Beauty and The Beast Archives - North West End UK

Beauty and the Beast – St Helens Theatre Royal

8Apr

By Luke StephensonNo Comments

North West

Beauty and the Beast – St Helens Theatre Royal

It’s time for a seasonal pantomime in St Helens and this spring offering is a Regal Entertainment’s version of Beauty and the Beast written by Liam Mellor and directed by Chantelle Nolan. As with all pantomimes here at Theatre Royal and I’ve reviewed many here it was full of audience interactions, audience participation and the odd on the fence joke with an audience member or two getting involved on stage. So, to the story, Fairy Rose (Maria Lovelady) came on to the stage to tell us all about the little town of petit pois. Gaston (Auguste Voulton) with his big muscles and charisma wanted to take Belle (Lauren McCrory) as his bride but she wasn’t interested and definitely didn’t want to marry him, so Gaston and his mother Madame Botox (Abigail Middleton) hatched a plan by slipping a pot...

1Jul

By Samantha CollettNo Comments

London

Beauty and the Beast – London Palladium

Extravagant. Exuberant. Exhilarating. I could expound so many other ‘E’s you’d feel as if you were on a hallucinogenic drug-induced trip. Which is exactly what it feels like watching the stupendously spectacular revival of Disney’s ‘Beauty and the Beast.’ The story needs no introduction, but if you’ve been hidden away for longer than the Covid pandemic, let me remind you: a handsome prince is rude to an old woman who turns him into a beast and the only way of escaping the spell is to find true love. In a nutshell, it’s a classic love story of finding beauty within. Fortunately for the audience, this production has beauty everywhere and I mean everywhere. It is stunning in its scenery (Stanley A. Meyer) and costumes (Ann Hould-Ward) and dripping with the sort of outrageously expensiv...

Disney’s Beauty and the Beast – Palace Theatre

7Apr

By Hazel BumbyNo Comments

North West

Disney’s Beauty and the Beast – Palace Theatre

Not entirely sure where to start with this at all. Oh, my word, from the welcome outside the theatre, red carpet treatment (technically for all the soap stars there, but we walked it anyway) a red rose per special guest/press and a small but scrummy rose fondant cupcake, to the buzz and excitement that seemed to be in every corner… As per usual The Palace Theatre is always on top note on press night and tonight was no exception. Well done to the Palace Theatre and your super staff. The show was incredible from start to finish and what a start it was with an incredibly famous voice kicking off the show off in style. The set was just wonderful with pieces moving seamlessly from one side to another either suspended in air or on the round. Sound and lighting were on point to...

Beauty and the Beast – Birmingham Hippodrome

10Mar

By Peter KinnockNo Comments

West Midlands

Beauty and the Beast – Birmingham Hippodrome

Disney has, for many years, been synonymous with quality family entertainment with works dating way back into the early part of the twentieth century which have woven themselves into the hearts and minds of children creating classics loved by successive generations. In recent years many of those works have found themselves translated to stage versions proving themselves a further cash cow for Mickey. Some may say this is just cynical cash-in exploiting previous works, but, oh, no, not I. It’s nearly thirty years since Disney’s renaissance with Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King brought the eye of the world back to their work and proved even sans Walt this company was going places! The theatrical wing of the business has proved itself time and again where Disney’s he...

22Dec

By Blathine MaguireNo Comments

North West

Beauty and the Beast – Epstein Theatre

With COVID having affected pretty much everyone and everything possible over the last 18 months, it is wonderful to see theatre’s such as Liverpool’s Epstein reopen its doors to do exactly what it does best: Entertain! This year, the Epstein pantomime is ‘Beauty and the Beast’ starring TV’s Ben Richards as ‘Gaston’. It has to be said in the first instance, that unfortunately, the wicked COVID spell was not far away and tonight, the leading man was replaced by Tom Fothergill, who was one of the cast’s senior dancers but stepped up to play ‘Gaston’ at the last minute. The same goes for the ‘Fairy’ who was replaced by the cast’s choreographer Nazene Langfield, with only around an hour and a half to go! First and foremost, congratulations to this team of experts for pulling off these chall...

6Dec

By Luke StephensonNo Comments

North West

Beauty and the Beast – Floral Pavillion

The festive season has started in New Brighton with the opening of Beauty and the Beast. Now when I review a show usually review it alone, but this seemed like too good of a chance to share the experience so I took along my god son because I could also get a child’s point of view on what the show was like. More on his thoughts later but first the story. It was set in the lovely French town of Camembert. Where Fairy Bon Bon played by (Melanie Walters from Gavin & Stacey). Told us the story of the Beast’s (Shaun Dalton) unfortunate event that had kept him hidden away in a dark castle in the woods. Within minutes of the first note being plucked we were mesmerised by the lights and magic beginning to unfold. We then met the wonderful Belle (Milkshakes Olivia Birchenough). Where she wou...

Beauty and the Beast – Leeds City Varieties

3Dec

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Beauty and the Beast – Leeds City Varieties

I say it every year - oh yes, I do - that the success of any panto depends on how good their Dame is and the Rock ‘n’ Roll Panto has one of the best purveyors of that quintessentially British mix of laughs and seasonal smut in Simon Nock. This is his fourth year at this historic city centre home of light entertainment and his Dame Bessie Bigbreaths - see what they did there - is a glorious mix of spraying out corny laughs for the children and some very near the knuckle gags for the not so young kids. He gets away with it - oh yes, he does - because he has charm to burn and times a gag well, combined with a wonderfully expressive raise of the eyebrow when the Dame has gone too far. This is the tenth year of the Rock ‘n’ Roll franchise in Leeds who have become the masters of integrati...

26Nov

By Coral MourantNo Comments

Wales

Beauty and the Beast – Theatr Clwyd

The Theatre Clwyd pantomimes are legendary in the local area. It's been a few years since I've been but I'm happy to say that it lives up to, and even exceeds all expectation. Tamara Harvey, in her first year as pantomime director, has kept to the winning formula and brought some festive cheer back to the theatre. This year’s chosen fairytale is Beauty and The Beast. Christian Patterson (in his fourth year as writer) has spun the “tale as old as time” into a hilarious, magic-filled pantomime. With topical references to politics and local inside jokes, it's fun, fun, fun for all. This pantomime already separates itself from an overcrowded market. Rather than star castings, Theatre Clwyd has the actors play as the onstage band. With tunes like “Total Eclipse of the Heart” and “Uptown ...

Beauty and the Beast – Edinburgh Playhouse

27Oct

By Beth EltringhamNo Comments

Scotland

Beauty and the Beast – Edinburgh Playhouse

"Be our guest" and so you should, this toe tapping bonanza of a musical is a treat for the eyes. Mixing pre-recorded projections, detailed set pieces of course some magic, this production is one for the whole family. The story follows a Selfish young Prince turned beast and a bookworm beauty who doesn't quite fit in and find herself pursued by a man who just can't take no for an answer. When her father is held prisoner by the beast, belle volunteers to take his place, thus beginning our love story. Of course, one cannot forget the merry band of living furniture who guide us along the way. Expect classics from Howard Ashman and Tim Rice such as: Beauty and the Beast, Be Our Guest, Human Again and Gaston. Casting for this production does not disappoint for the most part, with the r...

30Sep

By Andrew LeeNo Comments

North West

Beauty and the Beast – Liverpool Empire

Beauty and the Beast is a Disney classic, a staple of their dominance in the 1990’s when it comes to animated musicals. Coupled with one of the most successful composers of the modern musical, Alan Menken, and Beauty and the Beast has a sure-fire street to success. The play is the story of Belle (Courtney Stapleton), a young girl longing to escape from her dreary everyday life and see the big wide world (you can’t fault Disney for their recycling). Along the way she is captured by a hideous Beast (Emmanuel Kojo), whose only prospect of a return to normality is to love and be loved in return, but first he must learn to leave his selfish self behind. It must be said that in this production the Beast was not all that Beastly, as he still cut a lean, attractive figure throughout. The ma...