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REVIEW: Brighton Alternative Panto – ‘Jack Stripped Back’

Brian Butler February 4, 2025

In the magical silly world that is Pantoland, all things are possible. A cow can talk and sing, men can pretend to be women and girls; there can be a fairy of the garden and a grown man with his handy chopper can convince us he’s 18 and a virgin – oh yes he can!

So welcome to Jack Stripped Back – which refers to the simple staging and not alas to our hero’s nakedness. This annual alternative panto offers production values as high as any big stage show. Wrongs are righted, a giant killed, and Jack and Jill go up the hill to get a straight wedding – even though we know they are both men.

Producer Allan Cardew and director/script adaptor Paul Lawrence Thomas have put together an all-star cast familiar to anyone on the queer Brighton cabaret circuit.

And what the show possesses more than anything else is energy – a zillion kilowatts of it, from the exuberant trio of dancers to the electrically charged fun of drag prince Alfie Ordinary, whose boundless vitality has us in the palm of his hand every time he bounces onto stage as Little Willy – our hero’s daft brother.

Singing sensation Allan Jay plays the naivety of Jack perfectly and his model looks and stunningly powerful vocals make him a crowd pleaser too.

Cabaret star Billie Gold reprises her role as the fairy, powering through some fiendishly complex rhyming verses – a knowing twinkle in her eye and a deft wave of her wand amid the double entendres she seems unaware of.

Billie Gold

Baroness Mary Golds is the downtrodden Dame Trott, forced to sell her only cow Caroline to pay the rent. She’s all a traditional panto dame should be: confident, authoritarian and at times battling valiantly with incredibly elaborate headgear, and even manoeuvring inside a human-size beans tin.

Sandra as Jill is full of bouncing fun and dirty looks and has probably the filthiest content of the show. It would baffle the kiddies but of course this is an adult panto so there aren’t any.

Jason Lee Howlett, better known for his tremendous high C’s, forsakes his normal heroic role to play the villain, and what a hiss-boo character he is, as the Giant’s henchman – the oddly named Fleshjack.

In hooded cloak and face and hair full of silver glitter, he still can show off the top of his vocal singing range, which is goose-bumping good.

Davina Sparkle

And last but not least is the sarcastic pissed-off cow Caroline played to perfection by Davina Sparkle aka David Pollikett.

And it’s no surprise when she belts out Sweet Caroline for us all to sing along – a magic bit of panto fun.

The restrictions of the Ironworks Studio space seem totally overcome with clever use of props and scenery (Jess Eaton) and the musical backing, led by Shaz D. And physically adventurous dancers Luke Lunn, Rowen Newsome and Amber Redman give us an infectious feel-good factor.

I’ll be back for their next panto in 2026 – oh yes I will !

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