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Last night (17/2/22) I had the pleasure of watching the UK & International Touring production of Beauty and the Beast, the musical which will run at the London palladium this summer. The show is currently playing at the Sunderland Empire before visiting Birmingham, Manchester, London’s West End and Dublin.
Grace Swaby-Moore’s performance (covering the role of Belle) was of the highest quality! Her vocals were placed perfectly and she was full of life and emotion throughout the whole show. Alongside Shaq Taylor, who makes a brilliant ‘Beast’. Shaq’s characterisation was so realistic and convincing and his vocals were very impressive.
For me, Gavin Lee definitely stole the show as ‘Lumiere’ - He commanded the stage with his charm and comedy and the audience loved him! His performance kept the show fresh and kept the younger audience members interested in those longer scenes. Singer, Sam Bailey as ‘Mrs Potts’ singing the iconic title number shows us exactly why she is perfect for the role. ‘Cogsworth’ was played by Nigel Richards who played a great comedy part too. Emma Caffrey plays ‘Babette’ and is wonderful and has such a great stage presence. Joshua Smith played the role of ‘Chip’ and he was most definitely an audience favourite.
The iconic costumes, designed by Ann Hould-Ward were stunning and really brought the tale as old as time to life along with some gorgeous and extravagant scenic design by Stanley A. Meyer.
Sound design by John Shivers really made the audience feel like they were inside the story. The use of projection throughout the show added another aspect of magic and the lighting design was beautifully done.
The first Woods scene in Act 1 in particular sticks with me for this: the lighting sets an eerie mood, the projection and the sound design make us feel as though we are surrounded by wolves paired with some wonderful acting from Martin Ball makes for an incredible scene that left me on the edge of my seat.
Fabulous Choreography and Direction coming from Matt West. The choreography was beautifully done with big dance numbers such as ‘Gaston’ with the hilarious Tom Senior and Louis Stockil as Gaston and Le Fou respectively, and ‘Be Our Guest’ which was such a joy to watch and was absolutely my favourite number in the show due to the stunning choreography.
The transformation of the beast was very magical. There were audible gasps of shock through the audience at the speed and slickness of it that it received its own applause, very rightly deserved of course.
Overall, this production was incredible and fully deserves all of the praise it can get. It is a magical, fun-filled, beautiful show for all of the family to enjoy. Please do your best to go and see this show on the West End or on its UK Tour you will not be disappointed.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Robbie Davies
(Robbie’s Backstage Bants)