Beauty and the Beast - Loughborough 2009

Saturday, November 28, 2009 7:30 PM 19:30
Sunday, January 10, 2010 7:30 PM 19:30

Town Hall, Loughborough, Market Place Loughborough, LE11 3EB United Kingdom (map)

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Beauty and the Beast is the 2009/10 pantomime for Loughborough Town Hall.

This page will be updated with backstage news and insider gossip from both Imagine and the venue. Keep checking back for updates!

You can find lots more photos about the panto on our Beauty and the Beast Facebook photo album.

Loughborough Echo Review

11th December 2009

Read the review on the Loughborough Echo website, or see below!

"THIS years Loughborough Town Hall pantomime Beauty And The Beast is an absolutely stunning production.

Oh no its not!

Oh yes it is!

The full-on festive fun doesn't stop from start to finish, and is guaranteed to delight and enthrall audiences both young and old.

The show, set in the quaint village of Mincing-on-the-Verge, is led from the front by director Neil Bull, who plays the madcap Willy Doo-It, the sidekick to Dame Dorothy Doo-It, who is ably played by fellow Loughborough stalwart Martin Ballard.

And every year the twosomes good clean fun gets slicker and slicker - this year no doubt thanks to some of the domestic ninja Dame's buckets of suds which help to make this year's show one of the messiest yet.

However the greatest compliment to this year's production is that the pair, as fantastic as they are, fail to steal the show - even when they drag an audience member out to join in the frolics.

Because every character here is worthy of high praise - such as the spellbinding Enchantress Victoria Oates and Beauty's bumbling father Pablo Raybould.

Particular plaudits must go to the strong vocal performances given by Beauty, played by Katie Lavelli and howling Beast, Wesley Hughes.

And the comic brilliance of baddie team Eugene (swoon), played by James Nelson, and his servent Pimple, played by Ste Johnston, give the Dame and her Willy a run for their money.

Added to this, the youngsters routines are performed beautifully, and the production itself with its poptastic score, such as the giant skeleton number, are flawless.

Every year the annual Loughborough panto gets better and better - for a smaller venue competiting with neaerby cities such as Leicester, Nottingham and Derby the quality of this show is unbelievable.

Beauty And The Beast, which runs at Loughborough Town Hall until January 10, really deserves to clean up this year."

Production Photos

1st December 2009

The panto is open!

28th November 2009

And even though we say so ourselves, it's a cracker! BIG thanks to all the team who have worked so hard to get the show on - have a great run!! xx

Martin Ballard's Dames Diary....

24th November 2009

.... is up and running for 2009! Read it in the BBC Leicester website.

Hayley's panto log

18th November 2009

Hayley, who worked in the Imagine offices during the build up to panto 2009, has now moved on to be chaperone and rehearsal ASM on Beauty and the Beast, Loughborough.

As well as being a top girl, she's amazing fun, so we decided to set her a challenge of sending us a log of her time in Loughborough, with the promise of her own photo album and log of events on Facebook!

The first couple of photos came through today, and we'll keep updating the log as and when she sends photos through!

The panto is in rehearsal

16th November 2009

All the cast have arrived at the theatre, and rehearsals for this year's panto are now underway! We're hoping to get photos through soon - when we do we'll upload them and share them with you!

Much planning taking place!

30th October 2009

With only two weeks to go until rehearsal commence, there's alot of work taking place to plan for the show.

Neil (director and playing Willy Do-it) has been in to talk music with Steve. All the music is now sorted and so they were just listening to the tracks and planning it all into the show.

And the Imagine and Town Hall technical teams have been with our special effects maker, looking at the special effects for the show. We're not giving much away, but here's a quick look at the build that's going on and one of the set pieces we've had made, so you get a taster of the style of this year's show...

Kev from Loughborough Town Hall tries out the effect

The panto launch

7th September 2009

We thought you might like a sneaky peak behind the scenes at the Loughborough Town Hall panto launch?! These aren't the official photos, but we sent our mole, Steve, behind the scenes with his camera to get some early shots to share with you all. The official photos will be out in due course but here's some to be going on with!

Martin (Dame Dorothy Doo-it), Neil (Director and Willy Doo-it) and Katie (Beauty)

Neil sets up a shot with the photographer and James (Eugene) and Ste (Pimple)

Ste (Pimple) and James (Eugene) initially with Neil (Director and Willy Doo-it)...

The panto babes are cast!

6th September 2009

Today saw the casting of the panto babes, and we had a great turn out and a fantastic standard! The auditioning panel was Neil Bull (Director and playing Willy Doo-it), Katie Gavin (Choreographer), Sarah Boden (Imagine) and Hayley McCarthy (panto chaperone).

After much deliberating, we eventually chose three teams of 8 babes with a group of reserves. well done to all who auditioned - we wish we could have taken you all!