Star Rating 
We all know the traditional story of Beauty & The Beast…
An arrogant prince is cursed to live as a terrifying beast, he captures an unwary clockmaker and locks him up for trespassing in the castle, but then his bold and beautiful daughter Belle takes his place. Leaving her whole life behind, including a cocky suitor with the name of Gaston, she now is imprisoned with him for the rest of eternity, the beast gets a shot at true love after so many years of no hope. Assisted by the Beast’s enchanted and cursed servants; including a clock, a teapot and a candelabra, Belle begins to see the sensitive soul behind the Beast’s fearsome façade and slowly and deeply falls for him.
Birmingham’s Royal Ballet performed their rendition of the traditional story of Beauty and the Beast at the Birmingham Hippodrome.
The ballet tells the story of Belle’s father, a merchant, believing his fortune lost at sea and accepts money from the rich Monsieur Cochin to pay the bailiffs and in return, his son has a desire to marry one of the sisters.
Meanwhile, the father promises the daughters gifts and Belle asks for a single rose. Robbed during a storm, the Merchant takes refuge in a castle where he finds his trunk returned and full of gifts for his daughters and goes to pick Belle her rose. Outraged at the theft, a monstrous beast appears and in return for his life, the Merchant must send his youngest daughter to the castle to be detained in the castle and in order to save her father, Belle agrees.
Then every night for months the beast asks Belle to marry him but is turned down each time. In order to secure her hand in marriage, the beast throws an extra special ball and once again asks Belle for her hand.
Belle instead asks to leave to see her father, but in condition of leaving, the beast agrees but gives her another rose, telling her that she must return before the rose dies, or he too will die.
Returning home, Belle finds wedding preparations underway, but the greedy Cochin has yet to decide which sister he wants as his wife. Belle tells the truth of her situation to her jealous sisters, but while she is back home, she is unaware that the beast is beginning to die.
Belle finally returns to the castle and declares her love for the beast breaking the curse, transforming him back into a handsome prince.
Sitting down to watch this performance, I expected a well thought out interpretation of the film with the enchanted castle and all of the magic. But instead, it was a random story which had traces of the original tale but otherwise didn’t make any sense!
The Life of Sophie 