Reviews 2010
Reviews 2010
✭✭✭✩✩
written by Lorna Wright and Nicholas Hune-Brown, directed by Ted Dykstra
Ross Petty Productions, Elgin Theatre, Toronto
December 2, 2010-January 2, 2011
Ross Petty’s annual pantos have become a holiday institution in Toronto. Yet, Beauty and the Beast, his 15th anniversary production, unaccountably bypasses the under-12 set who should be a panto’s target audience and misdirects its aim at tweens, who’d never be caught dead at a panto.
The script by Lorna Wright and Nicholas Hune-Brown has almost nothing to do with the story as presented in the 1991 Disney movie or the 1994 musical, and even less with original French tale of 1740. Instead, the panto is pop culture mashup of American Idol, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and various top ten music videos where satire of current music fads tends to smother the innocent magic of fairy tales. To win Bella (Melissa O’Neil), the nerdy wannabe rock singer Prince Zack (Jake Epstein) makes a Faustian pact with evil music impresario Baron Barnum von Cowell (Ross Petty) to become the rock star Beasty Boy, unaware that he will eventually become only a beast and Cowell will take over the throne. The running time of two hours and 20 minutes is at least 20 minutes too long for a children’s show. The Twilight series parody at the start is unnecessary, the set-up concerning Prince Zack is very slow and the added plot twist where Bella herself becomes a beast consumes too such time and will confuse kids who thought they knew the story.
The cast is one of Petty’s strongest. Epstein, a fine singer and actor, obviously enjoys himself both as geek and beast. O’Neil, a Canadian Idol winner, proves she can also act up a storm. Fans of Kids in the Hall won’t want to miss Scott Thompson in the dream role as Bella’s ditzy Aunt Plinky, who also has a hilarious turn as HRH Queen Liz II. Prince Zack’s companions are the dependably comic Eddie Glen and Jake Simons, who shows a flair for comedy we never saw when he starred in Dirty Dancing. Lisa Lennox has more to do as Bella’s pet lamb than when Cowell transforms her into pop diva Lady Baa Baa, while Meghan Hoople joyfully chews up the stage as Stratford rodent-turned-teen sensation Buskin Beaver. As usual, the choice of pre-existing music is wide ranging--from swing to Wild Cherry, the Pointer Sisters and Blondie to Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies,” Bieber’s “Baby” and Petty in a great send up of “Bad Romance.” Yet, it’s a strange show when the four filmed commercials that interrupt it are actually funnier than anything onstage. If real commercials were as hysterical as Beaver’s visit to Lowe’s hardware section or Thompson’s stay as the Queen at the Royal York, we’d never press the mute button.
©Christopher Hoile
Note: A version of this review appeared in Eye Weekly 2010-12-03.
Photo: Ross Petty and Scott Thompson. ©Bruce Zinger.
2010-12-03
Beauty and the Beast: The Savagely Silly Family Musical