Beauty and The Beast at DeMontfort Hall 16th
December to 6th January 2018
DeMontfort Hall is continuing its
recently revived custom of an annual pantomime with a remarkable production of
Beauty and The Beast, not to be confused with Disney’s upcoming live action
film of the much loved animated version.
On a very chilly morning we
assembled in the hall to meet some of the cast and get a sneak round the stage
set. It has to said that the way that an enormous amount of scenery has been
packed into the very limited room backstage is ingenious. We were lucky to be
given a close up view of one of the spectacular scene changes, all of which
happen in full view of the audience without a blackout. Incredibly inventive
and effective.
Once we had caught our breath and taken
cast pictures on the set we wandered into the Garden Suite where we met up with
four cast members for a chat.
David Lonsdale plays Cedric,
Belle’s father.
Is he good or bad?
Panto always conforms to goodies
and baddies, he said. Belle’s father is a good, very avuncular, granddad type
who messes up and causes all sorts of problems which result in Belle being held
captive by the Beast.
Have you done many pantomimes?
I’ve done a few but I came to it
late as I worked on Heartbeat for many years and we couldn’t do panto. We were
too busy. Now I’ve done 8 or 9, I’ve played Dame a couple of times but I much
prefer doing Fathers and Barons. Dame is way too much like hard work. It is so
physical with all the costume changes.
And talking of Dames, I next spoke to
renowned local Dame, Martin Ballard
You work for BBC Radio
Leicester, don’t you?
Yes I have been there for 30 years,
on an off.
Are you from Leicester?
I am originally from Castle
Donnington, so Leicestershire born and bred.
You have done loads of pantomimes
here, haven’t you?
Overall I have done 28 pantos, this
is my 7th here. I was at Loughborough for 15 years when they didn’t
do them in Leicester
Have you always been Dame?
No, I’ve done Dames, comics,
barons, but mostly Dames
You enjoy doing the Dame?
Absolutely. This is a lovely show.
I haven’t done it for a long time. It’s topical because of the movie coming
out. It’s got something for everyone, the humour, the slapstick, much more than
the Disney story. A very traditional pantomime.
Is it anything like the Disney
version?
No, none of the songs. It wouldn’t
be panto if we copied that. Panto is driven by the original fairy story. That’s
the way it should be anyway. We are not doing the Disney show with slapstick,
we are doing the fairytale.
We saw the scene changes just
now.
That’s the wow factor, the lights
and music, the transformation in full view. Credit has to be given to
DeMontfort Hall for the effort they put in every year for this. It is not a
traditional theatre and everything has to be created and put in, the lighting
rig and scenery machinery; they have to build a theatre on the stage before the
scenery goes in.
Next on my list of people to chat
to was Richard McCourt.
You are one half of Dick ‘n’ Dom, children’s TV favourites
Just the one half, the other one is
in hibernation for the winter.
You’ve been doing panto for quite a while
Quite a bit on my own in the early
2000’s and then me and Dom did a couple of years together and this is my third
on my own again.
Are you still on TV?
Yeah but me and Dom mainly do live
tours, we are at Edinburgh next year. We are on the live circuit more than on
TV at the moment.
What sort of character do you play in panto?
Always this sort, Idle Jack, Wishee
Washee, Buttons. This show is weird as it doesn’t have that sort of character
like Buttons so I am playing the Dame’s son, Dick, the village idiot.
Is this your first time in Leicester?
Yes, first time in panto but I am
from Sheffield and had friends in Leicester so I was up and down.
Finally I got to chat with local
legend Sam Bailey
Are you happy to be back here for your second year running?
Third panto, second one here.
When you won X Factor …
Four years ago today!
…. did you ever think it was
going to be anything more than a singing career?
I used the experience to open doors
and add strings to my bow
Was it always an aspiration to get into acting and musicals?
Yes, I always wanted to do it.
There are some people who do X Factor and leave it too late. Literally as soon
as I came off the show I was ‘I wanna do this, I wanna do that’. Strike while
the iron is hot.
What was it like doing Chicago? Being on the other side of the bars, so to
speak?
Playing Momma Morten was great. I
loved it. I can’t do the new tour because I am doing Fat Friends The Musical. I
finish here and go straight into Fat Friends. I love this, I love Christmas. My
kids can come and see me on Christmas Eve. My daughter is obsessed with Belle
and is coming dressed up. But that is what panto is all about, it’s for the
kids. I have always wanted to do it and now I have been given the opportunity,
and n my home town! I can tuck my kids in bed every night and my eldest, 13,
loves theatre so she comes along t see backstage.
So, a dream come true?
Absolutely!
There will be a full review in the
Gazette shortly but, in the meantime, if you want your dreams to come true you
can’t do better than getting tickets for Beauty and The Beast at DeMontfort
Hall some time between now and January 6th
First published on Western Gazette
First published on Western Gazette
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