Dragon Review: Beauty & The Beast – Yvonne Arnaud Theatre

Published on: 4 Dec, 2025
Updated on: 4 Dec, 2025

Clair Gleave as Belle and Ricky Oakley as the Beast

By Ferenc Hepp

The Christmas lights have been turned on, there are festive songs playing in all the shops, Black Friday sales have already come and gone. It can only mean one thing; it is time for panto season!

This year’s offering from the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre is Beauty & The Beast, again directed by the theatre’s dynamic chief executive, Joanna Read.

As we take our seats amongst many excited children (and adults of all ages), we are welcomed by the usual colourful and sparkly stage design and the traditional opening by Fairy Rose Red (Misha Malcolm) and Agatha the Evil Sorceress (Lucy Benjamin), who set the scene for our adventure.

The Fairy Rose Red (Misha Malcolm)

From the outset, we warm to the good fairy; Malcolm has a very warm persona and a smile that is infectious, which lasts throughout.

Lucy Benjamin appears for the third time at the Arnaud Panto, and this is by far her best performance. She is evil as Agatha, but her humour and incredible energy make her one of the highlights this year. Look out for her hilarious Claudia Winkleman impersonation, you won’t be disappointed!

As Agatha the Evil Sorceress Lucy Benjamin gives her best performance.

We also meet the ensemble early on with a fun dance number to Footloose to get our feet tapping. They all work well together and look like they have a great time on stage, always keeping in character.

Clair Gleave as Belle with the panto’s ensemble who get everyone’s feet tapping.

Another special mention must go to Matt Pinches as Philipe Philope. By day, he is a co-founder of the Guildford Shakespeare Company, which has been successfully running performances in various non-theatre spaces for 19 years, but this is only his third Guildford panto.

He is certainly very much at home on the Arnaud stage, his French persona, vivacity, timing and humour are all absolutely first class and there is something for everyone, including innuendo and puns for the adults and silly humour for the kids. The belly laughs are plentiful every time he appears.

The first class Matt Pinches as Philipe Philope

His sidekick, Madame Fi-Fi La Fou-Fou, was played by Tom Miller at this performance, covering for Peter Gordon (PG). Not easy to step into PG’s high heels, who is now a Guildford Panto veteran, but a very admirable professional debut as the Dame by Miller, who has just graduated from Guildford’s Performance Preparation Academy. I am sure we will see him again in the future.

There is a slight lull towards the second part of Act One, but the pace soon picks up after the interval with an upbeat can-can number, a fun scene between Pinches and Miller where we discover numerous ways of saying “don’t squeeze my cheese”, and the 12 Days of Christmas, which is always a crowd pleaser.

Beauty & The Beast is a lovely story that also has some sentimental moments, and these are perfectly captured between Ricky Oakley as the Beast and Clair Gleave as Belle. The message is clear; we should not be afraid of being different, but be proud of it, and not judge anyone by their appearance.

The songs used are a mixture of traditional and modern, there is something for all ages, the singing is high quality, and there is a lot of appreciative reaction from the audience, which all makes this show the perfect festive feel good entertainment that we all need.

Beauty & The Beast runs until Sunday, January 4, and tickets are available via www.yvonne-arnaud.co.uk or telephone: 01483 440000.