BEAUTY AND THE BEAST – PANTO IS BACK – OH YES

Featuring Kita Mean, the outrageous winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under
Back by popular demand Erin Wells from What Now? and
Broadway & West End star Hayden Tee

If you didn’t laugh, you weren’t there! Oh, no you weren’t! Pantomime, which bought so much joy and laughter to Christchurch last Christmas, is back for a second year. You could almost call it a tradition!

This year’s side-splitting family-friendly production at the Isaac Theatre Royal is Beauty and the Beast but not as you know it. For starters, it stars RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under winner Kita Mean so anything could happen.

Erin Wells from What Now? in the lead role of Belle and Broadway and West End star Hayden Tee as madcap Greymouth the Wicked Wizard, revisit the ridiculousness of panto after their epic performances in Cinderella in 2020. They just couldn’t keep away and we know you won’t be able to either.

Beauty and the Beast has all the ingredients for a magical trip to the theatre, with hilarious slapstick humour, plenty of audience interaction and marvellous musical numbers that you will be singing for days afterwards, all in one magical show that is suitable for everyone to enjoy whether they are 3 or 103!

This year’s Season runs from 9-19 December and tickets are strictly limited. We know many of you kicked yourselves that you didn’t get there last year – Just saying. Be quick! Pre-sales start today and all remaining tickets will go on sale this Friday, 8 October at 9am via Ticketek.

Beauty and the Beast will be sure to make you laugh, cry and fall in love with a host of hilarious and hairy characters. For those who’ve been living under a rock, this is how our story, adapted by ingenious improviser Gregory Cooper (That Bloody Woman, MAMIL, Rumpelstiltskin, Cinderella) goes. Belle is imprisoned by an evil sorcerer in a castle with a hideous Beast and some other magical characters. Can the Beast break free from the terrible curse? Will Belle outwit the evil sorcerer? Can Belle fall in love with the Beast before the last petal falls from the enchanted rose? Oh, yes they can!

Relive this timeless classic jam-packed with panto antics, heroic deeds, glittering costumes, crazy comedy and dazzling special effects.

This sparkling new imagination of the enchanting fairytale is set to delight families who’ve missed out on live theatrical entertainment for much of the year.

GMG Productions, the team behind hit international productions of Madagascar, CATS, Singin’ in the Rain, Cinderella and more, is assembling NZ’s top talent to stage this tale as old as pantomime.

Principal cast
Belle – Erin Wells
Beast – Cameron Douglas
Tynes – Kita Mean
Greymouth the Wicked Wizard – Hayden Tee
Amberley the Good Witch – Rebekah Head
Maurice – Edwin Beats
Mrs. Potts – Phoebe Hurst
Seymore Bottom – Trubie-Dylan Smith

Adult Ensemble
Jack Shatford, Lucy Sutcliffe, Nellie Evison, Gemma Kearney, Geena Hutton, Bryn Monk

Children’s Ensemble
Isla Palmer, Holly Palmer, Amelia Nicholls, Poppy Brown, Bronte Allpress Goudie, Molly McDowall, Romy Smith, Maddison McDonald.

Director – Gregory Cooper
Musical Director – Mark Bradley
Musical Supervisor – Andy Manning
Choreographer/Dance Captain – Gemma Kearney

Unleash your inner beast and grab your tickets before they sell out. Oh, yes they will!

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST
Isaac Theatre Royal, Christchurch
9 – 19 December
www.ticketek.co.nz

For media enquiries please contact:
Tanya Jephson
Ph (+64) 021 983 049 | E: tanya@themotheragency.co.nz

For production enquiries please contact:
Nick Purdie
Ph (+64) 27 848 4229 | E: nick.purdie@gmg-productions.com

ABOUT GMG
GMG Productions is dedicated to bringing high-calibre productions to the Asia Pacific region. Over the past decade the GMGP team have been involved in producing huge hits such as Disney’s The Lion King, Phantom of the Opera, Les Misérables, CATS, Singin’ in the Rain, The Sound of Music and West Side Story. https://gmg-productions.com/nz