Beauty and the Beast

How do you review a show that before you have even seen the show, so many people tell you that it was very good, superb, excellent etc. Well, I would have to see for myself.

As I took my seat, on the stage there looked like a large screen, what was that for? Well, I soon found out, the start of the show has the handsome Prince rejecting the old Hag and being bewitched as the beast, often difficult to portray. The screen became a shadow theatre as the story was narrated, and as the old hag threw off her cloak the enchantress appeared as a beautiful lady and the Prince emerged from the darkness. As the village was revealed the screen rotated and lifted up to be the canopy of a village shop with a village wall behind. This was not the only clever piece of set design, the wall behind was articulated and could be fully opened up to reveal the interior of the Beast’s castle or when closed and with clever lighting was not only setting for village scenes but also the forest. This was an amazing set design and with an excellent lighting plot gave so much to the performance. My only disappointment was that the magical rose did not lose any petals.

The performances throughout matched the quality of the set, with mainly excellent costumes all made by the inhouse wardrobe team, really well done and worth the hard work. The Make-up team had also done a wonderful job with the Beast and Lumiere with wonderful wigs as well. Amy L had done a thoughtful and interesting choreography throughout and the sequence with the beer ‘tankards’ was clever and excellently done. There was little to fault here and all done on a small busy set. Amy P had been hard a work with the company and principals to give a wonderful sound with the vocals much helped by very ‘professional’ solo singing.

A show such as this, much loved and known as it is requires great performances and the audiences were not to be disappointed as we saw the principals appear, they all gave great performances, unusually I will not list the songs that each character sung as they are all well known. Let’s look at the characters, Danielle as Belle was well portrayed, dismissive of Gaston, loving and caring towards her father and later to the Beast having come to love him, but initially showing a real antipathy towards him with no fear. Rowan’s portrayal of the beast gave great movements and shrugs and grunts, very much the agony of a tortured soul who knew what he needed but was unable to express it, this was a very real beast. Kevin’s Maurice was a gentle, amiably loving father whose love for his daughter shone through in all he did. In contrast Joe as Gaston was a truly self-centered creation, full of his attraction to the women folk, proud to show off his best features, this was a performance that commanded the stage and his presence filled the theatre, a truly awful man but a truly good performance as he strutted across the stage. I wasn’t struck on the idea of a female Lefou but Izzy put any qualms to rest, she had a great sense of timing giving us some truly funny moments and had a good relationship with Gaston, she evidently enjoyed this role. And so, we come to the almost human objects, the terribly flirtatious Babette played with fun by Natalie how she flitted across the stage coyly chasing Lumiere.

Of all the characters Matt as Lumiere had so much fun, a greatly humorous role giving us a slightly camp character who had nothing but fun baiting Gogsworth and pricking his pomposity. How pompous was Liam’s Cogsworth, he knew his place and that was to keep the household in order, doing it with style but not always succeeding, many funny lines well delivered, but I wished he had been a bit more panicked when he discovered the key sticking out of his back. Jo’s Mrs Potts was a wonderful tender and caring portrayal looking out for her son Chip and always looking out for and encouraging Belle keeping her spirits up. The biggest name on stage and the biggest costume was Madame Grande Bouche, she also has the loudest voice as a self-confessed star of Opera and Aimee filled the part. Bridie was a young Chip using again her puppetry skills and then we had the three Les Filles de la Ville, Becky, Laura and Maddy each having developed their own characters as they competed with each other as they chased Gaston.

There were some wonderful company numbers, the opening Belle number, the wonderful Be our Guest, the Mob Song. The most wonderful and poignant Human again (almost Human again), and the Beast’s If I can’t love her are my most liked songs of the show.

I have always loved this show and was honored to ‘Be a Guest.’ Congratulations to Marie. The whole production team and to the great cast, this was, as I had been told a very good, superb, excellent show.

Leslie Judd

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© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.