Review: BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, Richmond Theatre
Photo credit: Danny Kaan
The title Beauty and the Beast is best known in the form of the classic Disney musical with its wonderful characters of Mrs Potts, Chip, Lumière and Cogsworth and memorable songs, so it is always interesting to see how it adapts to the pantomime genre. Alan McHugh’s script for the Richmond pantomime does retain the basics and, unusually for pantomime, leaves a lot of the story narrative in place with Belle being pursued by an obnoxious macho man, while Mrs Potts serves her master the Beast, and a Prince cursed by the Enchantress. Indeed, one of the show highlights is a very effective transformation from Prince to Beast (and back again) using his throne and a smoke screen. Lumière and Cogsworth are represented in one of the ensemble routines.
The conversion to pantomime is achieved by introducing Dame Betty and her son Billy to inject the comedy and pantomime business and despite the best efforts of experienced artistes in these roles, the resulting combination is strangely unsatisfying. Billy is played by Pete Firman, an accomplished comedy magician who naturally has the banter to charm the audience. His magic tricks are beautifully executed, from the simple bowling ball drop he opens with, to a delightful balloon string tearing trick delivered sat on the front of the stage, an amusing flower vase trick that Tommy Cooper would have loved, and a wonderful witty disappearing ring routine with a member of the audience. He also handles the four kids for the traditional songsheet around the song ‘Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep’ very cleverly, reacting to each child’s comments perfectly. Less successful is the inclusion of the ‘Trunk of Truth’, a pantomime routine that should long since have been retired from active use.
Ben Stock is an excellent Dame, full of character and a loud stage presence but is not given the opportunity to really develop in the role, and her material consists of some very old corny puns and a weak bedroom routine. The relationship with the real Dame of the production, Dame Maureen Lipman as Mrs Potts, does not work and they both make a complete hash of the ‘Susie Shaw sits and shines’ tongue twister sketch, well beyond the usual “accidental” slips. She does show that she is a good sport in embracing the pantomime genre with send ups of her “ologies” BT advert and Coronation Street role, as well as delivering the chat up routine well with Firman and leading a couple of songs.
Hope Dawe makes a lovely Belle in her pantomime debut in her graduation year opposite Luke McCall as the Beast, and we do see her romantic attraction grow as the Beast drops his guard. Cherece Richards as the Enchantress is limited to casting the spell and a couple of short songs, while Jason Leigh Winter struts his stuff as Flash Harry, showing off his powerful, muscled chest and arms while sticking his tongue at the audience. Too many characters walk on and off for a few lines without engaging with each other in a meaningful way and aside from Firman’s pantomime business and magic, the script falls between the Disney brilliant musical and a truly outstanding pantomime.
Yet the Richmond Theatre is a special place so see a show and this pantomime will delight its regular audience, but it does not match ATG’s other nearest venues’ shows of Sleeping Beauty at Woking and Jack and the Beanstalk at Wimbledon which, given their backstage space, are on a grander and more spectacular scale.
*** Three stars
Reviewed by: Nick Wayne
Beauty and the Beast plays at Richmond Theatre until 5 January 2025, with further info here.