Beauty And The Beast Jr

Audlem Theatre Company kindly invited me along to their youth production of Beauty and the Beast Jr, which they put together in only 1 week! Over the course of the week, the cast and crew had just 18 hours of rehearsals before opening the curtain for their audiences. Laurie Shillito and Trevor Hough were the directors for the production and I really enjoyed some of the choices made in terms of staging. The ensemble exiting through the audience for “Kill The Beast” was particularly effective. I also appreciated the decision to bring the narrators, and some scenes, forwards in front of the curtains to allow for set changes to happen, but this also meant the cast further forwards could be heard more clearly by the audience.

Em Norris was the musical director for the production. While most of the ensemble vocals were good, there were a lot of timing issues throughout where the cast ended up out of sync with the tracks, but they soon found their way back. A stand out moment in the show musically was “Be Our Guest” – the ensemble sounded great and performed with confidence and high energy. The choreographer was Lizzie Abou Chedid who obviously had clear visions for the movement within the show. However, this was not always executed well by the cast with many larger ensemble numbers looking a little chaotic. I particularly enjoyed the choreography for Be Our Guest, this was such a high energy number with lots going on.

The main scenery used throughout were large curtains along the back wall of the stage, pulled across to reveal different settings throughout the story. These backdrops were stunning and gave a real elegant feel to the production. The changing of the backdrops was not always seamless with them occasionally getting caught, but the stage crew played this off really well, giving some hilarious moments throughout. There were several flats used to show different settings too, all pulled out from the sides of the stage and offering several locations. This was a clever use of set and took away the need to bring a lot of items in from offstage.

Unfortunately the sound for the production did let it down slightly. The microphones were not well balanced with the backing tracks meaning that the cast were sometimes drowned out. Similarly the ensemble overpowered Lumiere during “Be Our Guest” and, while they sounded good, Lumiere’s vocals could not be heard. Not all cast members were given microphones which is completely understandable, however a number of those that did not have mics didn’t quite project enough and a lot of dialogue was lost.

For me, costumes were one of the standout elements of the show. There were a couple of ensemble members whose leggings/socks displayed brand logos which were quite obvious, however the costumes overall looked great. Those worn by the Beast and his Household were very impressive and helped keep up with the elegance shown by the backdrops. The make up used for these characters was also effective and looked great on stage. Personally, I would have liked to have seen more of a change between costumes when the Household turn human, but completely understand the limitations of both quick changes and putting on a show in just 1 week!

Amelie Furber took on the role of Belle with confidence and grace in every step. Her movements throughout were lovely and all performed with purpose. She really captured the essence of the character and portrayed a lovely soft side to Belle. Some dialogue was delivered too quickly at times, however on the whole this was a lovely performance from Amelie. The Beast was played by Riley Morris who has a great stage presence and was able to play both the intimidating and kind sides of the Beast well. There were a lot of times when Riley was performing with their back to the audience, but this was a good performance overall.

Jackson Hodgkins did a great job as Gaston, giving high energy levels throughout. His vocals were strong, along with his comedy timing – especially his improv when the music didn’t start on cue! A great performance. Alongside Jackson as Gaston’s right hand man, Lefou, was Oscar Hodgkins. Oscar’s stage presence was great and his delivery of comedic lines was spot on from start to finish. A great comedy duo!

Lumiere and Cogsworth were played well by Maisie Baker and Olivia Bottomley. Both brought lots of personality to their characters and had great reactions to the scenes around them. The 2 young actors who stole the show for me were Emelia New as Mrs Potts and Alice Avemaria as Chip. Emelia played Mrs Potts with an authentic maternal and caring manner, and displayed stunning vocals in her performance of “Tale As Old As Time”. Alice as Chip had the whole audience in love with the character, giving high energy and some really sweet moments throughout. Her facial expressions were spot on! A lovely pairing who acted really well together.

On the whole, the ensemble did well given that they had only one week to prepare for the show. There were a lot of forgotten lines throughout and moments where the cast were having to discuss what they needed to do, but having brought elements together in such a short space of time must be recognized as a great achievement.

The cast and crew should be proud of themselves for pulling together a full scale stage production in a week, with some more fine tuning and practice, this production had the potential to be outstanding.

Thank you to Audlem Theatre Company for the invite and their kind hospitality, and I wish them the best of luck with their future productions.

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