Shona McGarty brings the star power to the Orchard’s 2023 pantomime, which is also its first production in its new temporary home. Orchard West (or, as the cast refer to it, the tent) is housing the theatre while the main building has its troublesome RAAC concrete roof dealt with.
McGarty (you may know her as EastEnders’ Whitney Dean) certainly earns her place as the star of the show. With a powerful and delightfully clear-toned voice she is a lively presence on stage and engaging with it. Her job as Belle is to fall in love with The Beast, aka Prince Sebastian, because of who he is, not what he looks like. In a cleverly written part her Belle shows us not only that we should not judge people by appearances, but also makes a strident commentary on the power of independent women. She can fight her own battles. McGarty makes the leading love interest a proper part and someone you want to be with, not an easy thing to do when these parts in pantos are so often the wet weekend of the line-up.
Connor Carson is Prince Sebastian and lends his charming voice to The Beast, which gives warmth and life to the character. He is turned into his alter ego under the spell of The Enchantress – the usual fairy character needed in all good pantos and provided here by Emma Jay Thomas. It’s not a part to make a huge statement with, although her CV is impressive so she’s worth looking out for.
We are, of course, in Pantoland, not Disneyland. So we need our usual troop of comics and baddies. In the absence of a Dame, John Archer brings a winning way to the role of Belle’s father (apparently called Maurice according to the programme, although if that’s mentioned in the script it escaped my notice!). Arhcer is a comedy magician and both epithets are well-deserved. His comedy partner is Harry Reid as his son/Belle’s brother, Silly Billy. Another EastEnders alumni (he’s one of several iterations of Ben Mitchell) Reid is the audience warm-up guy, literally bounding around the stage with energy and gamely throwing himself into the gymnastics routine of the speciality act, the Acromaniacs.
Our baddie (boo, hiss) is Tom Senior as Flash Harry (alright, Gaston). Senior is quite a charming, if self-satisfied, baddie. Not so much scary as smarmy and a very enjoyable performance. Senior immediately goes up further in my estimation when I see he was in Eugenius! at The Other Palace. Regular students of my reviews will know it’s a personal favourite.
My only criticism is that Beauty and the Beast is not really a panto and suffers because of the lack of a pantomime dame and because one inevitably longs for the Disney music. But the cast are terrific and for most of the evening managed to put those concerns out of my head.
I must also mention the venue. Orchard West is indeed a glorified tent, but it’s very smart with spacious foyer, bar and toilets. The visual spectacle of the show was somewhat muted compared with recent productions in the main house – an inevitable consequence of the constraints of working without a fly tower I suspect. But in every other respect this sounded and looked as slick and sparkly as you would wish. All credit to everyone involved in both committing to keeping theatre alive in Dartford and getting this venue up and running so quickly.
Sue In The Stalls 