Jack and His Giant Stalk review – grown-up pantomime and music hall excess at Brick Lane
★★★★ Served with dinner and wine in a converted church, Brick Lane Music Hall’s January pantomime leans into innuendo, excess and the stubborn pleasures of music hall tradition.
Pantomime in late January can sound like a category error. Christmas is over, resolutions are wobbling, and most theatres have moved briskly on to more serious business. Brick Lane Music Hall has never seemed particularly interested in such rules. A grown-up panto served with a three-course dinner and wine, weeks after Christmas, feels less eccentric here than entirely appropriate.
You get the idea before the show even begins: the venue is a decommissioned Victorian church in Silvertown, dressed up as a music hall — hanging flowers, hand-painted signs, costume fragments, dresses draped where pews once were, and a curiously watchful stuffed bear family have all found their way into the place.
That atmosphere is no accident. Brick Lane Music Hall grew out of Vincent Hayes’ belief that music hall could survive by moving with the times rather than embalming itself. What began in the back room of a Bethnal Green pub, with a stage made of beer crates, eventually became a venue where food, drink and performance remain inseparable.
Written and directed by Lucy Hayes, Jack and His Giant Stalk is a knowingly cheeky reworking of the familiar fairy tale, relocated to the unapologetically named town of Loosebottom. Jack Trott and his family are facing eviction at the hands of Poison Ivy and the Giant’s Wife, who have quietly raised the rent to fund an all-inclusive holiday to Magaluf. Given Brick Lane Music Hall’s own history with landlords, could it be a subtle dig at them?
Josh Benson plays Jack with an easy physical assurance, combining slapstick, juggling and song without forcing charm. Samantha McNeil’s Jill brings energy and clarity, grounding the action when it risks drifting into chaos.
Andrew Robley’s Dame Fanny Trott dominates proceedings through sheer persistence. The costume changes come at a relentless pace — eighteen in total — each one more ambitious than the last. There is not much interest in restraint here, and that is rather the point. Alongside him, Vincent Hayes appears as Willy Trott, interrupting scenes, ad-libbing, thanking the kitchen staff mid-show and ignoring the script whenever it suits him. The cast visibly adjust around him, the audience enjoying the moments when things wobble slightly off course.
Elsewhere, Jack Pallister’s Spirit of the Beans – a fairy whose effectiveness improves with alcohol – provides one of the evening’s more inspired comic ideas, leaning into camp without tipping into parody. Lucy Reed’s Daisy the Cow combines strong vocals with comic confidence, while Charlotte Fage and Hayley-Jo Whitney form an enjoyably scheming villainous pairing, balancing glamour with physical comedy.
The stage is compact, but painted scenery, choreography and a bit of theatrical sleight of hand make it feel bigger than it is. A rope and ladder become the beanstalk, and somehow that is enough — you don’t need much when everyone on stage is committed to the idea.
All photos by Lucy Hayes Photography
Not every joke lands, and the Viagra gag gets another outing often enough to test the patience — but Brick Lane Music Hall has never really been about restraint. What it offers instead is warmth, generosity and that slightly old-fashioned feeling that someone is making sure you’ve been fed, entertained and generally looked after.
By the time the dessert plates are cleared and the final number comes around, the evening somehow feels fuller than it otherwise might have done — which is perhaps why music hall, like pantomime, has survived all these years. Pantomime after Christmas may sound strange, but so does music hall — and both are still here, refusing to take the hint.
The show runs at Brick Lane Music Hall until 7 March.
Tickets:
Evening show with three course dinner and dancing – £75.00 per person
Matinee show with afternoon tea – £75.00 per person
Address: 443 North Woolwich Road, London, E16 2DA
Website: https://www.bricklanemusichall.co.uk/
Elena Leo is the Culture & Lifestyle Editor of Ikon London Magazine.
