The Churchill Theatre’s Beauty and the Beast written by Alan McHugh popped and sizzled with colour and fizz, writes Michael Holland.
Bromley is known for its perfect pantos but this year you can factor in Su Pollard as a very welcome added bonus.
A national treasure and all round nice woman (according to one of the staff) brings her very own scattiness to the role of Mrs Potty, mother of Silly Billy (Jamie Leahey) and housekeeper to the prince who was cursed by The Enchantress (Samantha Womack) to teach him a lesson for being too lairy and disrespectful to those he deemed beneath him – A lifetime of ugliness.
A curse that can only be lifted if he found someone to see the person beneath his unsightly exterior and love the person within. A big ask, but one Mrs Potty was always trying to overcome.
Belle of Bromley (Sheri Lineham) is the local looker with the happy smile and attitude. Unfortunately, she is stalked by local narcissist Flash Harry (Tom Mussell), who tells her one day she will give in to his ‘charms’ and become his woman. Cue boos as he kisses his biceps.
Mrs Potty schemes to get Belle inside Bromley Castle so The Beast (Alfie French) can fall in love with her. Sounds easy enough but there is the dangerous forest to get through, and Flash Harry trying to stop her, and The Beast having evolved into a nasty piece of work after years of people cowering away from his looks. In fact, he locks her up!
We all know how it ends and some may wonder how the couple fell in love to a Coldplay tune, but it fitted perfectly, and the journey there is one of many laughs, great costumes, excellent choreography and foot-stomping songs, plus a couple of fantastic skits.
The tongue-twisting conversation about ‘pairs of pythons hissing in pits’ got great laughs from the audience as the actors tried to get their heads around it without saying something naughty.
But my favourite was the song about what jobs they would do if they wasn’t in a panto. It hilariously entailed frying pans, feather dusters, buckets of water, truncheons and boxing gloves flying about as the troupe ducked and dived in attempts not to be hit with something.
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The stars gave everything to the show. Su Pollard shone as she did Su Pollard and showed that she could still sing, dance and act; Samantha Womack took her boos with a smirk and a sneer, and James Leahey showed why he did so well in Britain’s Got Talent.
And once again this annual production gives young theatre students their first crack at professional work, and what fine performances they gave.
This is pantomime and the great thing about panto is that all ages have a good time and a good laugh and even the predictable jokes are funny in their awfulness, so we wouldn’t have it any other way.
Churchill Theatre, Bromley until January 4th.
Tickets: £20 – 59
Running time: 1hour 50 minutes
Booking and full details: https://trafalgartickets.com/churchill-theatre-bromley/en-GB
