Beauty and the Beast - Panto Review
The Hazlitt Theatre’s 2019 Pantomime - Beauty and the Beast
We were really honoured to be invited to not only the press event earlier in the year, for Maidstone's, The Hazlitt Theatre's Panto of 2019, Beauty and the Beast, but also to the launch itself last night and WOW! what a wonderful production it is.
The Hazlitt Theatre once again brings Maidstone a traditional fun, endearing, family story to life with a lovely message of beauty comes from within and has managed to secure a fabulous cast that is full of talent who clearly enjoys their time together on and off stage.
Beauty and the Beast is a tale about a beautiful, intelligent girl, who wants more from life and is pursued by a handsome, yet arrogant character named Danon, who is desperate for Beauty to marry him. It is all about the chase, as he loves nothing more than attention from women, but cannot attract the clever ones and is only interested in the simple ones for five minutes!
Beauty ends up meeting a Beast, who unbeknown to her is a Prince who has been cursed and the only way to break the spell is to find true love. She sees through the Beast’s looks and sees who the person really is, they fall in love and the rest is history! … Unfortunately, the story is not that simple and Danon does everything in his evil power to destroy the Beast to get the girl of his (current) dreams to become his wife!
The Hazlitt Thatre’s own production covers the wonderful Panto traditions of slapstick, comedy, singing, dancing and fairy tale adventure. No matter what your age is, there is something for everyone, cheeky humour, beautiful scenery, fun songs and I have to say, the Slapstick song “The twelve days of Christmas” is one of the best ones I have seen. So cleverly written, funny to watch and timed superbly. Great fun indeed!
If you love a Panto, with or without the kids, then we can definitely recommend Beauty and the Beast at The Hazlitt Theatre. The theatre itself is a lovely, intimate size and no matter where you are sitting you can be assured you feel part of this interactive show. Not to forget the staff, they are incredibly helpful, polite and smiley, what more can you want?!
Beauty and the Beast Runs at The Hazlitt Theatre in Maidstone, Kent until 31st December 2019. To find out more about how you can get your tickets, please see here.
Beauty and the Beast, The Cast of 2019 …
Jake Quickenden – Danon
Jake Quickenden is best known for winning ‘Dancing on Ice’ in 2018, he also made it to the live’s on ‘X-Factor’, was a camper in ‘I’m a Celebrity’ and has recently joined the cast of HollyOaks. He is a fantastic singer and plays Guitar beautifully.
He manages to capture the persona of Danon extremely well, flexing his biceps at the ladies, with a naughty glint in his eye, he belts out a few songs and wow can he sing! Jake is clearly a cheeky chappie and has been perfectly cast for Danon.
He loved getting involved with our ‘Catchphrase’ Challenges and has inspired our performing loving boy to a whole new level of entertaining, so thank you for your time Jake, it is very appreciated.
Martha-Francis Henry – Beauty
Martha-Francis Henry is no stranger to Panto, as her first professional job was ‘Jill’ in Jack and the Beanstalk at The KD Theatre, other credits include ‘Sister Act’ ‘Dirty Rotten Scoundrels’, and as a vocalist on ‘Eurovision Song Contest’ opening track in 2016!
Martha has such a beautiful, sweet soul and has some serious talent when it comes to singing and dancing. She totally commanded the room when she sung and acted the part of Beauty, well beautifully!
Her real-life nature is modest, really very sweet, beautiful and very talented, a perfect choice to be cast as Beauty and she totally does this role justice.
Will Elliot – The Beast
Will Elliot has recently returned to the UK after working on board Royal Caribbean Cruise ships, but is no stranger to The Hazlitt Theatre and is welcomed back with open arms.
His singing is amazing and together with Martha, they sing beautifully. Sadly, we didn’t get to meet Will on the Press day, but feel his role in this production is a perfect fit and am really glad we got to see him perform.
Sarah Hooper – Enchantress
Sarah Hooper studied at the Liverpool Institute for performing Arts, with credits including parts in ‘Mama Mia’ on Royal Caribbean Cruise ships, ‘Hairspray’, ‘Dick Whittington’, ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’ and much, much more.
Sarah is an absolute joy to be around, she is a complete all rounder, down to earth and very funny. You get a sense that she can be totally be one of the lads, yet is just so beautiful! Her singing and acting talents are outstanding and you can see she has moves like Jagger too! … Is this person even real?!
Once again, to cast Sarah as The Enchantress is absolutely spot on, funny, intelligent, ballsy and pretty, who is very likeable and who you can tell actually really does love to spread a little bit of magic!
David Zachary – Djon
David Zachary has a whole string of credits since graduating from The National Youth Theatre and National Music Theatre, including ‘Rhythm of the Dance’ U.S and European tour, ‘A Christmas Carol’, ‘Little shop of horrors’, ‘Cinderella’ and so much more.
David is a whole bundle of talent, who is so very funny and really likeable. His fab sense of humour, mixed with his comedy skills gives him the art to adlib skillfully and entertainingly, he can sing really well and again, has been perfectly cast for his ‘Buttons’ style character. His persona actually reminds me of one of our favourites, Mister Maker!
We have loved meeting David and our boy actually said that he thought “he was the funniest one on stage!” … He could be right!
“David was the funniest one on stage!”
William Hodges – DC
William Hodges is actually a Maidstone boy and attended the Hazlitt Youth Theatre before going on to train at East 15 Acting School.
He has many stage and film credits being ‘Hate’, ‘Lines’, a music video for ‘The Franklin Electric’, and much more.
William clearly loves everything about his job, you can see his excitement when he is on the stage, he just comes alive! His comedy timing is fab, his humour is brilliant, his acting is superb, singing is on point and again has been cast really very well as the ‘silly Billy’ type character. Even though I have also seen some of his previous serious stuff he has worked on and he is pretty damn good at that too!
William has been a real pleasure to meet and we have loved seeing his smiley face!
Ian Good – Mademoiselle Marmalade
Ian Good is definitely the man to go to if you want a true Pantomime Dame! He oozes professionalism and character, his costumes, make up and personality is bold, flamboyant and really very charming and it is no wonder why. His world wide directing skills have obviously had a huge impact on his acting skills and his acting credits are endless, having roles in ‘A Midsummer Nights Dream’, ‘The Music Man’, ‘The Wizard of Oz’, ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’, ‘The Bill’, ‘Soldier, Soldier’ and so, so much more. This man is very funny and clearly was born for the stage … More about Ian below.
Joh Conway – Doc
John Conway started acting, singing and dancing while still at school and has since been in many genres of tv, film, theatre, commercials and cabarets. John has played various parts in productions such as ‘The Wizard of Oz’, ‘Goosebumps Kids’, ‘The Hound of the Baskervilles’, and so much more.
It was clear to see his talents of acting and singing and was lovely to see his natural humour come out on stage during the slapstick moments.
John seemed a real lovely guy, who was very happy to chat with us and give us his time. Thank you John … More about John below.
I am absolutely gutted to say, we didn’t get to speak with Ian or more than a few minutes with John, either on the Press day or the launch night, not because we didn’t want to, but because we simply ran out of time. My TFKIK mini reviewer had a whole list of questions and ‘Catchphrase’ challenges ready for both Ian & John on the press day and sadly time disappeared before we got a chance to interview them.
My feelings are that they were both keen to talk to us and take on what we had in store for them, they were really lovely in passing moments and seemed interested in our boy and what we were up to. I’m really sorry we didn’t get to chat, hopefully we will get a chance another time.
Hazlitt Theatre, I will forever be grateful for the opportunity that you have given us for being involved with the launch of your wonderful Panto. The inspiration this has brought to my boy is huge! I do everything I can to encourage my kids to reach for their dreams and teach them that anything is possible.
For my performing obsessed boy, who absorbs all things entertaining, to get to know your fabulous cast, research them on Youtube, see them perform live on stage and actually be on stage with them is beyond inspirational. You have helped me prove to my son that indeed he can do anything he works for!
I don’t care if he dreams to be an actor, a librarian or a postman. For as long as he dreams it, I will do what I can to help him achieve it, so from the very bottom of my heart, thank you so very much xxx
