When it comes to a musical, there's nothing quite like a bit of Disney to add a bit of a extra sparkle and magic and that's exactly what audiences in North Shields are getting this week with Astravaganza Entertainment's Beauty and the Beast, with added confetti and pyrotechnics thrown in for good measure. Now, if you still aren't familiar with Astravaganza, they are the production company who staged what, for me, is probably the best amateur dramatic production I've ever had the pleasure of seeing, in the shape of Oliver , which quite rightly earned rave reviews for its run at the Tyne Theatre last year. So the big question is, after setting their own bar so high with that stellar show, did Beauty and the Beast, running at The Exchange until Sunday, manage to top it? Well, the answer in short is, not quite.
Oliver was one of those theatre productions that any audience would be lucky to feast their eyes on; it had an iconic venue, it had amazing group numbers, impressive staging and many other fine attributes that make it an extremely tough act to follow. However, the thing that Beauty and the Beast definitely has in its arsenal is that many of the star performers who were in Oliver are back to get in on the Disney action. READ MORE: Pretty Woman is a soft rock drenched, seductive smash at Sunderland Empire Get all the latest TV and showbiz news and gossip from Chronicle Live with our free newsletter One of the supporting ensemble less than 12 months ago, Amelia Cavagan has ma.
