Beauty and the Beast
Leamington Royal Spa Centre
THERE are plenty of ways to get in the festive spirit and a pantomime is always top of my list.
This year’s offering of Beauty and the Beast at the Royal Spa Centre is the perfect tonic to the doom and gloom of 2016.
Imagine Theatre are transporting audiences to a far away land where a handsome prince has been cursed to spend his days as a hideous beast unless he can learn to love.
In a not-so-far-away village Beauty says farewell to her father Arnold who is off on a bird watching trip but narcissistic bad guy Eugene and his sidekick Pimple concoct an evil plan to delay his return so Eugene may have Beauty all to himself.
The plan quickly backfires when the heroine ends up offering herself as the Beast’s prisoner instead of her father.
And after last year’s sterling performance, crowd favourites JP McCue and Sean Dodds return to the stage as Dame Dolly Do-It and her son Willy Do-It who save the day and inevitably steal the show.
Dame Dolly totters around on stage in glitzy high-heels but when the time comes to have a bit of fun, she ditches the impressive footwear for something more sensible. And rightly so because she took an impressive tumble while mopping floor!
Men of Warwickshire should be wary as Dame Dolly is single and ready to snap up a member of the audience.
Featuring plenty of musical numbers which all the family will recognise and even more bad jokes, this really is a show for all the family.
And credit must to go to the teams who created the costumes and sets too who have out done themselves – from Willy’s patchwork dungarees to the Beast’s costume, all of the Dame’s outfits and a glittering back drop for the finale.
Beauty and the Beast runs until December 31. Visit www.warwickdc.gov.uk/royalspacentre for tickets.
