultimate Broadway for five weeks before returning as Jack
Trott, son of Adams’ Dame Trott who sells the family’s cow for five
magic beans.
Dominic
graduated from Arts Educational Schools in London last year and played
Wishee Washee in Aladdin
in Newbury last year.
Every
panto needs a princess and in this case it is Princess Jill played by
Jo-Anne Stevens who passed through the Garrick on her way to appearing
in Saucy Jack and
the Space Vixens at Upstairs at the
Gatehouse on Highgate Hill as part of the Campden Fringe Festival.
Jo-Anne, aged
23, was born and raised in Rotterdam, arriving in England five years
ago, not that you would know it from her English accent.
She said: “I
have heard such good things about the Lichfield Garrick Pantomime. The
team is great and a lot of care goes into it, it has been very
professional.”
Dutch-born Jo-Anne Stevens, living the dream of every little
girl of being a princess . . . even if it is only for Christmas.
She is looking
forward to the show, her first panto incidentally, with an added reason
which is perhaps more of a little girl thing.
“For a girl to
play a princess, I mean, it’s pretty awesome and we have just seen some
of the costumes and they are really stunning.
“There are so
many different roles you can audition for but just being a princess is
one of the dreams.”
With one
dream realized there is a whole world remaining with the role she would
most like to play Lucille in Parade:
The Musical by the much under-rated
Jason Robert Brown.
Lucille was
the young wife of Leo Franks, the Jewish manager of a pencil company in
Atlanta Georgia who was wrongly convicted of rape and murder and when
his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment was dragged from jail by
a mob and lynched.
Dominic’s dream role is more conventional, the Phantom in
The Phantom of the Opera.
And if you can
be a Princess in a magic kingdom or can climb a beanstalk to reach a
castle in the clouds, the sky really is the limit, so why not?
Roger Clarke
Jack and the Beanstalk opens at Lichfield Garrick on
Saturday, 5 December and runs to Sunday, 3 January.
Booking
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