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Beauty and the Beast

Author: Leslie Judd

Information

Date
17th January 2019
Society
Downham Amateur Dramatic Society (DADS)
Venue
Downham Market Town Hall
Type of Production
Pantomime
Director
Natalie Mills
Musical Director
Kathy Philipot
Choreographer
Lauren Bullock and Amy Moulder
Producer
Jamie Robinson

Arriving at the Town Hall a little early with some friends who were also attending Thursday night’s performance it was nice to be welcomed by the familiar and friendly face of Kathy Philipot, who in time honoured fashion sold me some raffle tickets (although I wasn’t lucky). Kathy asked me to stay a while whilst she went in search of Ken Baxter who, as the new chairman of DADS had asked to be introduced to me. After a pleasant conversation and a drink in the bar, for my friends, I made my way to my seat.

The show was a little late in starting, but soon got into the swing of things with the appearance of Belle, Amy Moulder, tending to her roses and subsequently the good fairy Flora, Chloe Reynolds and the bad fairy Belladonna, Lauren Bullock. These two roles did not give a lot for Flora to do although Belladonna was able to play on the baddie role.

As we all know a rose is essential to the story of Beauty and the Beast and Belladonna was determined to kill them off. The timing of the effects here was a little off and they didn’t all die, however it was a clever effect and as this was opening night I’m sure this worked admirably later in the run. This Prologue brought us into the show as a whole, introducing us to the villagers and the principals. The well-known characters of the show: Belle, well characterised by Amy who sang her numbers well and obviously enjoyed her role and the opportunity to use her choreography skills. Gustave played with gusto by Wesley Harper gave us many laughs and he gave a very confident performance, I did worry about his make-up though. Alfonse, Belle’s father was sympathetically portrayed by Dale Hornsby under a great grey wig which helped age him to that of an older and doddery father. Played with elan Rob Hornett under his mask and horns gave a convincing portrayal of the Beast and the Prince with a good stage presence and some good singing..

This scene also introduced us the the traditional pantomime characters – a dame, her side kick, the sisters, and the comedy duo. Full Marks to Rob Nicholls as Madame Fifi who worked hard to get the audience to enjoy themselves and participate in the entertainment presented to them, Rob seemed to be enjoying himself and enjoyed a few ad-libs as well as his magnificent array of wigs in a rainbow of colours. He was ably assisted by young Sam Miles who played his comedy feed Jacques whose confidence grew as the show progressed, this pair gave much to the humour and entertainment of the whole show. Further comedy was given by the well-cast sisters Whitney, Rebecca Hornett and Britney, Lynne Martin they had some good lines but could have been a bit nastier to their sister. The onion routine to help them with their crocodile tears was great fun. The other ‘comedy’ duo were hairdresser/beautician Marcella and Monique by Anna (credited as either Anna Greenhill or Anna Nicholls in the programme) and Mia Holley. These two were taking the role of the traditional baddies, but the script didn’t allow them to be horrible baddies.

The mainly young chorus, only nine strong were suitable drilled in both their singing by Kathy and their choreography by Lauren and Amy, kept straight forward, this worked as they all kept in time with both rhythm and movement, one or two with good voices as indicated by the fact they were allowed radio mics. There was a nice played small role for Kathy Philipot as Madame Le Fou,

Scenery was very good, two very nice back cloths, and a magnificent set of gates to the castle, use of two different levels on the stage and one or two clever little techie features, particularly the tea trolley moving itself across the stage and the use of an LCD screen depicting various images in scenes in the castle. The Beauty Parlour scene was a good set, however the scene seemed out of place in the show.This was a well costumed production, with many changes for Madame Fifi  and a good Beast costume, sound on the whole was good although there were some blips with volume and lighting errors with the spot, these I am sure will have improved throughout the run. If there is a suggestion it would be that the scene changes and blackouts were quite long, maybe a bit of incidental music could be played while these are taking place.  DADS always make use of the fact that performers can appear from either the side or rear of the hall and this was no exception with the company attacking the castle by coming through the auditorium. The choice of songs was good, they were kept brief and to the point however the finale was a little long, I thought that the story and show was coming to an end at about 10pm and then it was nearly 10.20pm before it ended. 

Overall as a first for both Producer and Director Pantomime, I have to say that as someone who prefers to appear in a Pantomime rather than to watch one, this was an enjoyable and well presented production and I thank you for your invitation to come and review this show.

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