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Olivia Mitchell and Tom Lowe as Belle and The Beast Beauty and the Beast Wolverhampton Grand **** It’s that time of year again, oh yes it is, when legends come to life, when fairy tales leap from page to stage, when a bloke turns up in a frock with bosoms the size of blimps proving there really is nothing like a dame, and the principal boy is a girl, or at least used to be. In short the panto season is upon us. And this year the Grand has a beauty . . . and a beast of a show as the tale of Belle, trapped by the grotesque prince thing in the enchanted palace in the forest, unfolds, or more accurately laughs its way out – Disney this ain’t. Our guide is Joey, at least that is what Tam Ryan is calling himself this year. Tam is a Grand regular and it is easy to see why, he creates immediate rapport with the audience, has breakneck speed patter, is lightning fast, genuinely funny and has timing you just cannot teach. He is the son of Madame Fifi Fou-Fou, or Ian Adams in a frock – lots of them. This is his 26th panto by my count, starring, writing, directing his way through countless Christmases and still able to do the splits, which he proved, at 65, as he told us, and that is no joke! The pair prove the comedy spine running through La Belle et la Bête to give it it’s original French title, after all, it is set in France . . . which it appears is a district just to the south of Bilston. And speaking of Bilston, we have Bilston Le Pratt – the name Gaston apparently too posh, and expensive to use. Timothy Lucas is as camp as a world scouting jamboree in a performance so far over the top it was in danger of colliding with the International Space Station.
OK, Mirror. Who's the vainest of them all! Timothy Lucas as Bilston Le Pratt He grows on you as the night progresses in a wonderful performance of self-centred and very funny self-adulation and to top it all, hidden under all the narcissistic posturing, he sported a fine singing voice. Singing, incidentally, being a strong point of this show with the Ryan and Adams’ script not afraid to showcase the talent on offer with some class pop songs from the Nat King Cole classic Nature Boy, through Perfect Ten, Pure Imagination from Willy Wonka, Eye of the Tiger, Elton John’s Something About the Way You Look Tonight and variations on Hairspray’s You Can’t Stop The Beat. Jarneia Richard-Noel is the good fairy Angelica and has a wonderful voice and a notable CV having originated the role of Catherine of Aragon in that magical musical SIX . A wonderful fairy with a wonderful voice. Her job is to find someone to see past the hideous beast and fall in love with the man trapped beneath. Now who could that be . . . She is matched in the singing stakes by Olivia Mitchell as Belle, who may only be starting out on her career, but you would never know it. She has star quality to burn, attractive, confident and at ease on stage and with a voice to die for. One to watch.
Ian Adams and Tam Ryan as Madame Fi Fi Fou-Fou and Joey in a more serious moment When it comes to CVs mind you, it would take a lot to top that of Thomas Lowe as Prince Pascal who gets turned into the beast. For a start he is a Harvard graduate in East Asian Studies and is fluent in Mandarin, German, French and Spanish - and of course, Beast. He has the West End, Hollywood Bowl, Carnegie Hall, Las Vegas already to his credit. . . was the first non-American to appear on American Idol and is the Harvard cultural attaché to the Shaolin Temple in China. Oh, and he’s at the Grand to 5 January. He has a fine baritone and provides a classy Bat out of Hell, which might not be an obvious choice, but fits in remarkably well the story. Handsome, selfish, cruel, hedonistic Pascal is turned into the Beast by the baddy Gladus, Giant from Gladiators who brings muscles a plenty in his giant frame – he is a big lad and a world champion bodybuilder with plenty of enthusiasm for his panto debut. The problem is that he is hard to dislike and boo, as we must with a panto villain, he is just too, well, nice, and, say it quietly, his remarkable strengths are easy to see and one of them is not acting. But the fans loved him, he threw himself into it and he puts bums on seats and you can’t knock that. Around the headliners are a hard working ensemble with quick change costumes from villagers to servants, fairy tale characters to statues dancing to Natalie Bennyworth’s choreography. Then there is magic, with some classy transformation scenes of Prince to Beast and an even more dramatic dead Beast levitating up towards the flies magically turning into the now reformed, nice as you please, and very much alive Prince - the work of Sean Alexander and Richard Cadell. This is panto, so we had the obligatory slapstick directed by Gareth Ellis, which had little in the way of subtlety but plenty in the way of water and foam, and audience participation whether you wanted it or not – wear a mac, just saying. And we had the ghosties and ghoulies bit, some poor soul who knows not to sit on the front row next year, especially if you look remotely like Gregg Wallace, and, of course, the children plucked from the audience for their moment of fame and a goody bag. Ryan is brilliant at this bit, squeezing every laugh he can without embarrassing or making fun of the kids. It was all on an everchanging set thanks to some imaginative video work filling the back wall, coming from Imagine Theatre with video’s designed by Nina Dunn and Matt Brown with set and costumes from Mark Walters and David Shields. It is aided by imaginative lighting from Sam Hilditch and well balanced sound from James Claridge Hidden away was an excellent five piece band under musical director Rob Murray. The Grand decided a couple of years ago to strike out on their own with panto rather than buying them in and they don’t skimp on sets or effects, producing yet another classy, home grown, fun packed and original panto for all the family, oh yes it is . . . to 05-01-24 Roger Clarke 04-12-24 Incidentally: The original Beauty and the Beast was written in 1740 by French novelist Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve, and La Belle et la Bête was a long novel aimed not at children, nor as a fairy story, but for adults with complex themes involving magic, royalty and power and redemption. The modern version was a based on a far simpler retelling by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont in 1756 aimed at younger readers tragetting kindness, virtue and seeing beyond physical appearance. |
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