Jack and the Beanstalk

Reviewed by Holly Bartges

No prime rib this time. No shrimp cocktail. No food at all. In its place is a house full of eager happy children with eager happy parents and friends. Boulder’s Dinner Theatre created Kids Kabaret.

Featuring Pam Clifton’s version of Jack and the Beanstalk, the show runs Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturdays through June 2. Specifically designed for children Kindergarten through sixth grade, the audience doesn’t come to sit in a dark theatre, laugh and then go home. Participation reigns at the core.

The Story Teller, Willow T. Wisp, engagingly played by Joanie Brosseau Beyette, not only tells the story of Jack, but also delightfully corrals audience attention. Startled to find the audience, she thinks the newspaper ad asks for actors. Instead she gets an audience. There she is with an audience, a set, and no actors. Flustered, Willow thinks she is in big trouble, when out from the back of the theatre pop up three actors who just happen to be there. Giving them costumes and a script, she sends Scott Beyette who plays Jack, Alicia Dunfee who plays Jack’s mother, and Steven Bertles who plays the Giant, back stage change clothes and learn their lines.

Now Willow has another problem. She has three actors, but behold, the story calls for six more. What to do? Aha! The audience, that’s what. Asking for volunteers to play Bossy the cow, a Little Old Man, the Goose that lays the Golden Eggs, the Giant’s guard puppy, the Giant’s kitty, and the singing harp, there is no lacking for hands in the air. Randomly, Willow chooses a young child for each part, rehearses their lines from “Milk Me” to “Honk and Meow Meow,” dresses them in their costumes, then sets them at an actor’s table so she knows where they are when she needs them. Forgetful as Jack is, the rest of the audience is needed to frequently remind him of what he forgot. Willow guides the story, ensuring all of the actors get on stage at the right time.

Through Clifton’s imagination, the giant is anything but a mean angry ogre. He’s a lonely giant, who Jack befriends up coming to live with Jack and his mother.

Following the 50-minute play, the actor’s entertain questions from their young audience. How does the beanstalk grow? Who made the costumes? How do the lights work? How was the set built? What are those big weird things behind the set (the set for the current adult dinner show Cats) and how does that huge costume for the giant work? The questions are curiously intelligent for such a young audience. Who knows what budding actor lies behind an eager hand in the air and inquisitive eyes?

Kids Kabaret is a magnificent addition to the theatre community where intelligence is honored, no one gets talked down to, involvement is supported and encouraged, where stories are given a positive twist, and the entire audience, adults as well as children, leave with a smile. Not limited to Kindergarten through sixth grade, there were some toddlers present with huge eyes and happy grins. I had with me one of my special needs people, and he loved it. He loved meeting Michael Duran the Artistic Director for BDT, and the cast. He couldn’t sing the songs during the show, but he could bounce, and wave his arms and make it clear even to the characters during the play he enjoyed every minute. He understood the questions, and comprehended the answers; witnessed by his persistent I’m-not-ready-to-leave attention His approval spoke volumes.