Beauty and The Beast at Playlovers (Regal Theatre)

Okay, I think it’s important to state my position before I begin this review. I am not now, nor have I ever been a member of Playlovers, and as such I was not a part of this show. However, I do know a fair few of the company personally and have worked with them on any number of occasions. I was also fortunate enough to perform the role of Gaston in the state premiere of this musical down at the Mandurah Performing Arts Centre, so I do have a personal connection to the show as an entity. I would also like to disclaim – this is my personal opinion of the performance I saw at 8pm on Wednesday 17th September. Hopefully that states my position clearly enough. And please remember, this show has dual cast for the roles of Belle, the Beast, Cogsworth, Maurice and Chip so my comments are regarding the cast I saw (Cassandra Kotchie as Belle, Craig Menner as the Beast, Drew Elliott as Gogsworth, Clayton Zwanenburg as Maurice and Sam Tye as Chip) not the other players. Alrighty, housekeeping aside, now to my thoughts. As I said earlier, this show holds a very dear place in my heart and I was very much looking forward to seeing it. Not only did I wish to support both my friends in the cast and the Perth community theatre scene, but being in the 2007 show, I never got to see it! I was excited to see the amazing sets and costumes that we got to use in Mandurah; and Miss Kotchie played Belle opposite my Gaston so I was very keen to get to see her performance (which stunned me from on stage in 2007) from the audience’s perspective. I must say that I was most certainly not disappointed. This show is visually spectacular and the teams from Playlovers and the Regal Theatre have made the large, complicated sets work to the best advantage in the venue. The Regal Theatre has limited space back stage so this was no mean feat and needs to be applauded – bravo! The performances in general were well done. The highlights for me were: Cassandra Kotchie shone as Belle with her pure vocals and highly emotive acting drawing me into her world. I laughed and cried and sat entranced by her story. I think that one day those of us who have had the opportunity to work with this young lady will be telling our peers that we know a big star. Susan Vincent as Mrs Potts was also entrancing and her performance of the title song from the show was impeccable. I can’t agree with the nay-sayers who are questioning whether it was right for her to direct and perform – I can’t imagine anyone else in this role. Wade Ellis as Monsieur D’Arque was deliciously evil and I enjoyed his performance immensely. The program states that this was his first foray into Musical Theatre and I really hope to see more of him in the future. He has a wonderful presence on stage and also managed to draw me into his world – thank you. In regards to the other performers, I felt both Craig Menner as the Beast and Jason Arrow as Gaston had beautiful vocal tone but their performances were muted. I kept wanting them to give that little bit more, to reach out from the stage and draw me into their own personal journey. But overall their performances were sound and enjoyable. Kim Godleman and Drew Elliott as Lumiere and Cogsworth respectively exhibited fantastic onstage rapport and gave truly enjoyable performances. Also to be commended are Karly Pisano as Babette and Natalie Jackson as Madame de la Grande Bouche, the Wardrobe. The objects are difficult characters to play, due in part to the highly restrictive costumes – well done. I didn’t enjoy the performance of Maurice by Clayton Zwanenburg, I felt it to be more in line with crazy Doc Emmet Brown from the Back to the Future movies rather than the sweet yet eccentric father that I see Maurice to be. Also I found Tim How’s Le’fou a little on the annoying side and difficult to understand in places as the accent became too thick. Once again though, these are my opinions not a statement of fact. I felt that the three silly girls, Kylie Baker, Hayley Mayne and Genevieve Newman captured the essence of the characters well and it was a shame the parts aren’t larger. The direction of the show was very good, although I was a little confused as to why the characters kept using the stairs that lead to the west wing when heading for Belle’s bedroom. Other than that I felt that the set was incorporated well into the blocking and that the actors had clearly been given license to develop their own interpretations of the characters while remaining within the overall vision of the direction team. The music was stunning – I can’t say anything more than that. HUGE congratulations to Musical Director Craig Dalton and his very talented orchestra. I would have liked to have seen a little more innovation in the choreography, however the dance moves were well executed and clearly within the abilities of the performers. My main disappointment dance wise was the wolves though. I felt that the wolves were underused and spent a lot of the time waiting for the right bit of music rather than menacing their intended victims. I also didn’t understand why they all entered from stage left as opposed to entering from both sides; particularly during Belle’s flight scene – I wondered why Belle didn’t simply run away when she saw the wolves behind her. The lighting design worked well to complement the set and it was nice to see actors finding theirs lights every time for once. One of my pet-hates is actors standing halfway in the light and I didn’t have that gripe here. The sound operation left a little to be desired though. There were several times when microphones dropped out for a line or two here or there or levels weren’t brought up until the second line of someone’s dialogue or song. Overall, I thought Playlovers’ Beauty and the Beast was a well crafted piece of theatre that showed that community theatre can reach for and achieve higher standards. It wasn’t perfect, but what show is – even Wicked on Broadway had some mic trouble during Dancing Through Life ;) DazzaB "Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep." Scott Adams