I had the excellent opportunity to see Jack: A Flash Fantasy at the Graham Spry Theatre at the CBC Museum in Toronto, CANADA and would like to submit my review of it.
The show is basically a 1970s pantomine. It had the appearance of being geared for children, but has a sense of humour and references that are clearly adult. The story is about the aspect of man, as seen represented by the Jacks in a deck of cards. Each Jack (and corresponding Jill) represented different aspects of man as a whole. The show is about the Jack & Jill of Hearts meeting the other Jacks & Jills and interacting with them.
Victor Garber & Gilda Radner played the Jack & Jill of Hearts. They were very good and you could see the affection that they both had for each other on-screen. Their characters were full of love and very innocent of the ways of the world. Victor sang a few songs and Gilda got a song in as well.
The songs range in style from swing to jazz to 1970s contenporary. The story pick up the theme of Jacks and incorporated them in the story (i.e. Jack-In-The-Box, Jack Sprat, Jack & Jill Went up the hill, Jack Rabbit, etc.). The songs and dancing were very well done and I found myself humming the tunes after a while. The sets had a very cubic theme, from the pet cow "Moo" to the bucket of water when the Jack & Jill of Hearts acted out the nursery rhyme "Jack & Jill Went Up the Hill".
One of the funny things I noticed about the show was the difficulty in dealing with the height differences with the Jacks. Victor Garber just towered over the male cast members, which was hilarious considering one of them was wearing platform KISS-like boots!!! They made Victor do the entire show in thick white socks!!! :) That was extremely comical, especially when, during the show, Victor tap danced and the audience could hear the tapping of his "shoes"!!
Overall the show was excellent and I plan to see it again while it's running for the rest of the month. Unfortunately, it's not available on VHS/DVD or I would definately buy a copy. If you can get to Toronto during January 2004, I would highly recommend it to see this rare gem of Victor's work.