Beauty & the Beast runs 36 shows at South Mill Arts from 26 November, £15.50 to £28.50 a seat. Christmas Eve 3pm has 65 seats left; 28 December is nearly empty.
South Mill Arts is doing Beauty & the Beast this Christmas, 36 performances from Thursday 26 November 2026 to Saturday 2 January 2027, and the price you pay swings by £13 depending on which day you pick.
The show is by Big Adventure Productions, written and directed by Ian McFarlane, and the venue bills it as the follow-up to what it calls a record-breaking 2025 pantomime. The theatre is at 1-3 South Road, Bishop’s Stortford, CM23 3JG.
Everything below comes from the venue’s own box office system, read on 4 September 2026; prices and availability were rechecked on 5 November.
Updated 5 November: about 3,260 tickets sold; the 3pm on Christmas Eve has 65 seats left, and prices are unchanged. Prices are face value with no online booking fee, and the maximum is 20 tickets per transaction. There is one charge the price table does not show: the venue adds 50p per ticket if you collect at the box office rather than use an e-ticket, which it describes as a green initiative to cut paper.
What a seat costs
Performances are graded, and the grade is not printed on the venue’s website. It is in the ticketing data, and it is the single most useful thing to know before you book.
| Grade | Adult | Concession | Family |
|---|---|---|---|
| Preview | £15.50 | £12.50 | not offered |
| Bronze | £22.00 | £19.00 | £76.00 |
| Silver | £24.00 | £21.00 | £83.00 |
| Gold | £26.50 | £23.50 | £89.00 |
| Platinum | £28.50 | £25.50 | £94.00 |
Three performances sell at the £15.50 preview rate, and one of them is the last show of the run. The two openers are obvious enough: 7pm on Thursday 26 November and 2pm on Saturday 28 November. The third is the 3pm on Saturday 2 January 2027, the final performance, priced identically at £15.50 and £12.50. The 11am on that same closing Saturday is a Gold performance at £26.50, so the two shows on the last day are £11 apart for the same production. There is no family ticket on any of the three £15.50 dates.
Every performance and what it costs
| Date | Times |
|---|---|
| Thu 26 Nov | 7pm (£15.50) |
| Sat 28 Nov | 2pm (£15.50), 7pm (£22) |
| Sat 5 Dec | 10.30am (£22), 3pm (£24) |
| Sun 6 Dec | 10.30am (£22), 3pm (£24) |
| Sat 12 Dec | 10.30am (£24), 3pm (£26.50) |
| Sun 13 Dec | 10.30am (£24), 3pm (£26.50) |
| Sat 19 Dec | 11am (£26.50), 3pm (£28.50) |
| Sun 20 Dec | 11am (£26.50), 3pm (£28.50) |
| Mon 21 Dec | 11am (£26.50), 3pm (£26.50) |
| Tue 22 Dec | 11am (£28.50), 3pm (£28.50) |
| Wed 23 Dec | 11am (£28.50), 3pm (£28.50) |
| Thu 24 Dec | 11am (£28.50), 3pm (£28.50) |
| Sat 26 Dec | 1.30pm (£28.50), 5pm (£28.50) |
| Sun 27 Dec | 11am (£26.50), 3pm (£26.50) |
| Mon 28 Dec | 11am (£26.50), 3pm (£26.50) |
| Tue 29 Dec | 11am (£22, relaxed), 3pm (£24) |
| Wed 30 Dec | 11am (£26.50), 3pm (£24) |
| Thu 31 Dec | 2pm (£26.50) |
| Sat 2 Jan | 11am (£26.50), 3pm (£15.50) |
Prices are the adult rate. There is nothing on Christmas Day, and Boxing Day has two shows, at 1.30pm and 5pm, neither of them a morning one. Between 6 and 19 December the run is weekends only. Doors open half an hour before each show.
The relaxed performance
Tuesday 29 December at 11am is the relaxed performance, with the lights a little brighter and the sound a little softer. The venue describes it as suited to anyone who would benefit from a more comfortable environment.
It is also priced at the Bronze rate of £22, not the Gold rate the rest of that week carries, which makes it the cheapest ticket available in the whole of the Christmas fortnight. The venue adds that all running times are approximate and every under-16 must be accompanied by an adult.
Availability on 5 November
Every one of the 36 performances is still on sale, and about 3,260 tickets have gone across the run, from the venue’s box office feed on 5 November. Most shows have about 285 seats on sale, fewer than the 332 the system listed in September; the venue has not said why.
The fullest houses are the Christmas Eve 3pm and the cheap preview on 28 November:
| Performance | Seats left |
|---|---|
| Thu 24 Dec, 3pm | 65 |
| Sat 28 Nov, 2pm (£15.50) | 88 |
| Sat 28 Nov, 7pm | 95 (only 130 on sale) |
| Thu 24 Dec, 11am | 97 |
| Sat 26 Dec, 1.30pm | 98 |
| Sat 5 Dec, 3pm | 116 |
The other cheap show is going too: the 3pm on Saturday 2 January, at £15.50, has 127 seats left, while the 11am that day has sold just 21.
At the other end, the 5pm on Boxing Day has sold 21 seats, the Monday 28 December shows 31 (11am) and 26 (3pm), and the 2pm on New Year’s Eve 26. If you want a choice of seats, those are the dates.
Santa’s Grotto: £19, and it is going faster than the panto
The same building runs a grotto on ten dates in December: the 5th, 6th, 12th, 13th, 19th, 20th, 21st, 22nd, 23rd and 24th. Slots are 40 minutes apart from 10am, with the last at 3.50pm, and there are 89 of them in total.
- £19 per child, and each ticket admits one child.
- Only eight children per slot.
- Because space is tight, the venue asks for no more than two adults per child.
- The visit is a craft activity, then Santa, who gives every child a gift, then hot chocolate and cookies in what the venue calls its VIP Christmas Café.
76 of the 89 slots had sold out by 5 November, and seven dates (6, 12, 13, 19, 20, 23 and 24 December) have gone entirely. The session-by-session picture is on our Santa’s grotto page.
The relaxed grotto is not bookable online. The venue says it runs at 3.50pm on Sunday 20 December, and that is exactly the one slot missing from the online listings for that day: Sunday 20 December stops at 3.10pm while every other date runs to 3.50pm. To book it you have to ring the box office on 01279 710 200.
Getting there and parking
South Mill Arts is a few minutes’ walk from the town centre car parks. For an evening show, note that Jackson Square stops charging at 6.30pm but locks its gates from 1am, and Northgate End charges until 8pm and admits no vehicles between 11pm and 7am, though the exit stays open around the clock. Apton Road and Link Road are both open 24 hours and charge until 8pm.
Our parking in Bishop’s Stortford page has every tariff, and roadworks and travel covers anything closed on the way in.
Booking
Tickets are on the venue’s box office at southmillarts.ticketsolve.com, or by phone on 01279 710 200. Prices here were correct on 5 November 2026 and the venue can change them; check the total before you pay.
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