Beauty and the Beast

This year’s pantomime from All Soul’s Dramatic Club was the story of Beauty and the Beast.There have been many versions of this popular story which is based on the French 1756 tale of “La Belle at Le Bete”, it has been handed down and  adapted and rewritten numerous times over the years and most recently the Disney Film Beauty and the Beast has been a big hit with cinema audiences around the world. Here we have another very enjoyable version of the story written and directed by Cliff Gillies who worked with an experienced production team to bring this Pantomime to the stage, they were, Choreographer Katie Palfrey and Chloe Hughes who was responsible for the music and vocal arrangements. There were lots of wonderful characters and a great deal of laughter in this production as the large cast produced excellent performances working together as a team with no weak links, which is a very important element when performing a Pantomime. They included the very talented Chloe Hughes as a lovely Belle who was complemented very well by Chris Seery as her Prince Adam. Phil Richards was Belle’s loving father Maurice DuPont and Belle had two friends who were played by Kerry Eglinton in the role of Amelie who used sign language to speak her dialogue as her character was deaf, which worked very nicely, and Jenny Roby complemented her very well as her friend Dette. Neil Woods was comedic as the arrogant, pompous Chauvon who spent most of his time waxing lyrical about his good looks and supposed virtues, and Lucy Brindle made a good villain and had a great singing voice as the selfish and evil Celine.She had three quirky accomplices as she carried out her scheming plans, namely Tequila- Gabbi Haddock, Schnapps -Mia Scott and Kahlua -Joanne Wasilew who were also comical.  Ian Lawson was outstanding and suitably menacing in the role of the Beast, but he was also convincing in his gentler moments and Helen Gillies was very comedic with a good French accent as Mondiane who along with Mark Haygarth as Gustav and Cliff Gillies who was as usual very funny and outlandish as Dame Doralee were the Beast servants. There were also some nice performances in the smaller roles such as John Hardiker as King Charles and Jaqui Lewis as Queen Camilla with Samantha Keen, Ana Woodward, Paula Sumner, Emma Ward and Ellie Joyce Wright as the Princesses. There were also two small Cameo performances which went down a storm with the audience, they were a very cute Olivia Hughes as Little Ms. Potts who didn’t appear phased at all being on stage and is taking after her mum Chloe and Hilda Blomley as Ms. Potts Senior. The chorus of adults and young people supported the principle cast admirably, performing the up to date energetic choreography with lots of enthusiasm. All the musical numbers were performed impressively and were accompanied by backing tracks which worked very well.  

Design and construction of the multipurpose set was of a  high standard and just right for the production and along with very good technical input, exploding confetti and colourful costumes,  which included a beautiful yellow Belle dress, all added to the success of this very enjoyable slick production.

Congratulations  to everyone involved in this excellent show, where everyone on stage looked as if they were really enjoying themselves meaning the audience did so as well, they certainly demonstrated  their appreciation very vocally and joined in with all the action, it is said good audience reaction with plenty of participation and noise is a sign of a successful Pantomime, which this production had in spades.

 Thank you very much for inviting us we had a lovely enjoyable evening

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.