Richmond Theatre – until Sunday 5th January 2025
Reviewed by C Burlinge
4****
Richmond Theatre brings you this year’s pantomime, Beauty and the Beast, written by Alan McHugh and directed by Paul Robinson. Based on the well-known Disney classic, Belle’s birthday has arrived and all she would like is a single red rose, like her father used to give her. Her mother goes to the nearby castle to find a rose, unaware that the castle and its master, Prince Sebastian, are enchanted. The Prince is now a Beast, cursed by an enchantress, who has to learn that true beauty lies within and find true love before the last petal on a magic rose falls in order to lift the curse. Can the spell be broken? Or is the Prince destined to live as a beast forever?
Silly Billy (Pete Firman) is Belle’s (Hope Dawe) best friend, who works in the castle with his mum Mrs Potty (Maureen Lipman), but he is secretly in love with Belle. Belle also has to fend off the unwanted affections of Flash Harry (Jason Leigh Winter) who is vain, arrogant and out to destroy the Beast in order to win Belle’s heart.
Silly Billy makes a memorable entrance onto the stage in the dark, on what appears to be a motorbike, but is in fact the first of many classic panto gags. Billy is a lovable character whose cheesy jokes, magic tricks and pantomime humour had the audience laughing, and participating in the performance, both adults and children alike. Mrs Potty and Betty Bouffant (Ben Stock) Belle’s mum are the quintessential pantomime dames, with bright, gaudy and flamboyant costumes, wigs and tongue-in-cheek one-liners. Both are entertaining characters and bounce off of each other and Billy in the scenes they share, with some very memorable moments. A special mention must be made of their highly comical tongue twister, which whilst impressive in itself, became even funnier when the three were unable to keep a straight face and complete their lines!! Despite this being every actor’s worst nightmare, together they were able to continue the scene with quick thinking ad-libbed one liners, whilst in fits of laughter, which caused the audience to laugh even harder.
Flash Harry absorbed every single boo and hiss from the audience with obvious enjoyment, even encouraging the audience to shout louder. His pursuit of Belle was as obvious as you would expect, oozing blind self-confidence in how attractive he was and of course how he was clearly the only romantic choice for Belle.
In comparison, Prince Sebastian / the Beast (Luke McCall) was Flash Harry’s polar opposite – when he stopped roaring! Both Flash Harry and Prince Sebastian have strong singing voices and played their roles well.
Belle was as lovable a character as you would expect, with a lovely singing voice and cheery disposition. The story was narrated by The Enchantress (Cherece Richards), who also acted as a reminder to Prince Sebastian of his goal, lack of progress and sometimes conscience. The Enchantress had a very powerful singing voice which was highlighted very well in a number of songs.
The costumes were very creative, especially the ones the ensemble cast used to portray the wolf attack!
This production was classically entertaining, with a certain charm, which took me back to my childhood, and whilst it didn’t blow the audience away it is a great example of wholesome pantomime fun for the whole family.