Review: BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, Fareham Live
Photo credit: Ian Olsson
It is always slightly disconcerting when you arrive at a venue for an afternoon pantomime matinee and find the morning matinee has not yet finished…and the start time has been delayed by fifteen minutes to allow for a reset and a break for the cast. Why has it overrun and how will the young children react to the wait and later finish time? We need not have worried as whatever caused the overrun in the morning at Fareham Live had been dealt with and the matinee of Beauty and the Beast ran for an acceptable two hours ten minutes in the afternoon.
The story made famous by Disney version, a tale as old as time, is relatively new to the pantomime repertoire and Bryan Hodgson’s script is a full-on pantomime version with the Beast not even appearing until thirty minutes in, as opposed to in the usual prologue. The opening scenes provide plenty of time to meet the Dame, Frank, Gaston, Belle and Marleene the Malevolent, and establish their characters and pantomime credentials. French Frank is played by impressionist Paul Burling, a supposed inventor (although his Brenda the Bike is very unimpressive and simply a cue for a lot of adult innuendo throughout). He is a very good impressionist and delivers a string of famous voices for all ages from Frank Spencer, Del Boy, Scooby Doo and Doc Brown for the older audience members, to Alan Carr, Julian Clary, Harry Hill, Michael McIntryre, Trump and Angry Ginge for the younger ones.
Josiah Eloi as Dame Potty is an equally dominant character, battling for stage time and laughs with a larger-than-life personality. Together with Frank, they throw themselves with plenty of gusto, literally, into a full-on slosh scene with a bathtub of foam and two mops which looks physically demanding and risked injury! They, of course, include the obligatory Ghost bench scene and a songsheet with two kids, as well as references to 6-7 and Jet2 Holidays that seem to get such an amazing reaction from the school kids in the audience.
Gaston, as portrayed by Tyger Drew-Honey, remains the pompous egotistical pursuer of Belle of the original story but here is particularly stupid with a curious accent and stage presence. No wonder Belle, a charming performance from Mairi Ikegami, resists his persistent advances and delights us from the start with her ‘One Short Day’ routine with the Ensemble. Indeed, the choreography from Mitchell Harper is fresh and attractive throughout with short routines in the front cloth scenes to cover scene changes behind.
Sue Holderness revels in her villainy and loves the Boo-zes as Marlene the Malevolent, getting the balance right between the original temptress of the story and the typical pantomime villain. The rose does feature but we never see the leaves drop and the relationship between Belle and the Beast (Joe Lang in a magnificent mask but always a very likeable creature) develops quickly despite the frequent interventions of Frank and Potty, especially over the course of the romantic dinner.
This cast shows plenty of energy and endeavour, each appearing to enjoy their stage time immensely and the audience responds well to their encouragement. It needs a little more on-stage discipline and tighter direction as it always feels on the edge of going wrong and perhaps that was the cause of the overrun during the show before. However, with some good song choices, attractive choreography and plenty of jokes, it does try to include everything you’d expect from a pantomime and there is no doubt that the cast and audience have fun together.
*** Three stars
Reviewed by: Nick Wayne
Beauty and the Beast plays at Fareham Live until 4 January, with further info here.