Disney classic is a beauty

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, George Lawton Hall, Mossley

MOSSLEY AODS is nothing if not ambitious, and takes on Disney’s multi-million-pound romantic, comic musical with obvious relish.

The gung-ho approach has worked brilliantly for the company before and works pretty well again, the opening night performance getting loud applause for its colour, power and work rate.

The production isn’t quite in the very top rank from this group — but then that’s about as high as local amateur musicals get. No, this one has minor problems with the novel, tightly-packed set — or rather with the smooth operation of it — that makes some of the scene changes unusually slow.

But then the tiny GLH stage is asked to house a large set with backgrounds and a large castle front that opens, storybook-style, into the castle interior, complete with push-out grand staircase. Not bad for an area the size of a large postcard. The show is, of course, the one that finally showed Disney it could make a huge amount of money from stage shows, despite it costing millions in fantastic sets, costumes and special effects.

The musical is amusing, tuneful — with a couple of stand-out numbers — and brilliantly costumed, with real romantic leads, even if one of them does have what appear to be horns, and supporting comedy characters with real character.

This is one of the Mossley company’s strengths: even minor characters are played by strong performers: the candlestick Lumiere by confident comedian Paul Firth; the clock Cogsworth, anxiously funny in the hands — sorry — of Lee Brennan, and Mandy Mallinson a charming Mrs Potts the teapot. That’s not forgetting Tom Varey as a humorously ridiculous Gaston, Lisa Kay as Madame de la Grande Bouche or Kerry Newton as the sexy Babette, all highly watchable.

Ultimately, backed by the highly musical band, occasionally supported on stage by a cast of over 30 hard-working performers and mostly making sense of the slight story in words and song are Laura Meredith, a bright, sweet-voiced performer who proves a good match for the beast of Jon Crebbin, whose vocal quality is among the best in current amateur theatre.

The evening has fantastic costumes, great chorus work and if not a magical quality, then the nearest amateur theatre might get. No wonder it is selling very strongly