Beauty and the Beast

Synopsis

The story of Belle and the prince turned to a beast till he can make someone love him.

Our Review:

11 December 2003

The story of a young girl who learns to love a disfigured and frightening beast, freeing him from a curse and turning him back into a handsome prince, can be traced back to the mid 16th century.

Of course, there have been many incarnations since then, not least legions of pantomimes, the glittering Walt Disney musical and animated film, and most recently, Birmingham Royal Ballet's latest telling.

Here at the RSC, writer and director Laurence Boswell has returned to the original story to create a piece of accessible, beautiful and intelligent family theatre.

The opening reveals a tableau introducing Beauty and her family, establishing their history and characters - particularly how their merchant father lost his wealth and how he came to be imprisoned in the Beast's enchanted palace, given the choice of being eaten alive, or sending his daughter Beauty to marry the Beast.

But this Beauty is no docile and passive child; Aoife McMahon instead makes h...

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Latest User Review

USER: Whatsonstage.com (82.3.95.158) - 8 January 2004:

Deeply disapointing. On the positive side, a good programme, beautiful costumes and some fine performances from Sophie Winkleman, Gary Sefton and Darren Tunstall, and there is no doubt that Aoife McMahon fits the bill as a "beauty" but this production lacks magic. The dancing is unispired and large parts of Laurence Boswell's script (on sale in the foyer with a cast list that amazingly omits the part of Beauty!) appears to have been cut. This appears to have been a recent change as the free cast sheet still lists "wardrobe, vanity table and screen" parts which have all been cut as has a substantial part of the relationship between the Maid and Beast's man, together with a number of songs. The songs that remain are unmemorable (do they really expect to sell CDs of this?). As a consequence, much of the humour has been lost in the production. Generally, the acting is sound, but the dreadful set gives and clomping dancing gives this the look of a school play. If magic was not so vital to this, the acting might have dragged this up to a two or three star review, but even taking advantage of WoS's offer, I feel cheated out of my money on this one. And as for the reviewer who preferred this to All's Well, I can only say "get well soon"....

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