FMT Deliver a great little panto!
Its always nice to get a pleasant surprise - and the Felixstowe Musical Theatre production of Beauty and the Beast certainly provided one on its opening night at the Spa Pavilion.
I suppose a lot of us are a bit jaundiced when it comes to pantos . . we go for the kids, or because we know someone in the cast, and we don't expect too much. But this is one panto you can go along to see, and actually come away with a warm glow of enjoyment.
Traditionally, of course, the story and script is a touch iffy, and all the standard panto bits are slotted into place; but the production itself easily overcomes this and once past the first few moments, everyone gets in the swing and starts to enjoy themselves.
The two things that clearly stood this panto apart from others seen last year was the quality of the singing, and the quality of the production numbers. All of the musical production numbers were extremely well put together, well-staged and choreographed, and the show owes a great deal to Amanda Bond and her chorus groups, who had obviously put in enough work to get it right. The actual dancers were spot-on all the time, too, and I thought their excellent work lifted the show well above the average.
Most pantos usually suffer from a shortfall in the singing talent department, but the vocal quality of FMT's cast was outstanding.
It's always difficult to pick and choose among a strong cast,but in this instance its even more difficult because they were so uniformly good. The Beast played played by Adam Flatman was the weakest singer, but he was otherwise very competent and confident, making a good start in a principal role. Alex Shulver turned in a very well-judged performance, holding the whole show together nicely, and I was very impressed with Lee Cooper, playing the super-confident Louis.
Michelle Pountney-Langham was delivered a slick Beauty, while Richard Smith (Danni) and Daniel Keeble (Cheryl), get my vote for a pair of not-so-ugly sisters - I know a bar in Tunisia where they'd go down a storm. The Good Fairy, Jenni Hazelwood, came across as rather prim and proper, until she got the chance to belt out a number of her own, which I thought was great.
The whole musical side of the show, under M.D. Natasha Free, was seriously good - she, too, had obviously put a lot of work into this production.
So, a show from Felixstowe Musical Theatre which was good family entertainment, a lot of fun, and a really rather well staged and presented night out for everyone to enjoy.
The only disappointing part of the whole event was the size of the audience, and you can easily put that right yourself by getting along to the Spa Pavilion on Friday, Saturday or Sunday (4th, 5th, 6th Dec) and booing and hissing with everyone else. Your hands might sting a bit with applauding . . . but you'll love it!
Chris Gosling
See Felixstowe TV's video from the dress rehearsal