Beauty and the Beast

Beauty & the Beast

Theatre4all

2/2/25

This is Theatre4all’s second Pantomime in their new venue, they have really settled in well. The excitement was tangible by the Grandparents, Parents, Siblings and friends, the Town  Hall was a buzz of anticipation. The Pantomime Beauty & the Beast is one of the most popular, known for the statement ‘a tale as old as time’, written by Ben Crocker this story has additional characters for us to love.

Fairy Flambe (Zoe Aldcroft) opened the show telling us the story of Beauty & the Beast, with a powerful rendition of ‘Wonderful World’, what an amazing strong voice she has. We meet Felix (Ticky Bamford) a Giant French poodle, and Jacques (Jonny Young) who is Beauty’s brother, also a dog trainer!! Their duet ‘Hound Dog’ is great fun. We meet Capucine (April Collings) Jacque’s love interest.  Ma (Juie Withe) is Rose’s Mum, then there is Rose (Jennifer Tyler), who the family call ‘Beauty; ‘We are Family’ group number.  What of Prince Christopher/Beast (Ryan Williams) another amazing voice, great stage presence. Where is the villain, Malabelle (Sophie Fellows) exploded onto the stage, ‘One Way or Another’ what an entrance, the audience booing and hissing, they loved her.

Then we are on our way to the Beasts Castle with the family in search of Beauty, were we meet the inhabitants, and unusually ‘talking’ furniture!!  Dusty Spring-clean (Binny Williams) the diligent housekeeper, loved her rendition of ‘I only want to clean with You’ priceless.  Eddie Clockran (Alison Brown) a trusty time-piece, Max Bylight (James Woodfin) a witty candle, Mrs Potts (Stuart Thompson) everyone’s favourite cuppa. Then we have the large framed picture Aimee (Charlotte Tyler) and Remy (Kathy Daly), who overlook the young performers Chest of Drawers (Morgan Bamford), Table (Lucas Donaghy) Mini Lamp (Orlando Collings) Mini Dusty (Amber Fellowes). Who were all splendid.

Directors Liz Sharpe, April Collings and Hayley Bamford did a great job with the stage space available, so too did the choreographers Alison Brown and April Collings. The simple set design worked well as did the beautiful colourful costumes,’ well done Ticky Bamford and Stu Thompson. Well supported by the hardworking backstage crew, Zoe, Emma and Joel. This Panto had such lively well produced musical score led by Musical Director Nikki Ruscoe, supported by the talented Hayley Bamford, Steve Rooney and Chris Legerton, with popular songs i.e. ‘Rock around the Clock’, ‘ Hound Dog’ the full cast which included Anne Salmon and Danny Morgan ( adult chorus), Love’, ‘Do Wah Diddy’ and a personal favourite of mime ‘The Rose’. A highlight for me was Ryan Williams, bringing tears to many eyes with an emotional delivery of ‘Sound of Silence’ congratulations Ryan.

What makes pantomime: a story of good versus evil, family friendly jokes, larger than life characters, colourful costumes, a Panto Dame (Ma), a believable villain, lots of audience participation and of course a great cast. This production from this delightful family orientated community theatre group.

Thank you for my invitation, it was a lovely evening, looking forward to the next production

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Joanne Rymer

NODA

District 4

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