Bosses at The Haymarket have announced details of the Christmas show and promise it will be a fitting alternative to the traditional pantomime.
Steve Hawes’ heartwarming adaptation of the popular fairy tale Beauty and the Beast will run from December 9 to 31 at the Wote Street theatre.
Director Paul Chamberlin said the adaptation will be be a far cry from the Disney version.
He said: “Beauty and the Beast is one of the best known fairy tale love stories – but there’s much more to it than that. It’s an enchanting story, magical, thrilling, surprising and often very funny.
“We’ve added our own sprinkling of theatrical magic to make a production everyone will enjoy.”
The story starts when a handsome prince refuses to marry Satyra, the empress of the forest.
As payback for being jilted, the angry empress turns the prince into a hideous beast - permanently.
The only get-out clause that would return him to normality is if he can get a woman to fall in love with him under her own free will.
Elsewhere, Beauty’s father picks the Beast’s perpetual rose forcing his only daughter to become Beast’s prisoner.
The ensuing love story has become a treasured fairy tale receiving countless film and stage treatments.
The holiday show will see the return of Haymarket favourite Anne-Marie Piazza who won over the audience in The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe as Susan in 2009, and as Alice in last year’s Easter show Alice in Wonderland.
Tickets for the performance are now on sale and start at £16.50. For more information, contact the Anvil Arts box office on 01256 844244.
