Beauty & the Beast Pantomime

The sets looked great and flowed well as scenes to fill the changes were played out in front of the tabs which worked well.  There was a lot of new lighting which added a different dimension to this years pantomime. The show used backing tracks rather than live music but to no detriment to the show. There was a good mix of pop music, musical theatre and film music in the show. The costumes looked fabulous and the sound was great.

Lesley Downey played a great Grotbag the Witch encouraging the booing and always having a putdown for the audience. In contrast Ruth Murray was a lovely Fairy Sweetheart with clear diction which for the storytelling parts are so crucial. Joe Clegg put in a good performance as Snot-Gobbler making the children laugh and the parents groan every time he picked his nose.

Belle was played beautifully by Catherine Humphries who delivered her lines well and had a lovely tone to her singing voice. The Beast was well played by Tony Mooney who had some nice routines front of tabs with other actors .The transformation routine was brilliantly done and much comedy was made of the difference  in height between Tony as the Beast and Gary Greenwood as the Prince who played the part very well.

Piff and Paff were the comedy stooges dressed as fella’s in bowlers, suits and moustaches. They were played brilliantly by Jade Veevers and Michelle Cust and set up many of the great lines for the two lead parts.

Silly Billy played by Tony Cenci and Dame Wanda played by Carole Griffiths were very funny and some of the routines were very ad-libbed which added to the humour. There were some lovely comedy touches including singling out a member of the audience who got asked his opinion on many scenes and then got the blame when things went wrong. Great performances that had me and my guest chuckling on the way home.

The show was great fun with some lovely performances by the principals. Everyone on the stage was having a wonderful time and this continued into the audience who had a fantastic night out. Well done to Rebecca for her direction and choreography as I came out singing the songs and giggling about the jokes and generally had a great  night out.

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