Beauty and the Beast runs 54 performances at the Hazlitt from 28 November. Ten of them cost a flat £21, and the theatre's own website prints no prices at all.

Maidstone’s pantomime this year is Beauty and the Beast at the Hazlitt Theatre, running 54 performances from Saturday 28 November to Thursday 31 December 2026. Tickets have been on sale since 11 November last year, and the price you pay swings by more than £11 depending purely on which night you pick.

The Hazlitt’s own listing does not tell you that. The show page gives an “At a glance” panel with the genre, the age guidance and the running time, and no prices whatsoever. We pulled the price of every single performance out of the theatre’s box office on 5 September so you do not have to click through 54 of them.

The short version

  • Most performances are £28.50 adult, £26.50 child under 16 and £26.50 over 65.
  • From 19 December to the end of the run, plus a handful of earlier weekend shows, the price rises to £32.50 adult, £30.50 child and over 65.
  • Ten performances are a flat £21 for everyone, adult or child, and they are scattered through the run rather than bunched at the start.
  • The two relaxed performances are also £21 flat, and are sold as a separate event, which is why they do not appear on the main booking calendar.

The £21 nights, in full

These ten performances of the main production are sold on a single “Admit One” price of £21.00, with no separate adult, child or concession rate. There is nothing on the theatre’s public listing to flag them.

Date Time
Sunday 29 November 11.00am
Tuesday 1 December 5.00pm
Wednesday 2 December 6.00pm
Thursday 3 December 6.00pm
Friday 4 December 6.00pm
Wednesday 9 December 6.00pm
Thursday 10 December 6.00pm
Sunday 27 December 11.00am
Sunday 27 December 2.30pm
Monday 28 December 2.30pm

The last three are the ones worth staring at. A family of four on Sunday 27 December at 2.30pm pays £84. The same family at 6.30pm the following evening, Monday 28 December, pays £126, because that performance is priced at the top rate. Same theatre, same production, 28 hours apart, £42 apart.

Every performance, and what it costs

Dark days are Monday 30 November, Monday 7 December, Monday 14 December, Thursday 17 December, Friday 18 December and Christmas Day.

Date Times and price
Sat 28 Nov 2.30pm and 6.30pm, £28.50
Sun 29 Nov 11am £21, 2.30pm £28.50
Tue 1 Dec 10.30am relaxed £21, 5pm £21
Wed 2 Dec 11am £28.50, 6pm £21
Thu 3 Dec 11am £28.50, 6pm £21
Fri 4 Dec 11am £28.50, 6pm £21
Sat 5 Dec 2.30pm and 6.30pm, £32.50
Sun 6 Dec 11am £28.50, 2.30pm £32.50
Tue 8 Dec 11am £28.50
Wed 9 Dec 11am £28.50, 6pm £21
Thu 10 Dec 11am £28.50, 6pm £21
Fri 11 Dec 11am £28.50, 6pm relaxed £21
Sat 12 Dec 2.30pm and 6.30pm, £32.50
Sun 13 Dec 11am and 2.30pm, £32.50
Tue 15 Dec 11am and 6pm, £28.50
Wed 16 Dec 11am and 6pm, £28.50
Sat 19 Dec 11am, 2.30pm and 6.30pm, £32.50
Sun 20 Dec 11am, 2.30pm and 6.30pm, £32.50
Mon 21 Dec 2.30pm and 6.30pm, £32.50
Tue 22 Dec 6.30pm, £32.50
Wed 23 Dec 11am, 2.30pm and 6.30pm, £32.50
Thu 24 Dec 10.30am, 2pm and 5.30pm, £32.50
Sat 26 Dec 3pm, £32.50
Sun 27 Dec 11am and 2.30pm, £21
Mon 28 Dec 2.30pm £21, 6.30pm £32.50
Tue 29 Dec 2.30pm and 6.30pm, £32.50
Wed 30 Dec 2.30pm and 6.30pm, £32.50
Thu 31 Dec 4pm, £32.50

Prices shown are the adult rate. Child under 16 and over 65 come in £2 below the adult rate on the tiered performances, and there is no concession on the flat-price ones because everyone pays the same £21. The box office caps orders at 10 tickets per performance.

Relaxed performances

There are two, and they are listed as a separate show, so searching the main panto page will not find them. Both are a flat £21:

  • Tuesday 1 December, 10.30am
  • Friday 11 December, 6.00pm

Neither the relaxed performances nor any of the 54 main performances carry a BSL, captioned or audio-described marker in the theatre’s booking system as of 5 September. If you need one of those, contact the box office rather than assuming a performance is covered.

What is already selling out

The run is not evenly booked, and the weekday morning shows in the first fortnight are going first, which usually means school parties.

On 5 September the tightest performance in the whole run was Friday 11 December at 11am, with 7 seats left. Tuesday 8 December at 11am had 30. Sunday 27 December at 2.30pm, one of the cheap ones, had 44. At the other end, Tuesday 15 December at 11am still had 325 seats and Wednesday 16 December at 6pm had 312, so the week before Christmas is wide open in a way the first week is not.

Across the whole run there were still roughly 10,850 seats unsold on 5 September.

The show itself

Parkwood Theatres, which runs the Hazlitt on Earl Street, ME14 1PL, describes it as “a magical tale as old as time, presented in true pantomime style”, built around the cursed prince who has to find love before the last petal falls. No cast has been announced on the show page.

The practical details it does give: running time over two hours with a 15-minute interval, and age guidance of all ages welcome with under-16s accompanied by an adult, with the warning that “due to the nature of panto the show will contain inuendo and suggestive humour”.

Two other pantomimes are already in the Hazlitt’s diary and are not this one. Dame Dolly’s Spooktacular Pirate Show is on 1 November, and The Adult Panto: Puss and Dick is on 21 January 2027, which is very much not a family show.

Getting there and parking

The Hazlitt is on Earl Street in the middle of the town centre, a few minutes from Maidstone East and Maidstone West stations and immediately behind the High Street. Most performances are matinees or early evenings, so the town centre car parks matter more than the on-street bays. Our Maidstone parking page has the tariffs and the free periods, and the roadworks and travel page carries the current week’s closures.

If you are combining it with the rest of the festive calendar, the Christmas lights switch-on usually falls the week before the panto opens, and the Hazlitt panto cast has appeared on the switch-on stage in each of the last two years.

Sources

Prices and availability were correct on 5 September 2026 and will move. Check before booking.