West Yorkshire Playhouse's decision to produce a double bill of family blockbusters rather than a traditional pantomime during the festive season is paying off.

Advance ticket sales for the return of Adrian Mitchell's adaptation of C S Lewis's The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe have topped 31,000, bringing in more than £412,000.

Advance sales for Mike Kenny and Gail Macintyre's production of Beauty and the Beast in the smaller Courtyard Theatre are heading for 9,000, nearly £55,000.

Some 138 performances of these two shows are scheduled over Christmas and the New Year which could result in approximately 76,000-plus paying customers.

Three years ago The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe attracted audiences totalling 60,000, making it the most successful seasonal show in the Playhouse's 14-year-history.

Ian Brown, the Playhouse's artistic director, said: "We had been doing family musicals; but when I took over as artistic director I felt the market was families and children, so we concentrated on that.

"I like a big traditional panto, but not the adult versions full of sleazy innuendoes. I don't think you get value for money. What do you go home with but a few cheap jokes?"

For this version of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe - the four children, the magical land of Narnia, the princely lion Aslan and the wicked witch - a cast of 16 will be augmented by half-a-dozen amateur actors from the community.

"They will be supporting the action. When I did the show before, staging the battle was quite tricky. So we have re-cast that, made it bigger, more exciting; we have got some people doing gymnastics," he added.

The fable of Beauty and the Beast, in which grace and beauty are redeemed from wickedness, has been removed from fairy tale by writer Mike Kenny.

Beauty is a spoilt young lady dismayed by her father's bankruptcy. Forced to experience hardships due to her dad's misfortune, she is torn between the riches of the castle and the loneliness of being separated from her family.

Four actors play all the parts. But who or what is the Beast?

Ian Brown laughed. "I don't know. I have been too busy with The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. But the people in Mike Kenny's story are real, more humble, so it's quite human and suitable for children of three and upwards."

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is deemed suitable for children from the age of six.

  • The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe runs from Saturday to February 2. Beauty and the Beast is on from December 6 to January 12. To book ring (0113) 213 7700. A mechanical fault with the stage at West Yorkshire Playhouse means that preview shows on November 24, 26 and 27 have been cancelled.