Beauty and the Beast
Gaiety Theatre, Dublin
★★★★☆
Darryn Crosbie’s annual spectacular is a pantofied version of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, with selected songs from Howard Ashman and Alan Menken’s original film score fleshed out with contemporary pop numbers (Raye, Huntr/X, The Saja Boys) that have been rewritten to make lyrical sense in the context of the story.
Ciara Lyons’s Belle and David James Whelan’s Beast don’t quite play to type, however: she is fearless even in the face of his roar, and he is far less frightening from the get-go.
The opening scene also suggests there may be a second female protagonist worth looking out for as the plot unfolds with admirable pace. She gets her big solo – a rendition of Elton John’s I’m Still Standing, supported by the youth ensemble – before the interval, but it is only at the final curtain call, for which she emerges in a bright confection twice the size of Belle’s golden skirt, that Nana Potts’s centrality to the story in this year’s panto becomes clear.
Played in one guise or another by Joe Conlan for the past 14 years, the role of the dame is a key part of the panto formula, and Conlan has become a key part of the Gaiety panto’s signature over the years. Crosbie’s more stripped-back approach to storytelling in this year’s offering plays to Conlan’s strengths, in the choice of songs and the choreography. Conlan has never seemed so certain as a performer.
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The stripped-back storytelling also keeps very young audiences engaged, and while the decibels of resounding joy from the stalls may be a sensory challenge for small ears, Beauty and the Beast is admirably accessible. It is also just gorgeous to look at. The Gaiety’s own architecture is lush with gilded mouldings, scarlet velvet and that stunning chandelier, but the painted elements of Ciara Cramer’s set, which includes the second proscenium of a rose-studded trellis, is an aesthetic pleasure too.
By its nature, pantomime is endlessly pliable. As a popular form it has survived over the centuries by reinventing itself in line with its times. The Gaiety panto will return in November 2026 with a new dame bringing new energy, but this year, as Conlan takes his final bow, it seems fitting to pay tribute to his role in securing an audience for the current generation.
Beauty and the Beast is at the Gaiety Theatre, Dublin, until Sunday, January 18th
