There’s something magical about watching one of your favourite fairy tales come to life. Seeing Beauty and the Beast on stage was like fulfilling a childhood fantasy. We squealed in excitement whenever a familiar face appeared, we merrily sang along – mostly in our hearts – to the tunes we knew and loved, and we found our eyes glued to the cast in anticipation, even though we already knew the story by heart.
When Belle (Hilary Maiberger) first skipped into the spotlight, flitting in and out of the crowd in the quaint village, our jaws dropped. She looked and sounded just like the cartoon character in Disney’s film adaption. It was beautiful and oh so poignant.
Then came Gaston (Adam Dietlein), the vain villain we all love to hate. Arrogance and narcissism aside, he garnered quite a few laughs – mostly for his ‘all brawn and no brains’ jokes, like when he gifted Belle a miniature portrait of himself. Slapstick relief came in the form of Gaston’s sidekick, the bumbling LeFou (Jordan Aragon), who flipped and tumbled across the stage, earning delighted giggles from kids in the audience.
But our top pick of the night had to be Lumiere (Hassan Nazari-Robati). He shone, quite literally, every time he made an appearance, whether it was shimmying up to the flirtatious Babette (Andrea Leach), annoying the tightly wound Cogsworth (James May) or eliciting laughs with his puffed-up sassiness. Mrs Potts (Emily Mattheson) and Chip (William Poon) were as lovable as we remembered from the Disney tale – her rendition of ‘Beauty and the Beast’ was impeccable, and his cute-as-a-button act was met with enthusiastic applause despite his limited time on stage.
The most spectacular performance was the psychedelic extravaganza that accompanied ‘Be Our Guest’. Dancing cutlery! Shimmering streamers fired into the air! Larger-than-life plates executing high kicks! It was like a technicolour dream, and we loved every minute of it.
Of course, the highlight of the show was the blossoming romance between Belle and the Beast (Darick Pead). Our only gripe was the Beast’s unnecessarily whiny temper tantrums. We get that he was supposed to be childlike and naïve when it came to love, but he toed the line, crossed into childish territory and lost a chunk of that refined, aristocratic dignity we remembered him for. His comical moments surfaced from petulant roars and indignant foot stamps, which were, admittedly, quite hilarious coming from a huge, hairy creature. Their chemistry on stage sparkled, perhaps boosted by the actors’ real-life relationship, and their harmonies were stellar. All in all, it was a family-friendly walk down nostalgia lane.