When it started, I felt a sense of nostalgia. Beauty & the Beast was the first movie I watched in the cinemas with my mum ages ago. I’ve always loved the soundtrack, you can’t go wrong most of the time with Alan Menken and Tim Rice! The singers / actors that were particularly good were Belle, Gaston, and Lumiere (the candlestick). Belle’s acting wasn’t great, but I think her singing was really good. And Gaston was excellent, both acting and singing! Lumiere’s acting was really funny, he had a snooty French accent and he played his part to perfection.

One of the things that really spoilt the play was their sound system. There were static sounds most of the time, and at times, the mikes went off, so we were unable to hear them. Most noticeable was when Mrs Potts sang the theme song, and her mike went off, and we missed the first line and a half of it.

Towards the end, the tension was building up when the villagers + Gaston came beast-hunting. It was at the fight scene with Gaston and the Beast, and Gaston had just thrown the Beast off the railing, when the lights went dim. Then this voice came out…”Ladies & Gentleman, we are experiencing technical difficulties. Please bear with us, and we will try and resume as soon as possible.” ?!?!? What a mood breaker! I was already drafting out a letter to Yvents in my mind, saying things like “Pay for expensive tickets, get bad performance and disruptions”. Luckily, it resumed after about 5 – 10 minutes.