PANTOMIMES come in many different guises – glitzy and heavy with celebrities (some of whom you may have heard of), beautifully costumed with lavish sets, clever and funny, warm-hearted, full of local jokes and music catering to every taste from grandparents to toddlers …

Some have a special place in their community, and that is squarely where the Yeovil pantomime sits. This is a town that loves its theatre (whether it is Westlands with its vast wide stage or the Octagon, hopefully re-opening in a couple of years’ time).

And at no time is that affection more evident than at Christmas, when the cavernous auditorium is full of excitement, festive pullovers and glittering frocks. Around us were family groups of three or maybe four generations, including a tiny baby – ready to laugh at all the local jokes, gasp at the clever routines and sing or clap along at any opportunity.

This year’s show is Beauty and the Beast, written by Brad Fitt and Kevin James, with various (disguised) nods to the popular Disney show, but skilfully and wittily avoiding anything that could be deemed plagiarism. So the hunk – and boy, is he a hunk! – is Daston, not Gaston, and while the “characters” may remind you of talking teapots or candlesticks they don’t take any active part in the proceedings.

Instead we have two local magic figures – Fairy Halstock(Hayley-Jo Murphy) and wicked Queen Galhampton (Natalie Morgan), the homely Dame Gertie Lush (Andrew Williams) and his son, lovable comic Caractacus “Crackers” Lush (panto co-writer Kevin James), with feisty Belle Rose (Lottie Mae O’Kill – last year’s Sleeping Beauty princess at Salisbury) and the sad, dignified Beast (Ollie Thomas-Smith).

Daston is brought in to seduce Belle and allow the evil Queen to seize total control of the land of Yeovilania. Like his lofty cinematic counterpart, he is muscle-bound and vain … but with the roving eye, mobile eye-brows, wiggling hips and bursting biceps of Morgan Scott, he is hilariously funny – and much too nice to be any sort of villain.

This is a show that really has something for everyone – it is very funny, with both slapstick and verbal jokes, musical, with plenty of catchy songs and lively dances, and it offers a real choice between good and evil.

Belle, excellently sung, is a proper heroine, standing up for what she believes in and the people she loves. The Beast is noble, the good fairy is delightful and the bad queen is a deeply unhappy person who may be redeemed by love.

Comic Kevin James holds it all together with charm and wit and Andrew Williams is one of those dames that you just love, more Les Dawson than Danny la Rue.

One of the Yeovil pantomime’s secret weapons is choreographer James Bamford – a home-grown talent who took his first performing steps at the Octagon and now heads his own Project Dance company as well as choreographing everything from the glitzy summer Ballet at Hatch to his local panto. His dancers are all professionally trained, and this Beauty and the Beast allows them to show their versatile skills, from acrobatics to classical ballet.

This show is a delight – the perfect way to introduce children, no matter how young, to the joys of live theatre. Oh, yes it is!

FC

Photographs by Len Copland