St Helens Theatre Royal – Beauty and the Beast

It’s Easter time again and that can only mean one thing…Panto!  St Helens has delivered another hit with their interpretation of Beauty and the Beast.  The tale as old as time has been reworked and given the St Helens touch.  Audience of all ages gathered to be entertained once again, by a now regular cast and a couple of new faces. 

One of the new faces to appear was the dazzling Amy Thompson.  Amy plays Belle with a charm and beauty Walt Disney himself would adore.  I didn’t know much about Amy before the panto as I’m not familiar with her show (Milkshake).  I would, however, gladly tune in to see her and that ‘Disney’ smile.  Another new face taking the stage was ‘Big Brothers’ Nikki Grahame.  Nikki plays the Fairy in this production and delivers her lines with enthusiasm.  She is first on stage, which is always difficult on your own, and needed to get the crowd warmed up better before the first song.

Now with any pantomime you need to have a comedy duo, enter Simon Foster and Liam Mellor.  Liam and Simon have worked together on many occasions and have natural comic timing and a look of mischievousness that tells the audience to watch as something might happen that shouldn’t!  The best part, for me, is when the two of them adlib a couple of lines and try and catch each other out.  They have a great connection with the audience and Liam, in particular, loves to pick on the adults in the audience – The frog scene a perfect example!

The ‘Baddies’ of this panto were Phillip McGuinness and his mum Hannah Potts.  Phillip played Gaston perfectly.  The difficulty in this role is to over act enough for the character but not to over act too much so the audience don’t respond.  Phillip had the balance just right.  His physicality is a massive plus for this role and he never comes out of character once.  He has good chemistry on stage with Hannah.  She has the traditional ‘baddy’ laugh down to a tee and performs a couple of songs with ease.

Now the Beast / Prince – Richard Hazlewood – plays both roles very well but he is at his best as the Beast.  His voice is perfect for the Beast and the use of some special effects makes it even better.  There are some great directional pieces when he changes from the Prince to the Best and back again. 

Special mention to two groups of people that are often neglected but without them the panto doesn’t happen.  First, the set design and costumes were first class.  The attention to detail in the set design with the candle lights slightly flickering shows the amount of work that is generated in this production.  The second group – The Dancers.  These young dancers were outstanding throughout the show and a credit to their choreographer.  They had the energy the show needed and some of the lifts were sublime. 

The pantomime wasn’t perfect and no pantomime should be.  No pantomime should be polished.  There should always be room for some ‘mistakes’ and ‘adlibs’ as this keeps the cast fresh and the audience feel like they are the first to see or hear that part.  The first half of the show was a little short for me (Around 45 minutes) but the second half lasted about an hour.  The dialogue is as corny as it should be with jokes you know are coming and you laugh anyway because of the delivery.   Slapstick is massive in any pantomime and again Beauty and the Beast delivers.  Songs were well chosen and the cast sang them well, particularly Amy.

I presume copyright reasons were the reason the famous ‘Tale as old as time’ song couldn’t be used but maybe comedy lyrics could have been written for the double act ‘French Frank and Potty Polly’

All in all a great day out with my niece saying that it was the best panto she had seen and wanted to go again, so if you want to escape in to a land of make believe to watch a classic tale, then St Helens Theatre Royal is the place to be!