Clive Rowe is astonishing: Hackney Empire’s Jack and the Beanstalk reviewed

Jack and the Beanstalk is a big, sprawling family show that opens with a baffling gesture. A booming voiceover announces that Hackney is being menaced by some unseen threat. Enter an evil monster, Funella Fleshcreep, who wears facial moisturiser made from liquefied avocado. This green-cheeked ogre is challenged by the virtuous characters, Jack Trot and Simple Simon, who must defeat her and deliver Hackney from danger.

The show starts to finds its way once Clive Rowe appears as the dairymaid, Dame Trot, who needs to milk a dysfunctional, dried-up cow. There are few performers in Britain who are as versatile as Rowe. He can do broad slapstick as well as stand-up comedy. He can descend into the stalls and weave a spot of improvisational magic with a crowd of strangers. His voice is an amazing instrument. He can croon as sweetly as Andy Williams and he has no trouble belting out a soul classic with the rough, discordant power of James Brown. Christmas panto is the only theatrical genre that allows him to express the full spectrum of his abilities.

He co-directs this show with Tony Whittle who plays an oddly dressed councillor, Higginbottom. His fetish is to impersonate Freddie Mercury and he first appears with boot-polish hair and a spangly white jumpsuit. The Freddie outfits are accompanied by puns on the titles of Queen tracks. These will make sense to anyone over 40 but younger folk might struggle to get the references. And there’s a faint air of indulgent whimsy about the entire show. But the dancing and tumbling routines are first-rate. And the children loved it.

Red Riding Hood, at Stratford East, is a panto that observes the conventions of good dramatic writing. The stories are located within family units and each of the characters has a clear mission to fulfil.