Malvern Festival Theatre – until 1st January 2023
Reviewed by Julie Bellerby
3***
Beauty and The Beast produced by Martin Dodd of UK Productions, are well known for their musicals and pantomimes. This script I thought was weak, the ‘current’ jokes were not very funny, with the audience barely raising a laugh at a couple of them. There were a lot of sexual innuendo, of course usually in pantomimes, but for me, it was too frequent.
The creative team of Lexie Ward – Director, Cameron MacDonald – Choreographer, Abigail Warne – Wardrobe Supervisor all deserve a mention for excellent designs, along with the many support staff, to many to list, making this pantomime look impressive.
The cast were excellent, a few first night nerves to begin, but quickly over, and funny recoveries from stage ‘mishaps’ all added to the production.
Belle played by Olivia Birchenough was strong and confident from the start with great stage presence and an equal match with Shaun Dalton as The Beast who’s voice was strong and clear. With a long list of credits for both musicals and pantomimes he played an amazing Beast. When the Beast was released from his spell, he gave an impressive change to become the Prince.
Phil Atkinson, playing Hugo Pompidou, the arrogant young man who considered he owned the Village of Camembert and the best person for Belle to marry, kept me laughing throughout by his movements and agility. Perfectly cast in this role, a very versatile actor in both Stage and Television.
Mark James is becoming a fixture in Pantomime at Malvern Theatre, this, his fifth and always playing the fool, bought his own style of humor with the memorable songs and catch phrases re Jigged each year. This year as Louis La Plonk, the son of Polly, the Beasts cook, he was on great form and much loved by the audience.
Polly, played by Leon Craig is an amazing Dame, carrying off the costumes with grace. He is well practiced as a Dame, with over 15 Pantomime Dames to his name.
Melanie Walters playing Fairy Bon Bon and David Alcock as Clement, Belle’s Father gave good performances, unfortunately, a little hard to hear the words of their songs as the music overpowered their voices.
Villagers were Olivia Ferro, Chris Gray, Kathy Bancroft, Lily Dyde, Beau Prance, Talia Webby, all beautifully rehearsed supported by the children from Cecilia Hall Dance Centre who’s younger dancers bought the cuteness to the pantomime, and the older children were amazing dancers, a joy to watch.
The scenery was designed by Jon Harris and Jason Bishop. The scene changes were completed using mainly backdrop curtains with the Castle having structures on stage which were impressive.
Overall, I was saddened by the weak script to give this three stars, the actors performance was five star quality, lets keep pantomimes traditional, the cries of “he’s behind you” “ there’s a ghost” and Mark’s own “where’s me mates” are all good old fashioned traditional fun. Oh yes it is!