Mother and daughter duo, Jane Joseph and Chantelle Nolan set up Regal Entertainments Ltd, 25 years ago. Since being based at the St Helens Theatre Royal, Regal Entertainments have produced 3 seasonal pantos every year. Their panto version of 'Beauty And The Beast' came to Stockport as the highlight of the Plaza’s Easter programme. Loosely based on the popular Disney cartoon classic, this enjoyable and enchanting production provided perfect entertainment for young families.
Pantomimes are synonymous with Christmas and watching this show on one of the hottest days of the year was to begin with slightly disconcerting. A spirited opening however quickly got me in the panto mood as did the arrival on stage of all the main characters. Of these Sarah Walker as the kind-hearted Fairy Rose and Kiera-Nicole Brennan from Channel 5’s, 'Milkshake', as the beautiful and good natured Belle, quickly struck up a rapport with the audience. Funny man Lewis Devine, as French Frank, in only his second pantomime, proved to be an instant hit with audience goers of all ages especially when involving a couple of them unwittingly in his comic capers.
Dispelling with embellishments, this version of 'Beauty And The Beast' quickly got to the heart of the story. In order that her odious son, Gaston may marry Belle, the villainous Madame Botox, poisons Prince Benedict turning him both in and outside into a Beast. Rescued whilst escaping from wild wolves, Belle is given shelter in the Royal Palace where she meets and eventually falls in love with the Beast. Add some large, well-staged musical numbers and a number of well known slapstick scenes, such as, “Busy bee, busy bee, what have you got in the hive for me?” and this playful yet touching version of 'Beauty And The Beast' has all the ingredients of a sure fire panto hit.
The small company of principal performers, supported by an enthusiastic troupe of juvenile dancers worked extremely hard to bring out both the comedy and pathos in Liam Mellor’s script. Occasionally with some of the innuendo, I felt that it crossed the boundary of what is acceptable in a family show of this type, to what extent this was the writer’s or the performers' doing was unclear. The strongest performances were given by Brennan as Belle and Andrew Geater as The Prince/Beast. Both sang with clear, confident voices and gave detailed character performances. Their exquisite rendition of Cyndi Lauper’s ‘True Colours’ was a real highlight and showcased their musical theatre pedigree. As already mentioned Devine as the leading comedian provided some genuinely funny moments especially when cavorting on stage with Si Foster’s Dame Potty Polly. Philip McGuinness as Garston and Hannah Moncrieff as Madame Botox were suitably camp and villainous as the panto baddies and clearly relished playing their roles.
Directed with flair by Chantelle Nolan and slickly choreographed by Sarah Walker, this panto scored highly on good production values and in spite of using backing tracks, the musical numbers throughout were sung and staged to a very high standard. Although I am generally used to seeing pantomimes in the lead up to Christmas, I would happily see another of Regal Entertainment's pantos performed at any time.
Reviewer - Richard Hall
on - 20/4/19
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