Beauty and the Beast review at Theatre Royal, Bury St Edmunds

This 350-seat Regency playhouse (the last surviving one in the UK), provides a unique setting for panto. The venue has a warmth and intimacy and feels truly part of its community, re-named here as ‘Beastly St Edmunds.’

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Chris Hannon’s take on Beauty and the Beast is traditional in its influences and steers well clear of Disney. There is a surprisingly satisfying emotional core to the story that is provided by the use of songs that are borrowed mainly from musicals. These drive the narrative rather than merely serve as set pieces and a version of End of the Day from Les Miserables creates a moment of real dramatic tension at the end of the first half.

All the booing and hissing in Karen Simpson's production is saved for a deliciously powerful Britt Lenting as Elvira the witch, who needs the Beast to stay just as he is for her to stay beautiful. Her main rival in the magic stakes, Fairy Blossom (Leonie Spilsbury) sparkles with wit and rhyming couplets and Belle’s father, a fabulous, egotistical ham actor (Martin Neely), channels Kenny Everett as he engages in a romance with Eamonn Fleming’s gorgeous Molly Muffintop.

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