Beauty and the Beast

In the darkest reaches of the Brewhouse Arts Centre, Burton, we find ourselves in the midst of the ranks of sweet munching Brownie packs, more of which later. Beauty and the Beast the latest production from Burton Amateur Stage Entertainers gave us such a laugh and thankfully stuck firmly to the tradition of pantomime in the UK. Oh Yes it did!

Ellie Austin, as Belle, is the very epitome of all things lovely, inside and out seeing the good in everyone, beautifully portrayed role, befittingly sweet voiced as well. Spot on.

The Prince, Emma Phillips and Martin Goodall as The Beast, had a real stage presence.

Nanny Nightnurse, Chris Knight exuded Dameness, cheeky, bawdy approach to the humour throughout, which personally I feel is the very essence of pantomime

Keirain Swann as self centred egotist Gaston could have swaggered more for me, other than that he was pretty nasty, the confusion and utter disbelief he portrayed as Belle completely bamboozled him by not falling at his feet as all the other girls did was brilliant. Aided and abetted by Nick Holburn as Le Fou.

Professor Philippe, Karl Forst, wonderfully absent minded, we live in that direction having walked off in the opposite direction.

Gemma East revelled in her baddie role as Sacre Blue, looking almost too gorgeous in her amazing costume as the 'old hag' turned enchanted sorceress, running her pack of evil wolves and generally making mischief whenever she could, I loved her wickedness.

One of our funniest moments came late in Act II (Spoiler Alert!!) Good triumphs over evil, courtesy of Spirit of the Mirror, June Austin. When asked what shall we do with Sacre Blue boys and girls? to be fair mainly girls, remember the brownies I mentioned earlier, they were now into pack mentality themselves, whipped into a sugar induced frenzy of 'Brownie Justice' a uniting cry echoed loud around us “KILL HER!!”

Brie - Peter Bourne, who can almost do this in his sleep, seemed genuinely surprised at the response. He comes over as very relaxed as if it's easy for him, which we all know means he puts lots of work into. Excellent slapstick with Nanny Nightnurse and Forchette, Sharon Hughes.

The comedy duo of Sale and Poivre, Sarah Goodall and Jodie Swann worked very well together good timing and interaction between them and the rest of the cast.

Directors Lynda Freeman and Pam Holburn brought us a cracking show, slightly slow paced in the first twenty minutes but romped nicely once the Brownies warmed up.

Choreographers Sam Uche and Callie Burley. Used their dancers well integrated with the chorus and leads well, as usual keyboard accompanist Alex Priestly performing admirably.

Costumes were stunning, the sound much improved with the use of personal microphones and changes were fantastic.

Beauty and the Beast is a magical pantomime, the audience loved it despite the baying for blood from those pesky Brownies. Thank you BASE, Keeping the Great British Pantomime in a safe pair of hands.

 

 

 

 

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