More beauty than beast in new production at Perth's Crown Theatre
At the final opening for a national tour attended so far by 1.2 million Australians, anticipation and nostalgia built right from the prologue voiced by Angela Lansbury (Miss Potts in the original Disney animated feature) and the opening glimpses of a jaw-dropping set that required 23 trucks to get to Perth and a team of 70 to unload them across thousands of hours.
Faithfulness to the original continued; there is no danger of a modern reimagining in this saccharine-sweet production, which despite the vocal prowess of Belle (Perth-born Shubshri Kandiah) and the Beast (Brendan Xavier) unfortunately is slightly lacking in truly memorable numbers in the context of a 2.5-hour run time.
The obvious exceptions are of course Be Our Guest, a showstopping number bringing all the production's technical might including projected backdrops of dancers' onstage patterns, milked to the max through an extended tap finale with 2400 lights; Belle, which shows off a French provincial town created with 30 tonnes of flying scenery and 50 tonnes of automation and staging; and Beauty and the Beast, simply and touchingly rendered by Jayde Westaby as Mrs Potts.
The character of Gaston has more prominence than in the film and the charismatic Jackson Head brings excellent comedic value to it, with a ridiculous Jim Carrey vibe. To the extent that the gent on one side mentioned the resemblance at interval and the gent on the other was unable to prevent himself Googling Jim Carrey pictures during the performance, distracting us somewhat from Olivier Award nominee Matt West's excellent choreography displayed to full effect in Gaston (fun fact, the song's cast clink mugs 800-plus times).
Despite being centred around the love story of Belle and the Beast the production's real emotional punch somehow comes not from them or even the relationship between Belle and father Maurice (Perth-raised Rodney Dobson) but from the enchanted castle objects whose attachment to humanity is, like the Beast's, dropping away with each petal from the magic rose. Lumiere (Rohan Browne), Cogsworth (Gareth Jacobs), Mrs Potts and Madame the wardrobe (Alana Tranter) are the heart of the show, providing pathos as well as laughs and magic (Lumiere's flames are real; Mrs Potts' spout smokes; Tranter's squeals are pitch-perfect comedy).
Eason Ma was sweet as Chip the cup, head inserted into the side of the cup, body cleverly concealed in the stage furniture, though truth be told the disembodied head was at times striking me as a little on the weird side of cute.
Particularly next to the larger-than-life Gaston, clearly an audience favourite, the Beast is somewhat disadvantaged. His role swings from suddenly roaring too loud and upsetting the other characters, to playing the fool for laughs, lacking the dark, conflicted tragedy this role could otherwise represent. Perhaps more height and bulk in the costuming would have made him a more imposing figure, but perhaps also would more attention given to parts of the show that feel rushed.
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