Beauty and the Beast at Grand Pavilion, Porthcawl – review

Thanks to Grand Pavilion, Porthcawl for providing us with review tickets for Beauty and the Beast

What a fantastic evening we had at the opening evening of Beauty and the Beast, the annual panto from Grand Pavilion, Porthcawl.

The 2023 #PorthcawlPanto is a fun and fabulous show which will have you laughing out loud, shouting all the traditional panto refrains, up on your feet singing – and cowering from a peeing dog, water shooters and flying toilet rolls.

This is our second year of watching the panto in the seaside town, and just as last year we found it a thoroughly entertaining performance, perfect for all ages.

There’s plenty of silly sketches and comedy capers, lots of audience involvement, and they also do a good job of telling the classic fairytale too.

Much of the humour comes from comedy duo Vern Griffiths as Dame Dolly (his 15^th year of appearing in the Porthcawl panto) and Kyle Tovey (back for his fifth year) as Dolly’s hapless but well-meaning son Larry. We loved these two last year; they have a brilliant rapport between them and the humour flows naturally. Special mention must go to the wardrobe department under the supervision of Abby Edwards for Dolly’s show-stopping costumes. Changing with every scene, they are wonderfully over the top. My favourites included the Welsh-themed costume at the start of the show and the leopard print track suit.

Samantha Spragg returns for her second panto at the Pavilion. Last year she was resident baddy Poison Ivy in Jack and the Beanstalk but this year she’s turned good as the enchanting Fairy Ffion, in a resplendent gown and speaking in rhyme.

Aled Thomas Davies is the Beast, angry and mean but with some great humorous moments as he tries to impress Beauty, and his vocals are handsomely warm.

Ceri-Anne Thomas is Belle, down-to-earth, very likable and with a sweet and tender singing voice. The majority of the cast are Welsh, but in the case of Ceri-Anne, she’s an actual home-grown talent. From Bridgend, she spent years performing on this very same stage as part of Bridgend Youth Theatre. After her drama training and a few roles in London, this is her professional Welsh debut. A real ‘full circle moment’, for sure.

Our favourite performer of the night is Harry Pudwell as Gaston, the villain of the show. He’s brilliantly funny, self-absorbed with a plummy English accent and some hilarious facial expressions. It’s hard to believe this is his panto debut – he seems born to play this kind of part.

Packed full of lots of local references, comedy sketches that’ll have you laughing out loud, a soundtrack full of pop hits from George Ezra’s Shotgun to Yes by Merry Clayton (if you like Dirty Dancing, you’ll know it!) to Bruno Mars’ Locked Out of Heaven, a bit of humour at the audience’s expense, and – that absolute panto classic – a slightly different take on The 12 Days of Christmas, this is panto at its best. A fantastic production, perfect for all the family.

Beauty and the Beast is at at Grand Pavilion, Porthcawl until Sunday 31 December. Tickets are still available. Book online here.