A Modern-Day Tall Tale in ‘Beanstalk!’

Acrophobia, the blues, addictions to carbs and shopping: In “Beanstalk!, A Tall Tale,” the overstuffed retelling of “Jack and the Beanstalk” at the Falcon Theatre in Burbank, every character has a problem.

Jack (Matt Johnson), a pizza delivery boy who fears heights, loses his job when an order comes in from an old paint factory, because it’s only accessible via a towering ladder.

Jack’s mom (Marcia Strassman), a pie maker, is about to be fired because she’s lost her will to bake. It seems that the recent theft of her golden CD player has given her a severe case of the blahs; now the only thing she’s interested in is catalog shopping.

Jack’s cousin Jill (Nadege Auguste), who’s visiting in hopes of becoming a Hollywood star, thinks success is dependent on an acting herb that she read about in the Hollywood Reporter.

And the Giant (Richard Ashton) is holed up in the paint factory, where he shoots hoops, loads up on sweets and carbs, wears a white lab coat, thinks about selling a golden CD player on E-Bay, shops at Trader Joe’s and dreams that he’s performing surgery.

The cow in the original tale, however, has been replaced in playwright Lori Marshall’s consumer-friendly version by an espresso machine. Lackadaisical Mom’s answer to Jack’s concern about money is to tell him to sell it. Jack’s trade for magic coffee beans leads to the show’s best visual in Victoria Profitt’s set design: The beanstalk sprouts from a junk pile and comes up entangled with big, flexible pipes.

And there’s more to pack into the show’s scant 50 minutes, including a puppet parrot to say “fee, fi, fo, fum” (Danny Bonaduce’s taped voice), and two unevenly integrated songs: “Blah, Blah Blues,” by Bill Haller; and the finale’s “High Hopes,” with altered lyrics by Marshall.

The show’s brightest sparks are provided by Johnson, with his believably wide-eyed and energetic Jack, and British actor Ashton, who displays deft comic timing and interacts easily with the audience. And Auguste gives Jill some flouncy effervescence, although maneuvering around the spiky beanstalk is tricky in the full skirt and long feather boa costume that designer Denise Ervin has given her.

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“Beanstalk!, A Tall Tale,” Falcon Theatre, 4252 Riverside Drive, Burbank, Saturdays at 1 and 3 p.m.; Sundays at 1 p.m. Ends July 8. $10. (818) 955-8101.