BEAUTY & THE BEAST, Bristol Hippodrome

THE WIZARD OF OZ, Bristol Old Vic

Those seeking the seasonal staples of dames, custard pie fights and shrill treble voices squealing "behind you" will be sorely disappointed in Bristol this year. Instead, the city's heavyweight theatres - the Old Vic and the Hippodrome - have wheeled out big transatlantic guns to win the battle for Christmas audiences.

At the Hippodrome, Beauty and the Beast brings the epic grandeur of the West End production to the provinces, complete with cascading seas of dry ice and what appears to be a cast of hundreds. Robert Jess Roth's production features a host of visual echoes raging from Disney's own Snow White through to the Phantom of the Opera and even, at one point, Les Miserables, whilst the lighting and set manage to capture the unique technicolours which are Disney's cinematic signature. Meanwhile, Alan Mencken's score is right in the centre of the groove of contemporary blockbuster musicals, to the point where the tunes you come out humming may not actually be in the show.

It is unfortunate that the Beast (Alistair Robins), who looks like a cross between the Minotaur and Chewbacca, comes equipped with a pleasant tenor speaking voice rather than the rumble one would expect to emerge from a shaggy, horned behemoth. Since all the cast are heavily miked - actors are no longer trained to project to the front row of the Dress Circle, let alone the back row of the Gods - one would have thought that voice distortion could easily have been applied to lend the Beast a more appropriate vocal tone.

The choreography is outstanding, the production numbers overwhelming, and the illusions - when they finally come - as astounding as one would hope. Beauty and the Beast is ultimately exactly what one would expect of a Disney production: bright, spectacular, faintly saccharine and in no way challenging.

Meanwhile at the Old Vic, director Gareth Machin has gone out of his way to avoid any celluloid echoes in his Land of Oz, with a production which is very 'theatrical' throughout. Emily Pithon's Dorothy lacks Judy Garland's "fille fatale" air: this is a through-and-through country girl who probably smells of hay and carbolic soap, by golly. Meanwhile, the Lion (Michael Roberts) is not so much cowardly as downright neurotic - a cross between Groucho Marx and Woody Allan - and Kathryn Akin's Wicked Witch of the West is a cackling tour de force of scariness who manages to invoke regular sobbing from the younger members of the audience. All this is staged on a set which almost prides itself on its flimsy two dimensionality. Entire buildings are represented by a single flat shaped on a distorted perspective, and backdrops achieve depth through juxtaposition, like a Victorian toy theatre. The Wizard of Oz therefore provides youngsters with a excellent introduction to real theatre: eight talented actors and a handful of local children in funny costumes with wobbly bits of staging creating a magic world before your eyes. It offers a perfect opportunity to practice the suspension of disbelief. This is not a required skill at the Hippodrome, where a crack team of imagineers have ensured that "the magic comes alive on stage", just like it says in the ads.

The total contrast in style, production values and theatrical philosophy makes it impossible to declare clearly that one production is 'better' than the other. If Beauty and the Beast can be compared to a meal in a high class restaurant, the Wizard of Oz is the apotheosis of nourishing home cooking: different, but not necessarily better or worse. The main disappointment about both productions is the absence of any audience involvement. This move towards passive spectating rather than active participation may be influenced by the cinematic origins of both pieces. However, it does deprive the young audience of the traditional high decibel initiation into the interaction and two-way energy flow across the footlights which sets theatre apart from silver screen and the TV set.

With a first half which runs for an hour and a half - which even hardened theatre critics find bum-numbing - and a total running time of two and a half hours, Beauty and the Beast definitely poses more of a challenge to junior attention spans and bladders. Whilst neither is really ideal for under-5s, children from 7 up will enjoy either show. It just depends on whether you want to give them their first taste of real theatre, or their first taste of the spectacle of modern musicals. You pays your money - probably with a squeal from your wallet, since a family of four can easily spend upwards of £ 50 on tickets alone - and you makes your choice.

TOBY O'CONNOR MORSE

Beauty & the Beast runs until 23 March (box office 0870 607 7500), then touring to Dublin, Birmingham, Southampton, Manchester & Edinburgh

Wizard of Oz runs until 2 February 2002 (box office 0117 987 7877)