Saturday evening on the coast in early December was a rather cold, windy and miserable affair, and so I was rather glad to walk into the spacious and welcoming venue that is The Floral Pavilion. It was my first visit to the theatre, and was pleasantly surprised by its spaciousness and decor. Full marks also to all the staff who were all wearing masks and there were many hand sanitising stations throughout the building. [I should point out though, that with the exception of my companion and I, who always wear masks, I saw only ONE other audience member in the entire audience of about 500 people, wearing one!].
The story of 'Beauty And The Beast' must surely, by now, be one of the most well-known and recognisable. It always amazes me therefore, that with every production, there is always something different or changed, and the story altered to fit the purposes or cast. This evening's story (Jon Monie) was not one of the better adaptations, not even by panto standards, as we were given a long and wordy exposition before the panto proper started, and even then, there was a lot of dialogue throughout, slowing the pace and not allowing for enough routines or interaction with the audience.. two things which should be prerequisites of any pantomime.
What is always nice to see, is that certain theatres or companies try to keep the same cast each year, and here was no exception. This builds up a rapport and a familiarity between audience and performer and is a rather important part of gaining trust and allowing the youngsters to feel more at ease in what must surely be strange and bizarre circumstances and environment. Obviously I was seeing the cast for the first time, but I'm an adult, so I'm sure I'll get over the shock...!
If the production didn't score particularly highly on traditional panto repartee, routines, jokes, and audience interaction - the one time the children were completely involved screaming and shouting their heads off at the stage action was the second act's ghost routine - then it did score very highly on effects. The amount of SFX for this show, considering it was not even Liverpool, never mind West End, was quite amazing. Smoke, pyrotechnics, flashes, and a great central revolve and (no spoiler alert here...) something quite clever in the second act, all contributed to making this a great show.
The cast, led by Quinn Patrick as the Dame and Sean Jones as her son, Louis, worked well together, and had just the right amount of energy and joie-de-vivre (sorry, that's French...!) to carry the show. Shaun Dalton proved he had a West End worthy baritone voice during his songs, Melanie Walters (any relation to Julie??) was the down-to-earth but rather preoccupied Fairy. Olivia Birchenough was a sympathetic and suitably pretty Belle, and Phil Atkinson, the villain of the piece, was the muscle-flexing, egocentric, village richman, who wanted to marry Belle, Hugo Pompidou. The only problem inherent with this was that we didn't know he was the villain, and we didn't know we had to boo him until at least half way through the show, when the fairy told us we should boo him, and we ended up booing her instead just as a practice session (very odd!). Before this he was just a rather laughable nuisance with a strange cod French accent. (think 'Allo 'Allo).
There were several technical problems this evening. It was the first evening performance, and so I'll forgive them for having such issues.. these things happen. However, when a rather major technical fault happened in the second act necessitating the Stage Manager to walk on stage and stop the show, the audience were kept completely in the dark (not literally!), and we should have been informed of the problem, or at least how long we were likely to be waiting. Moreover, rather than simply sitting in our seats with nothing, why couldn't Louis Le Plonk have come out and we could at least have enjoyed the "songsheet" routine at this point to cover the gap.
Verdict: Too many jokes that didn't land properly, and were not for the children (not even for the younger end of adults either with some of the outdated references); not enough comedy routines or modern pop songs and dances; not enough working with the children, they were not fully engaged at all, they were bored and distracted for the most part. A colourful, upbeat spectacle which could have been much more (but could also have been much less too...!)
Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 4.12.21
Verdict: Too many jokes that didn't land properly, and were not for the children (not even for the younger end of adults either with some of the outdated references); not enough comedy routines or modern pop songs and dances; not enough working with the children, they were not fully engaged at all, they were bored and distracted for the most part. A colourful, upbeat spectacle which could have been much more (but could also have been much less too...!)
Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 4.12.21
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