Hitches mar panto opening night

Beauty and the Beast, Abbey Theatre, Nuneaton, to Jan 20.

A combination of first-night jitters and technical hitches marred the opening of Sudden Impulse Theatre Company's first pantomime.

Many of the jokes failed to lift the show, falling flat with me and the rest of the audience. The dame, Madame Beret, played by Phil Malkin, was reduced to making jokes about the humour, and he was, admittedly, funny.

The cheeky chappy humour of Gaston, played by Sam Bates, the great singing talents of Sam Asbury as the Beast, and good original songs could have saved the show if not for the unfortunate glitches.

The sound was poor and even the curtains seemed to have a mind of their own, opening and closing in between scenes.

The Dame made valiant attempts to make light out of the various mishaps but to me it seemed more like the play that went wrong than the panto that went right.

www.abbeytheatre.co.uk