The pantomime season has kicked off in grand model with a really magical gem at Eastwood Park Theatre. Beauty and the Beast takes the easiest of conventional panto and stirs in some intelligent touches and trendy updates, all combined in with a implausible forged whose chemistry is palpable. I’d get a ticket as shortly as attainable earlier than phrase of mouth will get round.
There is a tangible feeling of pleasure within the air earlier than curtain up, the auditorium is full of a demographic that goes from round 2 years to 92 years. As a outcome there’s a heat and welcoming environment earlier than a phrase has been uttered.
There is way to like right here: the costumes are glitzy, the performing and singing first-rate, the forged’s comedy chops are implausible, the set-pieces are completely executed and the motion is various in tempo and tone in order that the eye by no means wavers. It is testomony to the forged and the writing that all the viewers was enraptured for over two and a half hours and the time flashed by at supersonic pace.
The total manufacturing appears wealthy with spectacularly detailed costumes and intelligent use of backdrops and lighting. There’s a lot to curiosity the attention all through.
The best credit score to the manufacturing is its forged. Chiara Sparkes is a energetic, feminist Belle, and Titus Rowe has as a lot smarm as allure because the story’s equal to Gaston, the splendidly named Bouffant du Quiff. Jamie Lemetti may be very Doc Brown from Back to the Future as Belle’s inventor father Maurice, however the stand-out among the many forged, and the glue that binds all the present is Aidan MacColl as Lumiere, now an electrician somewhat then a candelabra, with an armoury of one-liners and on-point bodily comedy.
This is a present that may soften the toughest of hearts, there’s completely no smut or innuendo, simply intelligent jokes and manic power. The adults will (and did) have as a lot of a blast because the tiniest viewers members. I can’t suggest it extremely sufficient. An straightforward 5 stars.
Runs till 31 December 2023 – ticket info here
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