Beauty and the Beastie – Pavilion Theatre, Glasgow

Writers: Eric Potts & Liam Dolan

Directors: Eric Potts & Liam Dolan

As traditional family pantos go, you would be hard-pressed to find anything better on a stage in Scotland than this year’s extravaganza from The Pavilion – Beauty and the Beastie.

Opening with a bang on the vibrant village of Cludgie on the Cobbles and a high octane version of Walking on Sunshine, the energy levels are through the roof, and the audience are suitably revved up and ready to go because of it.

Beauty’s Professor mother decides to go on an adventure to a far-flung land called Paisley where an unfortunate trip through the woods results in capture by the cranky Beast, once Prince Lorenzo (Scott Fletcher) but now living under a curse from the rhyming fairy. Feisty Beauty (Jennifer Neil) comes looking for her lost mother (Nikki Auld) and pluckily decides to trade herself for mum’s freedom.

For kids, many of the recognisable elements of the Disney version of the tale are present, including the falling rose petals and the love story of the title characters (allowing them to make sense of the rest of the madness and mayhem). Gaston comes in the guise of Benedict Bridie (Jack Jester) the vain, local blacksmith with a pair of hapless henchmen (played with relish by Scottish TV stars and off-stage friends Grado and Stephen Purdon).

What this panto also has is the best traditional Dame, Dolly Drumchapel (Craig Glover) with a jaw-dropping amount of costume changes – each more outlandish than the last, something lacking (and much-missed) in other shows this season. She has of course a suitably silly son Hector, Pavilion favourite, Liam Dolan.

The cast are outstanding. Many, have of course, worked together every festive season together for many years, and this friendship and camaraderie results in an ease with each other, a natural comedy that means they can verbally joust and josh with one another and keep the audience in hysterics. Each plays to their strengths be it comedy, singing or acting. Their diction too, is worth a mention, as it is razor sharp throughout. Not a line, joke or lyric is lost.

The skits, songs, dances, slapstick, traditional panto elements and storytelling sequences are perfectly placed, there is never a minute to get bored, the script is razor sharp from start to end, each scene never outstays its welcome, each moment never laboured.

Those who criticise the use of projections will be convinced otherwise by this production. The backdrops are high on detail and interest and allow for multiple changes of location that keep the interest levels up for the entirety of the production. It’s colourful, vibrant and full of life, and looks they way you want a panto to look. The costumes are eye-catching and filled with detail.

This is quite clearly a well-oiled machine, the cast, script and audience are made for one another. The interactions elicited from the audience members young and old, unmatched.

This year’s unmissable Glasgow traditional family panto, it’s warmth and joy will leave you feeling that all is well with the world. The perfect entertainment for the festive season.

Runs until 12 January 2015 | Image: Contributed