Jack And The Beanstalk, Grand Opera House, York, until January 4.

It has no delusions of grandeur, it gets from A to B, but it is not a work of inspiration or high-speed danger.

Director Simon Barry's York pantos are like a starter pack to this strange yet enduring art form, and that is why they go down so well with children. He keeps the well-worn storyline as simple as Simple Simon and as easy to follow as a dotted line, and there is (too) much dancing and singing, with songs sometimes pruned to a couple of verses to maintain momentum - although Nova Skipp's Princess Jill has to wade through the waters of a long and lachrymose ballad in the Giant's Castle.

Assembled and bolted together in little over a week, this show plays to its individual strengths and, if the final product is lacking in distinctive character, then at least its principal attractions give good value.

Husband and wife Stuart Wade and Tonicha Jeronimo first delighted the Opera House panto audience in Cinderella in 2000-2001, and again their combination of cheek and Yorkshire savvy are met with enthusiastic audience participation. Wisely, they have dropped all reference to their Emmerdale past (they left the muck and manure behind four and six years ago respectively), and their panto skills stand free of any old association.

Wade plays Simple Simon as the children's gang leader, a constant twinkle in his eye beneath his peaked, multi-coloured cap as he looks to trip up Lynne McGranger's Witch Blackweed at every opportunity. This year his catchphrase is taken from the gospel according to DJ Otis (Hey Baby), and he makes every child feel an integral part of the proceedings.

Jeronimo is saying goodbye to the theatre profession with this show - there are some panto performers who bade farewell to acting before ever setting foot on stage - as she is to begin a new, wholly different career. She leaves on a high, giving a lovely, warm and funny performance as an economy-budget Fairy Peapod, with her PG Tips Yorkshire accent and a costume that looks like its been made by a mother for a school play.

Lynne McGranger, alias Home And Away's Irene, is the show's Aussie import (an excuse for the only topical gag, teasing her about England's rugby success). A regular in the Simon Barry troupe, she has graduated from Fairy school to embrace the dark side as the villainous Witch Blackweed, and her rasping voice well fits the role.

This panto comes with a pantomime cow; a clothes horse (Paul Critchlow's dame of the camp variety); old car parking; Beckham and Weakest Link jokes; and a Giant whose eyes don't shut when he's sleeping.

It doesn't come with a proper beanstalk-chopping death scene for the Giant (Tom Fackrell), and the slapstick really should involve more than kicking a ball of dough. Perhaps it could be invested with some of the excess energy of Andrea Poyser's Jack.

Jack And The Beanstalk, Grand Opera House, York, until January 4. Box office: 0870 606 3595.

Updated: 12:39 Friday, December 12, 2003