Jack And The Beanstalk At Sheffield Lyceum Review

Reviewed by Jenny Bray

The Sheffield Lyceum Pantomime just wouldn’t be the same without Damian Williams. This is his 15th year starring as the Dame and he is Dame Trot this year.

I love pantomime season for bringing more inclusivity to theatre going with a wider variety of people in the audience including lots of children of all ages. This was no different, with children ranging from around the age of 2 upwards.

Paul Hendry has written and directed the pantomime again this year, as much a stable as Damian Williams it would seem. This year’s production was a deliberate array of garishly bright costumes, overacting and choreographed over the top dance moves, including jazz hands.

The most well known star of the show, after Damian of course, is Fairy Sugarsnap (Wendi Peters), who appears on stage to introduce sections and to help out at various points of the show.

The storyline is set in Chucklemore and mainly follows the standard Jack and the beanstalk storyline, with some zombie pilots added in for good measure. Being a Sheffield pantomime, there are gags linked to local areas. There were also some funny political gags dropped in this year too.

This year, for the first time that I’ve known, there was the addition of an animal on stage. I’m not talking about Delilah the pantomime cow, there was also Waffle the Wonder Dog, who appeared in CBeebies (her real name is actually Scarlett – as I’ve listed all the other real names of the actors I felt the need to list hers too!). It would have been nice to see more of her as my children absolutely loved it when she appeared. The other part they highlighted as being a favourite was Billy’s (Joey Wilby) pea scene.

As a pantomime, some of the actors aren’t the best singers. However, this year they have Maxwell Thorpe as Charlie Trot, who was a Sheffield busker for 10 years prior to auditioning on Britain’s Got Talent and reaching the final earlier this year. His amazing voice counteracts some of the more mediocre ones and it was great to see local talent on the stage.

I really liked the not so dark and very funny portrayal of the bad guy, Luke Backinanger, by Marc Pickering. He had some amazing facial expressions going on. Watch out for his back story as to why he turned evil and then how he ends up.

Dame Trot remains a widow this year, so set up a new game show style way of finding a new man. C**** (editor’s note – name removed) in the audience got away fairly lightly in my opinion! There are several totally outrageous Dame outfits during the show, including amazing headpieces. I particularly liked the one worn during the beans being thrown away and one that may have a slight slur towards Elton John.

The Sheffield pantomime has a tradition of incorporating a couple of scenes in to the pantomime each year, including the wheelbarrow of puns and a scene with a bench. There are also lots of parts of very famous, well known chart songs throughout. I particularly enjoyed the mash up just prior to the interval, including an Eminem track.

The Lyceum theatre in Sheffield is in the town centre. The local Q park still allows your first hour of parking free if you get a ticket from the theatre staff. There is a drinks bar on each main level and a snack/treats bar to purchase things from before the show or during the interval.

The stage setting was fairly simple, with beanstalk lighting circling the stage, then the village houses and different sets for inside the giant’s house. It also included a large backdrop which projected different images on, which was particularly entertaining during the last main song when they’re all wearing white (I don’t want to give the plot away too much by saying what it is!).

There was lots of audience participation encouraged at various points and lots of jokes and gags. Although I did laugh in lots of places and loved taking my children to it, I didn’t find it quite as funny this year as previous years but can’t quite put my finger on why, although ‘The one and only Sheffield theatre’s pantomime’ bits seemed a little unnecessary. I’d still thoroughly recommend it as a great family show to get you in the festive spirit though.

Sheffield Lyceum are really good at catering for people with different needs and have the following performances; relaxed, signed, captioned, signed and audio described and there are shows on at different times of the day, with the latest being a 7pm start to cater for the younger audience.

Rating: I rate it a 4/5

Tickets cost from £15 to £33 (It’s nice to see that the prices haven’t increased since last year)

Jack and the Beanstalk is at Sheffield Lyceum between 2nd December 202 and 3rd January 2023.

For more information or to book tickets visit www.sheffieldtheatres.co.uk or call the Box Office on 0114 249 6000

Sheffield Theatres, 55 Norfolk Street, Sheffield, S1 1DA