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Friday, March 21

Tag: Beauty and The Beast

Beauty and the Beast – Birmingham Hippodrome
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 hea...
Beauty and the Beast – Epstein Theatre
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 challe...
Beauty and the Beast – Floral Pavillion
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 woul...
Beauty and the Beast – Leeds City Varieties
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 integratin...
Beauty and the Beast – Theatr Clwyd
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 F...
Beauty and the Beast – Edinburgh Playhouse
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 ro...
Beauty and the Beast – Liverpool Empire
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 mar...
Casting announced for UK tour of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast
NEWS

Casting announced for UK tour of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast

Disney’s Olivier Award-winning stage musical Beauty and the Beast today announces the cast to star in the re-imagined and re-designed new production. Staged by members of the original award-winning creative team, Beauty and the Beast will open a UK & Ireland Tour at The Bristol Hippodrome on Wednesday 25th August 2021. Courtney Stapleton and Emmanuel Kojo will play the iconic lead roles, Belle and her Beast, as spectacular new designs and state-of-the-art technology fuse with the classic story, bringing the beloved tale to new life. Courtney’s credits include Dear Evan Hansen, Six, Les Misérables and Bat Out of Hell, and Emmanuel is best known for performing in Oklahoma!, Girl from the North Country, Show Boat and The Scottsboro Boys. Also announced today are Gavin Lee (Mary P...
Pantomime will finally appear at The Malthouse Theatre in Canterbury this Christmas
NEWS

Pantomime will finally appear at The Malthouse Theatre in Canterbury this Christmas

Canterbury’s newest arts venue, The Malthouse Theatre, will play host to a dazzling pantomime this Christmas with a glittering new production of BEAUTY AND THE BEAST which will play for a strictly limited run from 10th – 24th December 2021. Boasting stunning sets and costumes, side splitting comedy and catchy songs, the production will be written by legendary pantomime dame Paul Tate, who will also star as Mona Lot, and will be directed by Joseph Hodges, with choreography by Jay Gardner, lighting design by Seb Blaber and Sound Design by Phil Wilson. Full casting is to be announced imminently. Tickets are on sale now from the online box office at www.malthousetheatre.co.uk with group and school bookings also available. Don’t miss this BEAUTY of a pantomime to kick off your f...
Beauty and the Beast – Theatre Royal St Helens
North West

Beauty and the Beast – Theatre Royal St Helens

Last night it was nice to have some sort of normality in the theatre world. I got to review my first show in 2020 inside an actual theatre. It was nice to be back. The things that would normally annoy you in the theatre, such as people getting past you in the aisle or the rustling of crisp packets was strangely welcomed as it was just nice to have that experience again. However, I digress the reason why I was there was to review 2020 pantomime Beauty and the Beast at the St Helens Theatre Royal. The show start time was at 6pm which I was surprised at because you’d think that was to early due to audiences working even if it started at 7:30pm it would have finished before 10pm. the show itself was as flamboyant and as funny as you expect a panto to be with little hidden gems of the cast c...