King’s Theatre, Edinburgh – Until 20th January
Reviewed by James Knight
4****
There’s lights, massive costumes, colourful sets and laughs galore. Get ready folks, panto season is in full swing.
And it’s a tale as old as time at the King’s this year, as Beauty and the Beast gets the panto treatment. We all know the story by now – a prince is cursed to live out his days as a hideous beast unless he learns to love and that love is returned. Chris Cowley is on great form as the Beast, as is Gillian Parkhouse as Belle, the young woman from the village who captures his heart.
But as much work as they put in, it’s really Allan Stewart as Mrs Potty and Grant Stott as Flash Boaby that steal the show. Missing the third member of their usual comedy trio, Andy Gray, who’s taken leave of this year’s panto due to illness, Stewart and Stott gamely carry on. And carry on they do. The jokes fire across the stage like the many pyros, barbs are traded with the audience, and audience plants are used to great effect (this contributed to possibly one of my most favourite gags that I’ve ever seen in a panto, or any show, but to spoil it ruin the surprise – let’s just say it happens during the traditional ‘cloot’ segment). And of course, no panto would be complete without a little bit of improvisation (Flash Boaby noted after Mrs Potty made fun of his singing that he was getting brave on only ‘day five’), or a few mistakes here and there (a missing trumpet as part of a running gag, a couple of accidents when talking about Shirley Shaw sitting and shining shoes – what’s the bets there’s a tally in the green room for whoever mucks up the worst?), which of course only adds to the hilarity.
The emphasis on the gags, as is typical with most big budget pantos, tends to mean that story only occasionally makes an appearance, and because everyone knows the story, sometimes this can be treated as ‘the plot sections need something flashy to keep the audience interested’, which in in turn leads to some rather odd moments. For example, Belle asks Beast to dance, cue Ed Sheeran’s ‘Thinking Out Loud’, which they then sing to each other, centre stage, while the ensemble does the actual dancing so the audience can admire the extravagant costumes everyone’s wearing.
Overall though, it’s a great night out, and only the most beastly of people would leave without a smile on their faces.