Big personalities, small laughs, this script ultimately disappoints
Adult Panto Tour presents Beauty and the Beast with a quartet of celebrated drag queens, Paige Three, Icesis Couture, Elle Vosque and Cheryl. All winners of different iterations of Drag Race, so much talent and personality in one place should have made this a clear success. Unfortunately, that is not the case.
To be clear, all cast members did well with what they were given. It is by no means down to anyone onstage but instead poor writing that let this company down. A twist on the tale as old as time, the narrative itself was not terrible. It just didn’t seem to have a clear idea of what was going on and what it wanted to achieve. One change to the source material is that we actually meet the Prince before he is turned into The Beast. This itself isn’t necessarily a problem, nor is the reason he is transformed as it initially translates well enough. Due to his poor treatment of Belle and the other women of the town, The Enchantress changes him. Now, the initial stance is that he is supposed to be a bit of a lecher, especially since “Womanizer” is what drag queen Paige Three sings as she uses her magic on him. However, it pulls a 180 and decides as we go into the 2nd act that The Beast is actually gay. It doesn’t exactly come out of nowhere as there are jokes made to set this up for act 2 but the change in how the character is played from act 1 to act 2 is drastically different. Which begs the question of why he was so forward with characters like Belle and Giselle to begin with. One could claim overcompensation but it just doesn’t ever really translate well enough in the writing to hit home. It also completely nullifies the point of why he was changed in the first place as is later mentioned at the end by The Enchantress herself. There were interesting elements such as The Beast’s castle being turned into a nightclub which, given the adult nature of the show and The Beast’s lecherous nature, weirdly sort of worked. While the nightclub setting did provide one of the best jokes regarding sticky floors and black lights, the humour is largely what lets this panto down.
On the whole, it just wasn’t particularly funny. Adult pantos can be a great opportunity for crude humour and NSFW themes to shine through in a medium that is generally family friendly but the writing still has to be intelligent. This is vital when it comes to the jokes. Constant swearing and random sex jokes without direction aren’t enough. What should be noted is that the funniest moments were often unscripted, which again highlights that the cast were giving whatever energy they could to salvage poor writing. The funniest scripted parts were ironically things that led to improvisation, such as The Enchantress having a controller to pause or mute certain moments of the show to interact with the audience or Giselle having a clipboard due to constantly forgetting her lines. The 4th wall breaks were often and actually very much appreciated. Usually, too many would feel like too much as it would take the audience out of the story. However, being taken out of the story actually wasn’t such a bad thing truthfully.
There were some highlights that acted as a saving grace to the production, the queens being one of them. All four drag queens really did their best to hold things together. Their big personalities and charm were definitely the standout of the entire evening and the only other thing on this level was of all things, the choreography. The dance numbers were slick and genuinely impressive. This was where a large percentage of the entertainment value came from and if the rest of the show had lived up this high standard, they really might have had something here. It is also worth mentioning that the lip sync battle was highly enjoyable and easily the best moment of act 1. At least it ended on a high before intermission. This is of course classically known for being a staple on Ru Paul’s Drag Race and it’s moments like this where drag and panto really go hand-in-hand in the best way. More moments like this would have welcomed. It should be said, once the 2nd act leaned into the fact it didn’t really know what it was doing with the plot, it did become much more narratively enjoyable but, in all honesty, it was a bit late to fully save itself.
Overall, Beauty and the Beast didn’t really meet expectations. Those who wish to attend purely for the known cast members may get something out of this but this company are sadly let down by a script that doesn’t cater to their talents in a fitting way. Hopefully, this group can work together again with a script worthy of them.
Great night in Scarborough tonight want to thank the whole cast and as a fan of Ru Paul’s Drag it’s always great to see them live on stage.
TERRIBLE! The worst show I have ever seen! Terrible writing, acting, singing and ‘jokes’ that could have been written by a 4 year old; just not remotely funny. We (4 of us) and many others didn’t come back after the interval. What a waste of time & money!
We watch the drag panto every year but went to Romiley tonight & this show was absolute shite!! Whoever wrote the script needs to find a different job. I’d have had more fun pulling my nails out with pliers. Half our party left at interval. Even the drag queens & other actors knew how bad & unfunny it was. And we were not the only ones who left early either. Lots of people at bar during interval saying how disappointing it was. And Icesis Couture forgot more of her lines than she remembered.
Saw this in Northampton last night and sadly I agree. The whole script felt chaotic and lacking a storyline and the crude jokes just didn’t land. Such a shame as last year’s Drag Panto with Sophia Stardust was amazing!
Saw this last night at Ipswich and I was just bored throughout.
The review captures the sentiments I mostly walked away with. It just didn’t have a good throughline and didn’t hit on what can make both a panto and an adult show fun. Random swearing and telling each other to “F-off” 5x in as many minutes just isn’t good comedic writing.
I normally love adult pantos but this was one of the worst I’ve ever seen.
I will say you can tell the performers (belle, Prince, Dancers etc) were generally good on stage, they just had nothing to work with in this show specifically.