Review: Beauty and the Beast at Bournemouth Pavilion
Christmas would not be Christmas, without a good old pantomime and last week, we were invited to the Pavilion Theatre in Bournemouth to see their production of Beauty and the Beast.
One of the most popular fairy tales of all, Beauty & The Beast is the story of Belle who finds herself imprisoned in an enchanted castle by a prince who has been transformed into a hideous beast by an evil sorceress.
The story was narrated in rhyme by Eastenders’ Emma Barton as Fairy Bon Bon, the TikTok Fairy, who dragged the show into the 21st Century with a good selection of popular TikTok dances that had the kids getting up to copy her.
Marcus Knibbs, from Brookside and Jonathan Creek played Belle’s father, Jamie Steen shone as the hilarious pantomime dame, Polly La Plonk and Bournemouth regular Noel Brodie returned to the Pavilion as Polly’s son, Louis La Plonk.
As you would expect, the pantomime was filled with song, dance and jokes aplenty. Travis Ross as the baddie, Hugo, was brilliantly bad and really earned the “boo’s” and jeers from the crowd as he tried to influence Belle to marry him.
There were songs to please everyone, Sam Ryder’s Space Man was cleverly adapted to “Beast Man” and the song adapted from Les Miserables was beautifully done too. The kids favourite was the French song Alouette, where they had to join in and complete the actions – they’re still singing it now!
The show didn’t rely on special effects, just good old fashioned fun and acting. Beast’s fight with Hugo was brilliantly staged and his transformation back to the handsome prince was very cleverly done.
Beauty and the Beast runs until 2nd January 2023 and is the perfect show to get you in the mood for Christmas.
Disclaimer: We were invited to review Beauty and the Beast for the purpose of a review. All thoughts and opinions are our own
