THE TALE of Beauty and the Beast was brought to life at the Trinity Centre in Lickey by a talented Jigsaw Players cast.
The group had opted to tell the traditional story, as opposed to the more recent Disney-fied version and everyone played their part on the night – from the juniors and teens and dancers to those taking centre stage.
The dance routines were well-choreographed and a special mention has to go to Francesca Johnson and Holly Elliot who were front-of-stage, leading most of them.
Stuart McDonald was suitably sympathetic as Belle’s and the sisters’ dad Alphonse and, likewise, Roma Bradley brought plenty of magic as Flora the Flower Fairy.
Sam Ryan got a few chuckles as the lazy Jacques and Emily Davis had a good outing as Madame La Fou.
Harrison Daley was great as Gustave – he had the arrogant, full-of-himself ‘ladies’ man’ to a tee during both his interactions and his solos.
As there should be with panto, there were plenty of laughs in this production with the majority coming from Tracy Hart and Molly Webster as the man-hungry sisters. Their on-stage sibling banter was wonderful to watch.
They were narrowly beaten in the comedy stakes by the excellent Henry Dealaselle as the camp coiffeur Marcel and his ‘Essex girl’ assistant Monique, played by Claire Delaselle. The beauty specialists had the audience guffawing every time they stepped onto the stage.
Stephen Levett as dame Madame Fifi ensured the crowd got involved in proceedings and delivered his/her fair share of one-liners.
All five of these characters combined for the most hilarious scene in the show – in the salon where some great visual gags and one-liners combined. I’ll certainly be careful when asking which beauty treatments I go for after seeing that.
The evil villain is always a weird one to judge as you have to do so on the amount of boos they receive and Eva Haynes as Belladonna gleaned plenty – every time she appeared from the wings. A top performance there.
Hannah Price perfectly portrayed the beautiful – and humble – Belle and Glyn Diggett captured every single emotion of The Prince (and Beast’s) roller-coaster of a journey.
The pair were part of the most moving moments of the evening, including his and her solos, the dance scene and their duet.
Congratulations to director and assistant director Maggie Bishton and Su Fletcher for this fabulous, festive (and in the end) feelgood show.
The remaining performances of the Jigsaw Players’ Beauty and the Beast are tomorrow (Sunday, December 3) at 1.30pm and 7pm.
Then next weekend will see shows at 7.15pm on Friday, December 8, 1.30pm and 7pm on Saturday, December 9 and at 2pm on Sunday, December 10.
Tickets are £13 each.
Email [email protected] or call 07772 645722 to book tickets.