Jack and the Beanstalk, Nottingham Playhouse

It's so refreshing in these days of modern panto to enjoy a production with a proper principal boy and not one, but two gloriously colourful and over-the-top dames.

This proved an emotional night for veteran dame – and show writer – Kenneth Alan Taylor, back for one last season in costume. A string of thanks at the curtain call brought a tear to the old trouper's eye.

As Dame Daisy, Jack's mother, there's probably little need for a script as he effortlessly works the audience, teases the cast and brings the house down with ad-libs that must come so easily after 30 years in a string of acclaimed roles.

He is the catalyst that crafts this all-singing, all-dancing, costumed joke-fest into yet another classic. And a flamboyant new costume for every scene completes the package.

Many of the Playhouse cast are also popular regulars being welcomed back for their annual theatre beano, with the festive audience also clearly part of the show – even down to random shouts from children clearly getting carried away with the action on stage.

The tone for the evening is set by the superb dancing girls and a panto orchestra that defies its size by filling the auditorium with life. Their dual contribution to the big showpiece numbers is key: the musical set-pieces were among the highlights, from the cutesy giant dancing rabbits wowing everyone at the start to the hilarious What Does the Fox Say number near the end. And it was so good we got them to do it all over again!

The second dame treading the boards is the manic and memorable Anthony Hoggard, a familiar face in his sixth Playhouse panto. His double-acts with different cast-members has the audience in stitches as he plays his eccentric role as the Giant's wife totally for laughs.

Of course, that's what we're here for! John Elkington as the giant's lackey Slurp hams it up as the baddie and relishes the boos, hisses and soakings that come his way.

Even Giant Blunderbore manages to steal some of the fun as Daniel Hoffman-Gill makes the role his own with an interesting, unexpected twist to the tale which you'll appreciate.

Jack is played by thigh-slappingly earnest Rebecca Little in her 13^th production here. She teams up with her on-stage love interest Annie (Kelly Edwards) and Tim Frater as Danny, whose six-pack gets an outing in a scene especially for the ladies!

There's a superb effort on the scenery front this year with stonking sets that transport us into a world of make-believe, as well as some backdrops that will make you forget for a moment that you're in a theatre.

The children all loved a slapstick scene (which seemed a little crow-barred in) – but it's panto and the energetic community singing and getting the awe-struck little ones up on stage in time-honoured fashion more than made up for that.

Jack and the Beanstalk runs through until Saturday January 18 and will definitely be your last chance to soak yourself in the genius and fun that comes in the shape of Kenneth Alan Taylor. Oh yes it will – so book your tickets and find out what the fox says...