Beauty and The Beast. the panto

This Pantomime by Alan P Frayne wasn’t the usual traditional version of the story, but it contained all the usual boos and hisses and slapstick comedy. The full houses all week were well and truly entertained with excellent scenery ,colourful costumes, good singing ,and an excellent chorus made up of the junior members, not forgetting the excellent comedy routines headed by the funniest comedy duos in the north (in my opinion) Nic Browne and Nigel Thompson. They played Madame Fifi and Jacques  respectively. Nic was the Dame and had three sisters, Ermengarde and Esmeralda, played by Susan Wildon and Lucille Taylor respectively who were very good, and Belle, very well played by Emma Tomkinson, who eventually was the Beauty.  Jacques was in the Beauty salon along with Monique Monique played very well indeed by Anthea Richardson.  When Jacques and Fifi got together it was hilarious, much to the amusement of the children present.

The story resembled Cinderella in a way, with the two sisters all fancying the Prince Danton, well played by Aaron Turner, who made a short appearance at the beginning and eventually changed into the Beast.  Gustave, really well played by Roger Kiddle, had his eyes on Belle.  They all went into the woods to find the Prince along with Alphonse, the father of the girls, very well played indeed by Martin Holdsworth. On the way they came across  Monsieur Le Fou played, by Malcolm Brearley dressed like a professor, who arrested Alphonse and took him into the Castle to join Belle as prisoners. Then we came across the Beast, played by Chris Graham, who was very well made up, really hairy, a good job done by the make-up team.  We did have a Good Fairy delightfully played by Diane Henry once again, who guided them through all the problems, defying the bad fairy Belladonna, played by Tracie Birdsall very well, who went into the audience and scared the children and some of the adults, and received the usual boos and hisses. They all came out of the castle and it all ended very happily.  Belle won the Prince, and Gustave won the two sisters Ermengarde and Esmeralda.  We had two speciality acts. In the beginning when they all got to the castle, we had the black lighting with all sorts flying around which was very well done indeed.  Then Fifi and Jacques, on film went around Northallerton.

The small orchestra under the baton of Alan Owens was ideal and did a wonderful job. The stage crew are to be congratulated for the excellent scenery, the wardrobe, the lighting and sound effects all made this another great success.  Well done.  We are lucky to have such a company in our area. The good they do in donating to Charities is fantastic, having now raised over £108000 for local charities since 1979

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