Cast
Esther Ammon-
Mother
Dave Edson- Group/Farmer
Jody Flader- Group/Dairy Woman
Oona Flaherty- Harp
Josh Matthews- Group/Butcher
David Myers- Jack
Everett O'Neil- Giant/Old Man
Bat Parnas- Giant's Wife
Carlton Ward- Cow
Designers
Assistant Directors/Stage Managers-
Margaret Hall, Jolie Tong
Composer- John Henry Sheridan
Musical Director- Andy Lagrimas
Light Design- Michael J. Spitzer
Set Design- Alicia Wolcott
Costume Design- Sean Sullivan
Puppet Design- Ken Berman, Frankie Cordero
Tickets are available now!
$10 Children, $12 Adults
TDF VOUCHERS ACCEPTED
For tickets, please call: 212-352-3101
or visit www.Theatermania.com
For group sales and more info:
212-307-9467
422 West 57th Street
Between 9th and 10th Aves.
Description:
This rock-bluegrass musical is based on the Appalachian version of the medieval fairy-tale, "Jack and the Beanstalk." Music, dance, rap/hip-hop, magic, masks, puppetry, and comedy make Jack! a turn-about in tradition: an old story in a new, hugely entertaining 21st century edition.
APPROPRIATE FOR CHILDREN 4-14
Fee, Fi, Fo, Fum (and Do, Re, Mi)
By LAUREL GRAEBER
Published: March 19, 2004
Audrey II of "Little Shop of Horrors" isn't the only enormous plant dominating a New York stage this spring. But the one at the Looking Glass Theater doesn't eat people; it raises them up. This greenery snakes through the center aisle and then up onto the set of "Jack!" This musical adaptation of "Jack and the Beanstalk" is given an Appalachian flavor by Hana Roth Seavey (book and lyrics) and John Henry Sheridan (score).
Although the staging is intimate, much about this show is big: really big. The actors first carry the beanstalk on their backs, animating it with their green-gloved arms and hands. But this plant is only a prelude to a larger star: the giant, in the form of a 13-foot-tall bunraku-style puppet that towers over the ogre's wife (Bat Parnas). Designed by Ken Berman and Frankie Cordero, he stretches clawlike hands over the audience, even ruffling some hair. Although potentially scary to toddlers, to older children the giant is in all senses a huge hit.
Kate Marks, the director, has given "Jack!" lots of circus flash, with inventive masks and rollicking choreography. Acrobatic skills are also abundant, from Jack (David Myers) to his cow (Carlton Ward) to the hen that lays golden eggs (Jody Flader). Streamers fly out of the sorcery book of the old man with the magic beans (Everett O'Neil). Even the giant's stolen harp is ingenious: the body of it is a woman (Oona E. Flaherty).
But not all the show's treats are visual. Ms. Seavey's book cleverly relates Jack's battle to win back his patrimony and help his mother (Esther Ammon). Mr. Sheridan's lively score embraces bluegrass to hip-hop, with instruments ranging from guitars to piano to washboards. It's all very danceable, and at the end the actors invite the children onstage for some twirls: a kind of "ding-dong, the giant is dead" celebration.
"Jack!" Saturdays and Sundays at 2 and 4:30 p.m. at the Looking Glass Theater, 422 West 57th Street, Clinton. Through April 10. Tickets: $12; children, $10. Reservations: (212) 352-3101.
