"Beauty & The Beast The Pantomime" by Bradford & Webster.

Kaleidoscope Players.

Duchess Theatre, Long Eaton.

I can't believe that this is only the second production that I have seen by The Kaleidoscope Players; the last time was back in 2023 with "Made In Dagenham".

Most people know the story of Belle and The Beast, but let me recap the storyline of the pantomime version of the story as there are a few differences with the pantomime version. There's no Chip, Luminiere, Cogsworth or Mrs Potts to be found anywhere, but the replacement panto style characters are even better.

Belle lives in the village of Petit Pois with her mean older sisters, Chardonnay and Lambrini. Their mother, Madame Dolores Lilly Chantilly Tres Jolie, or Dolly Jolly for short, is keen to marry them off to rich husbands. The vain and egotistical Jean‐Claude and the spoiled but good‐natured Prince Louis both have their eye on Belle.

Chardonnay and Lambrini want Jean‐Claude for themselves and continually try to outdo each other, to get him to notice them. Meanwhile, the evil Countess Cruella is obsessed with Prince Louis and, in a jealous rage, she turns him into a hideous beast. The girls’ Papa, lost in the cold, snowy mountains with Gigi, is imprisoned by the angry Beast. Gigi though has deserted the old man and has returned to tell the villagers of what has happened. There's a comical bit as he relates the facts, followed by a comment about Skippy, the bush kangaroo (Google it).

Gigi, then leads Belle to the Beast’s castle, where Belle offers to take her father’s place in the Beast’s dungeon. Belle’s kindness calms the Beast’s anger and he falls in love with her. Meanwhile, encouraged by Cruella, Jean‐Claude rallies a mob to storm the castle and kill the Beast.

In the final confrontation, the Beast appears mortally wounded. Jean‐Claude believes he has proved himself worthy and that Belle will love him. Belle, however, realises she loves the Beast, and her kiss magically transforms him back into Prince Louis and they all live happily ever after. No spoilers that you didn't already know, but there's so much more to see and enjoy throughout this version, including a brilliant accents sketch to start the show off with, and you know I love a good accent!

Belle is played by Alice Goodall, and knowing that she played the role of Rita in Kaleidoscope's "Made In Dagenham", I knew that vocal wise, I was in for a cracking night, and I was. I think vocally the highlight for me by Alice was in the duet of "Come What May". Love the way that Belle rejected constantly the brilliantly entertaining Jean Claude, as well as the distanced relationship with her sisters. A lovely light and shade performance with the Beast topped off a very strong stage presence.

Prince Louis is played by Evie Barfield, and yet another strong vocal performance, especially in the duet as above. There's also a lovely scene that involves The Beast and Belle dancing in the castle, and just like that scene in the movie "Ghost" where Molly is dancing with Oda Mae, suddenly the spirit comes through and Molly is dancing with Sam, Prince Louis and Belle get to dance together in a sweet fantasy scene. Louis is a traditional version of the Prince, which nicely counters some of the more updated characters.

The Beast is played by Jason Kramer who really delivers the drama. His voice, as The Beast, is commanding and angry, full of frustration, and then the more emotional side of The Beast is heard and seen. Seeing Jason without the rather wonderful Beast head, you would not have thought that voice came from Jason. Not only was the voice dramatic but the whole physicality was full of drama. Again, the performance was on the more traditional side of the story.

Chardonnay is played by Mikey Panichi and Lambrini is played by Tessa Raum. I loved this pair, and it's they that helped deliver more of the panto feel to the story. Chardonnay and Lambrini are a spoilt pair of young ladies and act in that way until they get what they want. Brilliant comic duo.

Dame Dolly Jolly is played by Paul Margett, who of course gets all the best costumes and wigs to wear every time that he breezes on stage to an audience call and response of "Hello Dolly". Paul gets some nice cheesy lines to deliver as well as delivering a fun traditional Dame.

Jean-Claude is played by Emily Mughal. Jean Claude is the equivalent of Gaston, but here is so smarmy and self important; if he was made of ice cream, he'd lick himself to death, he loves himself that much. The make up for this character really transforms Emily into a very convincing male character, and I think what also helps you believe in that transformation is how she moves around the stage. One of so many brilliant character roles.

Countess Cruella is played by Lucy Cadney, and just like Emily above, the make up transformation really changes the look of the actual person playing that role. I'll admit that I find the more evil characters great to watch because of the complete transformation of their character. Looking wonderfully wicked Lucy completely embraced the evilness of the role and soon had the packed Duchess Theatre booing and hissing her whenever she appeared, but I was so pleased that Lucy received a rapturous round of applause when she came on for her final bows.

Gigi, the horse, is played by Jess and Charlotte, who managed to keep in sync all the time they were on stage, not the easiest of roles for a duo to take on without loads of practice in costume.

The Rose Fairy was played by Zoe Shepherd and did a magnifique job of narrating scenes and moving the story on in a wonderfully "Allo Allo" style French accent.

Papa was played by Ron Murfin, and again a nice physicality to the role.

The ever true servant, Jacques, was played beautifully by Shannon Smart.

The other named roles are as follows....

Josephine Walker (Madame Tricot) and Rebekah Street (Madame Botox) appeared in a comical scene with the two sisters in the Beauty Parlour. Beth Margett (Jean Claude's PA), Caitlin Wright (Tarquin), Lily Rawson (Tiffany), Olivia Parker (Chelsea), Samantha Moss (Svetlana), Lauren Victoria Wells (Portrait) and Amy Bradford (Portrait), both appeared in The Beast's castle.

The ensemble are made up of Hannah Bradford, Michelle Bradford, Freya Moseley, Julie Black and Rachel Robinson.

The Junior Cast, who worked so hard in this show are Alex, Elise, Ava, Rosie and Madison.

Directed by Amy Bradford. This is the first time that I have ever seen this done in pantomime style and I am so pleased that Amy has kept the tradition of the story and blended the more modern panto style characters so smoothly into the story. Nicely paced and very funny, and a great choice of cast as well.

Choreographed by Evie Barfield, Amy Bradford and Josephine Walker with Dance Captain being Hannah Bradford. Plenty of dance to take in but I will say that, even though all the dance scenes were done very well, I adored the short ballet section carried out by the Junior Team. I watched their hands and feet and every move was beautifully turned out making the piece look extremely delicate. I am going to be picky here as well but Alex, the young man in the Junior dance quintet led the entrance with the four young ladies following, which looked fine but I thought while watching that when they lined up at the back, maybe Alex should have been in the middle, with two girls on either side to keep that balanced look. Anyway, who am I? Craig Revel Horwood? Choreography wise I loved the energy in this show.

Musical Director is Bethan Davies-Taylor. There's a mix of recorded tracks and live musicians which all joined together well. The trio of live musicians were Bethan, Josh Barber and Tony Gordon. It can sometimes be a bit of a juggling act when the live music is in front of the stage and the actors have to sing over the band and to start with some of the vocals were lost a bit, but I noticed that only after a very short while this was rectified and the vocal to music mix settled in nicely. This of course is something that can only really be done when there's a full theatre, as there was on Thursday night, to give the sound mixer chance to get the levels right, which they did.

The set design and Construction is by Dan Goodall, Barry Smith assisted by David Dilmore, Des Dunn, Ron Murfin and the cast. There were a couple of clumpy set changes, but as they were done in the dark, and this was opening night, they may have been expected, but I would notice that kind of thing wouldn't I?

Stage managed by Martin Church and Sammy Hempsall.

Costumes by Denise Brown and Debbie Weetman. What a brilliant array of costumes and Dolly Jolly's outfits were almost illuminous and with more colours than Joseph had on his Dreamcoat. Fabulous costumes all round.

The Prosthetics for The Beast were wonderful all thanks to Jason Kramer.

Lighting Designer is by Aaron Mace with Aaron and Jack Clarke listed as the technicians, and a cavalcade of colour beheld our eyes. I did spot one follow spot just slightly off an actor, but you can never tell if it's the lighting person or if the actor is maybe a foot out of where they should be. Extremely minor point; I find myself that way when I'm watching a production by such a wonderful theatre group as Kaleidoscope.

Sound Designer and operator is not listed separately but I know that Jack is also a bit of a whizz Sound Operator so it might be Jack.

Produced by Alice Goodall and Samantha Moss.

"Beauty & The Beast" has always been one of my favourite Disney musicals, and even more so on stage, but this pantomime version, with its' modern family friendly and localised script has done nothing to sway me away from that opinion, in fact it's quite refreshing to see the story in a different light with the added comedy elements performed by such a hard working and talented cast.

"Beauty & The Beast The Pantomime" by The Kaleidoscope Players is at The Duchess Theatre, Long Eaton until Saturday 31 January with a BSL interpreted performance on Friday 30th by Seb Probert.

Bonsoir mes petits legumes de Kaleidoscope; until we meet again.....