Beauty and the Beast

Although I am very familiar with Alans scripts, having directed them myself over many years, this was a new one on me, so I was very interested to see it.  Although the very basic storyline is the same as the well-known Disney musical of the same name, that’s as far as similarities get. Belle is still harassed by the annoying Gustave (re-named from Gaston) and is still held captive in the Beasts castle. We still meet her father, but there is no mention of the various castle residents such as Lumiere. However, we do have the usual panto ingredients of a comic pair, a comic character, and good and bed elements, with more than a hint of Cinderella in the story.

As usual Shaldon had amassed an excellent group of principals who were very impressive especially with their vocal abilities.

Nicola Dale was a lovely gentle, but ultimately feisty Belle and was a perfect principal girl character. Liam Doyle spent much of the show in the beast’s mask but cut quite a dash as Prince Danton. Roger Matanle presented a genial fatherly figure as Alphonse, belles’ father.

One of the biggest roles in the show is that of the Dame, Madame Fifi, played with glee and lots of energy by Ian Clatworthy. He sported a great array of costumes and wigs and had much interaction with the audience.

The annoying Gustave was given just the right amount of arrogance by Tom Holcombe and a good contrast to him was the perkiness of Jessie Prior as Jacques (the equivalent of the simple Simon type character).

I really enjoyed the contribution of Whitney and Britney who were a sort of ugly sister combination as belles’ sisters. Played by Vanessa Hurley and Jess Kemp these two revelled in their self-centred selfishness, only interested in what they can get from any situation.

Another double act was Marcel and Monique, owners of the beauty salon frequented by Whitney and Britney. Shaun Gourley played Marcel as super camp, getting more excited by the men than the girls and Monique was the straight stooge. They were very entertaining.

Good and bad were represented by Josie Parkin as Flora and Cat Chadwick as Belladonna. Although their appearances were few, they certainly made their mark with some superb vocals.

The part of Le Fou, appearing only later in the show was, for show week played very effectively by Darren Wright who took over at dress rehearsal due to Andrew Swinbank testing positive for Covid.

There were some excellent musical numbers and it was difficult to believe that Ian Davies was acting as an MD for the first time. He had control of a really excellent band and there was a great choice of musical numbers which were all kept to a short length and were full of energy and bounce. Choreography suited the strengths of the cast and was well drilled and well thought through. The dancers, especially, made their mark with some nifty moves. Niamh did a great job for one so young.

The joint directing team of Linsie and Jackie kept the action moving at a cracking pace. Only once or twice were there some quiet spots and only one or twice did the action flag just a little. There were musical play ons and play offs a plenty, scenes were linked together by music and they had ensured that there was a racy feel to the action.

Scenery was excellent. Lovely cloths courtesy of PPP, and other set pieces courtesy of scenery solutions. I especially liked the beauty parlour scene which was a new one on me and was very entertaining. Costumes too were colourful and suitable. Aided by excellent lighting and effects, the overall visual feel of a Shaldon panto just gets better and better.

Anyone familiar with Alans scripts will recognise much of the content of this script, but that matters not as it contains all the ingredients necessary for a pantomime that the audience will love and their reaction at the final curtain told the cast all they needed to know.

I know that Linsie and Jackie had many sleepless nights dealing with Covid during the rehearsal process and show week (tell me about it – I have first hand knowledge of directing during the pandemic) but all their worry was more than offset by the satisfaction of a great final result and no cancelled performances !

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