Review: BEAUTY AND THE BEAST: A HORNY LOVE STORY, Charing Cross Theatre
Photo credit: Steve Gregson
Beauty and the Beast: A Horny Love Story is colourful, camp and crazy – a box of pantomime delights.
Having written over a dozen pantomimes together, Jon Bradfield and Martin Hooper have polished the form, if not into fine art, into precisely the sort of witty, inclusive and big-hearted evening that any great panto should provide. Their latest, Beauty and the Beast: A Horny Love Story, has all the required elements – a sing-a-long, sweeties hurled into the audience, and a dame who takes no hostages. David Shields’ terrific sets are framed by a semi-circular proscenium, giving the sense of a snow globe and we have the pleasure of watching all of the pantomime tropes being thoroughly shook up and falling back into place over the course of around two and a half hours.
A prologue introduces us to the villainous Cornelius (Chris Lane, lapping up the boos and hisses) who cursed his younger brother, transforming him into a beast confined to the family castle. Thankfully, the good spirit Juno (Australian Dani Mirels sporting Sydney Opera House epaulettes) softened the curse so that it can be reversed if the beast finds true love – no spoilers when we say that it all ends happily.
The opening number introduces us to the good villagers of northern Scotland’s Lickmanochers, landing us firmly in adult pantoland where one innuendo is never enough. Here, it is the wide-eyed innocent Bertie who softens (well the opposite actually!) the Beast, while his twin sister Bonnie (Laura Anna-Mead, doing sterling work doubling up as the ghost Megan) also gets her happy ending with Juno. Is such gender swapping surprising? Hardly – given the traditional cross-dressing dames and principal boys, has there ever been a pantomime that isn’t just a little bit queer?
Bertie, introduced by Bonnie as the twink the audience has come to see, is charmingly played by Matt Kennedy and soon has everyone rooting for him. As Charlie, the Beast, Keanu Adolphus Johnson’s strong presence and sonorous voice are added pleasures.
Of course in any panto, it is the Dame who has all the best lines, and as Flora (“Yes” she tells us “I’m easily spread”), Matthew Baldwin is at the top of his game. While he gets some terrific outfits (costumes by Robert Draper) it is Baldwin’s spot-on comic timing and interactions with the audience that make his performance a pure (well, somewhat smudged) delight. There is nothing like a dame when Baldwin is playing her.
En route to the final walk down, we have strong set pieces and nods to other versions of the story, including The Phantom of the Opera (lit, Flora tells us, by cheap artificial candles from Temu, but lighting designer David Shields must take the credit). When Bertie and Flora end up trapped in the castle, a troupe of ghosts encourage Flora not to be down-hearted but rather to “Be Our Slave”. Repeatedly interrupting Bertie and Charlie’s dancing, Flora gets her own Disney moment in an amazing willow-pattern teapot dress.
Jon Bradfield also writes the songs, with music direction and orchestration by Aaron Clingham. If the pre-recorded backing track sometimes makes the lyrics hard to catch, the company’s enthusiasm still comes through, no more so than in Bradfield’s homage to the Village People ‘On an Oilrig’ (don’t ask how everyone got there).
The company of only nine fill the stage and create multiple characters, and everything is kept moving along by Andrew Beckett’s direction and Carole Todd’s choreography.
This is the third year that the He’s Behind You! team has brought pantomime to Charing Cross Theatre and the fact that many of the company have worked together previously, results in a slick and thoroughly entertaining evening.
For all fans of panto, (over 18!), Beauty and the Beast is a must-see.
***** Five stars
Reviewed by: Mike Askew
