Beauty and the Beast

How lovely to be back reviewing pantomimes!  Pantos are so much a part of our comedy culture that it has been an even duller couple of years without them.

Beauty & the Beast was a good choice as it gave scope for the many characters found in the village of Franglais-Sur-Mer.  They were all there – the Principal Girl, the Prince, two not really ugly sisters, Whitney and Britney, (but very much ugly in character!), the Dame, the Good Fairy and the very Wicked Fairy together with all the other parts and chorus  so necessary to make things go with a swing.

Roses were much in evidence from the very first with the entrance of the enchanting Fairy Flora played with great charm by Paige Lynam and although it was not going to be roses all the way, we knew immediately that these lovely flowers were going to be extremely important when Belladonna, (Diane Harris) the epitome of wickedness and deserving many boos from the audience, pronounced her spell on the Prince in true Wicked Fairy form.

What can be said about the Dame?  Douglas Morgan was the redoubtable Madam Fifi who commanded the stage as every Dame should.

The beautiful Belle (charmingly played by Lauren Hollands), the handsome Prince (Chris Phipps), Belle’s two sisters (the not really ugly ones!) who were played with gusto by Vanessa Sergeant and Eilie Turk and who were really horrid to poor Belle.  And then we come to Dids Robinson-Sivyer as Alphonse who really believed he was God’s gift to women – great performance.  The Beast was well played by Ian Ward – a truly beastly beast.

Good fun was had with Marcel and Monique of the Beauty Parlour (Mike Cotton & Marilyn Chandler) and the rest of the cast including Dave Williams as Gustave and either Rob Taylor or Clive Hale as Jacques (not sure which one played the opening night) gave of their all to make sure that we, the audience, had a good time.

The costumes were really fabulous, especially the walk down outfits at the end of the proceedings, so congratulations to all those responsible for this essential part of any pantomime.  As always, the number of outfits worn by the Dame was amazing!

You are lucky to have such a large team of those responsible for the set build, props etc whose high standard of work gave us such a good set to admire with the many changes of scene.

The Panto Band of Judith Brooke and Phil Drew were a great accompaniment.  Director Clive Hale and all, whether on stage or behind the scenes, did an excellent job to brighten part of which has been a dull and trying time for all.

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