Its no secret that the Hooper household are big Disney fans. When we saw that the Customs House in South Shields was showing a special Singalonga ‘Beauty and the Beast’ on a Sunday afternoon we were keen to head along. The girls still haven’t got over my rendition of the Katy Perry song ‘Chained to the Rhythm’ in a bar on the Costa Del Sol in the summer (yes I am that embarrassing Mam!) so any excuse to exercise those vocal chords!
Customs House
If you haven’t been to the Customs House, down on the river in South Shields, you are missing a treat. There’s so much for all the family going on and tickets are very reasonable. It’s a friendly little theatre where every seat offered a great vantage spot. We were pleased to be Row G, just 7 rows from the stage which is perfect for a cinema screening. Although we’d wolfed a massive Sunday dinner down at my Mam’s just an hour before the girls settled into their seats with sweets and pop in hand. As it was the weekend I decided to get a glass of prosecco from the bar which you can take in a plastic cup.
As we walked into the theatre we were handed our bag of props. The Singalonga shows are interactive and all is explained by the ‘host’ a lovely lady called Rose, who introduced the show and cracked some jokes to get us in the party mood. A lot of the little girls in the audience had come dressed in their Belle costumes and she really made them feel special by asking them to stand up and twirl, and came into the audience to ask their names. The pre-movie show lasted around 30 minutes.
As it was a singalong the words of the songs, handily popped up on the bottom of the screen to encourage the singing. As if I needed any encouragement!
Singalonga Props
There were so many instructions that I wasn’t sure we would remember them. But sometimes Rose would come on over the PA and remind us!
- Frog clacker-used to spur the horse Philippe on as he galloped
- Candle glow stick-to light the way in the dark castle
- Tissue-to wave every time Plumette (the feather duster) appeared
- Party popper-for the end when Belle kisses the beast
We were also encouraged to Boo the dastardly Gaston, and cheer everytime Belle slammed a door in his face.
Beauty and the Beast
We loved this movie when we saw it in the cinema back in February, and I had kind of forgotten just how good it was. I still think Josh Gad (aka Olaf from Frozen) was the standout as LeFou. He just manages to crack me up and steal every scene. It is a lovely family friendly movie, and yes me and Alan did have a tear in our eyes at the end.
One slight criticism is that the picture quality wasn’t as good as in the cinema. I’m not sure if it was DVD quality, but in the dark castle scenes sometimes it lost a little of it’s crispness as you would have in the cinema. This didn’t hamper the enjoyment of the show though!
Singalonga
If you haven’t been to a Singalonga event before we thoroughly recommend you check them out. Some of the other shows they have are Sound of Music, Frozen, Dirty Dancing and the Rocky Horror Show. The combination of the comfortable theatre, fun props and energetic party host lead to a great afternoon of family fun.
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