The kids were loving it. And that is what we look for in a play performed for kids about third-grade and under. The Wild Swan Theater’s production of “Beanstalk The Musical,” which opened April 29, is certainly up to this company’s high standard.

Awareness of the “Jack and The Beanstalk” tale is pretty universal. The story of the lad who trades his family’s cow for a bag of magic beans instead of money to put food on the table dates back to the earliest years of 19th century England, though it was not widely popularized until the 1890s.

This adaptation, written by Jeff Duncan with music composed by Tom Schnauber, sticks close to the story we all know. After the beans are thrown to the ground, a giant beanstalk grows up to the sky. Jack climbs up, and finds the land of a giant. Jack is able to retrieve a golden harp that had belonged to his father, a hen (in the original story it is a goose) that lays golden eggs, and ultimately his missing father who has been languishing in the Giant’s dungeon.

The cast, many of whom we have seen before in Wild Swan productions, has a real flair for delivering just the right amount of on-stage energy and whimsy to keep an auditorium of little ones engaged and happy for an hour. Sandy Ryder is quite good as huckster Arty Spielman who trades the beans to Jack for the cow, and then stretches her chops to play a funny Giant in what appeared to be a paper-straw colorful wig and clownish jacket. Ryder acts with her heart in everything we see her in, and the kids in the audience all seem to feel it. The decision to play the Giant this way, instead of as a more stiff-legged Shrek-ish character is interesting, just about works and meshes nicely with Ryder’s acting tool-kit.

Jeremy Salvatori as Jack plays it well and has a knack, despite being an adult, for playing the role of a child very convincingly. We have seen this actor several times now, and he has a unique talent for this kind of theater. Sarah Briggs brings her fine operatic pipes to the roles of Jack’s Mother, Ms. Peet and the fruit seller. Briggs elevates the whole show’s vocals whenever she opens her mouth to sing.

The music, so critical to Wild Swan’s productions, was delivered deftly by music director Brian E. Buckner on piano and percussion, and Lorrie Gunn on harp and violin. But the music itself was not up to, say, Swan’s last production of “The Ugly Duckling.” There are plenty of good percussion combinations to convey, for example, the Giants footsteps. But the overall score seems kind of limp, and not up to the players’ energy on stage. A re-score maybe? The right score could raise the production from very good to downright special.

The staging is simple. I had hopes for a clever representation of the beanstalk going to the heavens. I was thinking maybe some fabric cylinder that might be cleverly drawn up on strings to the border curtains? A ladder inside? Something with a wow factor? Instead–and this was not a bad thing–the basic house structure on stage had a curtain drawn across to convey the house. When that was pulled aside, there was a curtain behind it that conveyed the bottom of a giant beanstalk. Jack’s ascent was conveyed by a stick-puppet of a boy ascending the beanstalk. At first, I was disappointed, but as the play went on, I could tell the kids loved it. Sometimes the greatest successes on stage are achieved with the simplest ideas and solutions.

Michelle Trame Lanzi and Benjamin Williams filled out the rest of the story’s characters–six in all between them. Strong vocals and lovely stage energy, they completed a very strong and cohesive ensemble.

Directed by Lynnae Lehfeldt, Beanstalk finds the right balance of the characters telling the story to the young audience and acting off one another. She also weaves just the right amount of audience participation into the hour, and uses the aisles of the theater well for chase scenes, as when the Giant is chasing Jack.

Wild Swan is doing great work across the board bringing new life to the stories that have been told and re-told across the generations and centuries. The company’s highly professional, creative company is doing God’s work, introducing the youngest theater goers to the magic of live theater and what can be accomplished on stage with simple, well-conceived set, prop and costume work. Keep ’em coming.