Beauty and the Beast

It was good to see the attractive flats from ‘1001 Arabian Nights’ being used in your latest production, the pantomime ‘Beauty and the Beast’ and I really liked the way that the story progressed and the scenes were set by turning the pages of the back-drop ‘book’ - a super idea.

‘Dance, Dance, Dance’ made a bright and engaging number to start the pantomime and the young dancers from TPA enhanced the presentation, as they did throughout the first act. It was very fortunate that this year there was a full complement of dancers. A couple of the routines were rather long but no doubt the parents and relatives enjoyed them tremendously. The girls added to the overall enjoyment of the pantomime and quite clearly also add greatly to the number of seat sales!

In the role of Beauty, (Rose) Madeleine Sparks gave a first-rate performance in both her acting and singing. Lara Parker was excellent as Prince Christophe/The Beast. She has a completely natural and relaxed way of presenting her character and her duet with Rose was lovely.

The baddie of the piece, Mirabelle, was played by Lianne Dempsey who made an unusually glamorous witch and gave a sound performance. The Dame usually gets most of the laughs in panto but maybe the script didn’t give Ziggy Wesolowski much opportunity. Perhaps more dialogue/business could have been written in for him so that he had more comedic content. Nevertheless he did what he could with the role, and the make-up and costume were bright and traditional. His Madonna bra was most impressive!

Suzi Dawes brought the cat Felix to life and her actions/reactions were very good – the tail wagging to involve the audience was a novel idea and the audience enjoyed it. As Capucine, Ela Wesolowska acquitted herself well in her stage debut and always had a smile for the audience. Aidan Bolton made a rather young Jacques but was secure in the role.

The ‘furniture’ was wonderful and my compliments go to whomsoever designed the pieces - brilliant!

The dressing table (Kim Owen), The Lamp (Paula James) Chest of Drawers (Ron Millinger), Rug (Bartolemiej Wesolowski) all added wonderfully to the production, I loved the Rug throwing himself down onto the floor - so nimbly too - and special mention for Derek Stringer who was praiseworthy as The Clock. He played the role so dead-pan, got a lot of humour out of it and engaged the audience. I really enjoyed his character.

Aimee and Remi, played by Janice Germishuys and Robert Hardy respectively added to the production and played the supporting roles with confidence.

Without the visual addition of the dancers to break up the dialogue the pace dropped somewhat in Act Two.

The stage crew had quite a job setting up the stage for some of the scenes but they did it quickly and quietly and it was a nice touch to have them wearing glittery tabards.

Sound and lighting, by Graeme Bendall were very good.

There is no mention of costume supplier in the programme. They were suitable for the characters and the dressier ones were very attractive indeed.

The snow effect was good and the mirroring between the Beast and Felix worked really well.

The choice of music was enjoyable and although some songs were unknown to me, they were clearly popular with the younger element in the audience. ‘Reach for the Stars’ was a great opportunity for the audience to join in with the cast.

Props and furniture were appropriate for the piece.

Director Mary Greco presented an entertaining, colourful traditional pantomime.

Your programme cover is eye-catching and the contents interesting to read.

Thank you for inviting me to see ‘Beauty and the Beast’  and thanks to David for his hospitality on the evening. It was good to see so many familiar faces, both on and off stage, and to have the opportunity to chat with Sophie during the interval.

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