Polka Dot Pantomimes’ Beauty and the Beast at Spalding’s South Holland Centre brought the magic of Christmas alive

I had the pleasure of enjoying the Polka Dot Pantomime over the weekend – and watching my two young friends reaction to their first performance.

The chance came up to watch Beauty and the Beast at Spalding’s South Holland Centre on Sunday and it seemed the perfect opportunity to get together with one of my closet friends and her two young children (who she says I have shares in as I’m a childless singleton).

The youngest, at 10 months old, absolutely loved it by bopping and head banging her way through the performance while her older sister was entranced by the whole thing.

And she wasn’t the only one.

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Having not been to a pantomime for 15 years, I had forgotten how wonderful these performances are with all the music, audience interaction and the puns – and it allowed by inner child to come out (and that usually doesn’t take too much coaching).

Beauty and the Beast has to be one of my favourite fairy tales, far more interesting than Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty. Not only because it is the heroine that saves the hero without having to be rescued by a handsome prince but there is also a moral to the story – it’s what’s on the inside that counts. Plus a big cat is far more interesting hero than an handsome prince!

While Daisy King Sanders and Mark McCredie were perfect in their starring roles as Belle and Prince Lucien/Beast but my favourite performances were given by Mark Too as Dame Dolly Doughnut and AJ Adams as French Franc.

Mark had a wacky wardrobe that designer Jean Paul Gautier (the traffic themed outfit was wonderful) would be jealous of and AJ brought so much energy to their performance (something I was particularly envious of after consuming an enormous burger before the performance).

The pair were brilliant at whipping up the audience with their catch phrases and jokes, but one of the stand out highlights was their dance with David Burton, who played Belle’s father Maurice, while a scary werewolf danced behind them before snatching them one by one. This was riotous fun with the opportunity for the adults as well as the kids to shout the traditional ‘he’s behind you’.

David was also brilliant at delivering some of the best jokes for me – I love a good pun!

Tom Morris relished his role as the ‘baddie’ Grimalkin and was also good at getting the boos from the audience when he appeared on stage. And I do have a bone to pick with him as he did scare one of young friends but she soon got over that when Fairy Fabulous, aka Jenni Walker, used her magic to make her good.

But to lighten the mood after the scary Grimalkin, it was always lovely to have Daisy and Mark on stage to lighten the mood. The pair had great chemistry and were a delight to watch.

I have to say the costumes and sound effects were fantastic especially when Mark was the beast.

All in all, we had a fantastic evening and would definitely recommend Beauty and the Beast as it has something for everyone, slapstick for the kids and slightly racier jokes for the adults.

As someone who is well into middle age, this performance helped to bring the magic of Christmas alive.

Beauty and the Beast is running until December 30.