Review: Beauty and the Beast, Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury, Tuesday, November 6

by Chris Price

Clasping a rose and Beauty’s hand, the audience gasp as the Beast disappears into the shadows with his love, emerging a moment later as Prince Orion.

The centre-stage transformation is as effortless and dramatic as every move of the Northern Ballet’s performance of Beauty and the Beast at Canterbury’s Marlowe Theatre.

The production only had its premiere in Leeds in December last year but quickly became the company’s most successful production ever in its home city.

Its UK tour is proving just as successful and rightfully so.

What has been achieved so well by choreographer David Nixon and his talented team of dancers is to capture the magical touch of the much-loved Disney movie version but adding an almost demonic note for its adult audience, as the Beast takes on a fiendish persona against the virtue of Beauty.

All the way through, the ballet clings to the story’s central message of redemption and love, which is a clear narrative glue as the Beast struggles to come to terms with his punishment for his past arrogance.

Premier dancer Pippa Moore – filling in for Martha Leebolt who had been called to Cuba to dance in a Gala – captivated the hushed theatre, firstly as a bookish, dreamy girl, who becomes wary of the Beast during an initially comical, then sinister dinner scene.

She grows to see the pain so wrenchingly portrayed by soloist Benjamin Mitchell, before falling for his strength and doting nature.

The initial arrogance of Prince Orion, played by Tobias Batley, turns to sweet celebration in a indulgent wedding scene at the close, where it feels like the dancers sing as they prance to Saint Saens’ Conclusion of Scherzo and Finale.

At the curtain, the cast looked like they could continue the performance happily ever after – in the way all good fairy tales end.

Beauty and the Beast runs until Saturday, November 10.

For an interview with premier dancer Martha Leebolt, click here.