Beauty and the Beast Jr

There was an almost full house seated to watch four narrators coming out to tell the tale and as the curtains opened on the fore stage, we were shown the Prince arrogantly dismissing the Enchantress and so the show began.

There were unfortunately some technical problems with the sound, voices were heard off stage occasionally, we had a very long scene change. From where I was seated, I could occasionally see into the wings, some of the music stopped very abruptly and not all the household objects appeared in Human clothing for the final scene. However, overall, this was a good show with good young artistic and dramatic talent on show.

The Curtains opened revealing a bustling village scene full of characters and colourful costumes here we meet Alice Hornsby as Belle, this was a nicely played role with some great singing, a nicely performed ‘Belle’ with Gaston and the villagers, the audience were taken with Belle from the start, Alice also had a good song with ‘Home’ and a nicely sung ‘Something There’ alongside the Beast and the household servants. Alice interacted well with her fellow Principals and had a good stage presence and voice; she gave us a really good performance and looked a lovely Belle. In the opening scene we also meet Imogen Coote’s Gaston, this was a good take on the village brute, well played and sung, Imogen was really suited to this role. Gaston was greatly supported by his side kick Le Fou, well played by Dylan Whiting who had great comic timing and was also well suited to the role, he was clearly happy to throw himself around the stage and much more relaxed in his performance. These two had a clear rapport and gave us a good duet with ‘Gaston’. Gracie Blackshields gave us a good interpretation of Maurice Belle’s mad inventor father and played her role well.

Maurice is the first to meet the Beast’s servants all turning into household objects in a well performed scene as he entered the castle having been lost in the forest. Here we met six well played roles, this set of casting was quite inspirational, they worked well together and with the Beast and Belle. Harriet Pooley a well-played Lumiere, very good stage presence. Little Jacob Marshall as the longcase clock Cogsworth gave us an entertaining performance with great timing. There was the looming presence of Lucy McDonald as Madame de la Grande Bouch moving her enormous costume around the stage with grace and style. Dulcie Garton gave a warm performance as the caring Mrs Potts alongside Emily Casey as Chip, the French maid Babette was played with a French accent by Freya Pontin. These gave us the touching rendition of ‘Something There’ and the more wishful ‘Human Again’ and of course the big company number ‘Be Our Guest’ which filled the stage and hall with dancers and singers, cutlery, plates and a wonderful sense of fun. Dulcie had a good strong solo with the song ‘Beauty and the Beast’.

From the time that Maurice entered the castle we had the Beast. This was a powerful performance by Brandon Green, first seen as the arrogant Prince, looking quite handsome in the Prince’s costume. Turning into the fearsome beast he had a magnificent mask and horns (a shame it didn’t cover more of his face). He came across as very angry all the time however Brandon gave us a great performance, surprisingly he does not have a solo number but his singing with the servants was good. It was good to see him so much in control of his role and he and Alice had some great scenes together as well as the roles with the servants

We had some nice supporting roles, the three Les Filles de la Ville, Monsieur D’Arque and a nice dance as the Enchantress by Sophie Mycock, nicely performed.

The wardrobe department had worked hard on with great costumes, good make-up, very good singing, thanks Sheena. Although a large cast the stage was not overcrowded due to the stage extension and using the floor of the hall allowing good choreography and staging. I did like the Beast and Belle’s dance. There was a good set which changed seamlessly from Castle to Village and a special mention to Tim Casey, the creator of Maurice’s Machine.

Well done to Penny, Beccy, Frances and Sheena, all the crew behind the scenes and to the cast.

Leslie Judd

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