Beauty & the Beast

We were given a very warm welcome from Vernon and his front of house team to this Company of 4’s annual Pantomime Beauty and the Beast .  The story was originally written in 1740 and here Lily Jessica Griffiths has made her debut with both directing and writing this her first Panto.

The curtains opened to some traditional colourful sets, and with an incredible group of about 50 chorus and dancers.  It certainly gave them all an opportunity to shine, from the tiny little ones to the adult chorus and dancers. They were all enthusiastic with plenty of energy and smiling faces and they certainly did ‘Get this party started’.  All the choreographers had done a brilliant job with the different groups. I was most impressed with the acrobatics at the beginning, the beautiful ballet with the dancers in the forest scene and a CanCan routine that was exhausting to watch, never mind dance.   

As you can imagine with such a large cast the wardrobe department had certainly been very busy creating so many unique costume changes, many of which must have been especially designed for this show including the chorus of book people and mops.  The costumes for the ballet were also beautiful; the Tutus all fitted perfectly and added to the grace of the dancers.

The principals all did a grand job and got the audience cheering and shouting right from the start. Ellie Clarkson as Belle did well in this her first principal role as did Neil Thorpe as the Prince/Beast.

Paul Leech as the French Madam I’ll-Pour Teapot, played the  traditional dame and worked well with her two side-kicks Hazel Watts as  Crystal Chandelier and Freyer Marsh as Tick Tock. Must also give a mention to Neville Woolnough as the mad Professor and Kerri Anne Lees as the Enchantress, lovely performances.  Also nice cameos from Carl Friar as the very ‘Fonzish’ Pierre, Simon Hoyle as Henri, and Josie Temple as Mop; a very talented and professional cast. As always, a traditional Panto has to have the ‘its behind you’ scene and the slapstick cooking scene  which left everyone in fits of giggles when the Dame got an unexpected mouthful of talcum powder and was left coughing and spluttering. The principals all gave us some lovely songs, very well sung and too numerous to mention individually, accompanied by the band, under the direction of Jo King.      

Well done to Lily, all her cast and production team.  Don Spall would have been proud of you all, and our good wishes go to Paul Leech, as the new Chairman; a hard act to follow.

Thank you for inviting us, Derek and I had a lovely evening, and are looking forward to seeing your next production.

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