Beauty and the Beast

When I received an invitation to ‘Be Our Guest’ how could I refuse, especially as I would see again some ‘Almost Human’ household objects. It was great to see this company performing to a full house.

Beauty and the Beast is such a well-known tale, could PODS provide another great telling of the story, well, yes, they could, so many elements came together to give an excellent production. The sticking point for some groups is the transformation scenes at the start and end of the show for the prince/beast. Here PODS had mastered this with the use of smoke, lights and body doubles giving the audience the magic of live theatre and of course the enchanted rose slowly dropping its petals, what more could children and adults alike want to see.

One of the elements, always there but sometimes overlooked is the Orchestra, so we must give congratulations to Steve Hession for the great music starting with the Overture and Prologue and right through to the Finale, a fantastic sound from this 10-piece orchestra which allowed all the Principals as well as the company to sing out. We had delightful renditions of all the songs, whether it be solos, duets, principal or company numbers.

Sarah Lynn as Belle was more than a match for either Andy Lingfield as Gaston and Andrew Whitaker as the Beast, these three principals lived up to their characters, Belle’s contemptuous dismissal of the self-centered narcistic Gaston, the care she showed for her elderly father Maurice played sympathetically by John Torr. Finally, her relationship with the beast, from utter dislike, the softening of her attitude to him and ultimately the compassion and love that she showed him with the touchingly sung ‘A Change in Me’. Sarah and Maurice gave a great rendition of ‘No Matter What’ she duetted wonderfully with Gaston in ‘Me’. Andy gave us a wonderful Gaston who we all loved to hate, posturing, posing and strutting through his scenes, leading the gang against the Beast. His repartee with the always entertaining Harvey Jones as Lefou gave some great comic scenes together and were given great direction, Harvey knows how to pull a face or two to great comic effect. A great rendition of the song ‘Gaston’ with the townsfolk. Andrew’s Beast was well portrayed, a great gruff voice becoming softer and more mellow as the story progressed, this was a great interpretation with well sung and interpreted ‘How long must this go on’ and ‘If I can’t love Her’, his inter actions against Belle and the Castle Staff were great.

These castle staff were excellently portrayed by Glen Whitmore as Cogsworth, Edward Smith as Lumiere, Jessica Carter as Babette, a great teapot and chipped cup with Amanda Villamayor as Mrs. Potts with George Barry as Chip, lastly Nikki Fraylich as the wonderfully named Madame de la Grand Bouch. These six gave the hauntingly beautiful ‘Something There’ and ‘Human Again’ (one of my favourite songs) great depth and feeling. The humour of these roles was so well displayed, worry of losing their humanity and then the hope for the future, Timing was great, costumes were outstanding and added greatly to the individual characteristics, I loved the way Mrs. Potts tripped around the stage pushing the tea trolley, my one regret was that this trolley was always straight on to the audience, a slight angle would have made have made Chip appear so much more engaged with his fellow ‘objects’ and less trying to peer round the teacup.

There was a well drilled company, all who knew their places, giving great pictures and well-designed grouping, their singing was strong and clear giving us amongst others the most wonderful ‘Be Our Guest’ with costumes, singing and choreography, also the opening number ’Belle’ and ‘The Mob Song’. The choreography for the Wolf Chase was imaginatively designed.  I had waited for ‘Masion de Lune’ not realising that it had been cut from this version in the 2021 release, after all It was 15 years since I had done the show.

The setting of this show with the use of great back cloths sweeping in and out and set pieces of scenery coming in and out was a joy to watch. Digital backdrops are great but don’t give the theatrical experience, the use of cast moving props and scenery was very efficient and unobtrusive, the moving set for the fight on the castle ramparts was so skillfully used, great use of smoke and pyrotechnics. A greatly dedicated and efficient back stage crew. Congratulations to Director Paul, Choreographer Michaela and Musical Director Steve and the whole company.

Thank you for inviting me to be your Guest.

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