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Theatre Review: “Beauty And The Beast” Is Definitely Beautiful And This Performance Is, As The Kids Say, A BEAST

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Belle, whose father is imprisoned by the Beast, offers herself instead, unaware her captor to be an enchanted prince.

I entered the Winspear Opera House almost late for curtain. I hate doing that. *note to self – leave 20 minutes before you think you need to if your travel takes you to or through the Dallas mixmaster. So I rush to my seat with my companion and have about 30 seconds to breathe before the Overture begins and I experience my only real problem with this show; the live music is so mic heavy that it comes through the enormous bank of speakers like a prerecorded track. Other than that, the show is essentially flawless.

Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast” is the twenty-five year old movie live on stage. It has the Academy Award-Winning score from Alan Menken and Howard Ashman plus a few added songs by Menken and Broadway legend/guru, Tim Rice. This is the fourth national tour of “Beauty and the Beast” which opened in February of 2010. Under the direction of the original Broadway creative team that first brought this movie to the stage some 20+ years ago, this show features all new sets and costumes. BATB had a thirteen year Broadway run of 5,461 performances putting in the top ten of all-time longest runs and has since logged another 15,000+ performances with tours and productions worldwide. This production, directed by Rob Roth with choreography by Matt West, is pure Broadway spectacular from start to finish. Let me first touch on the choreography.

Many modern musicals don’t have a chorus or if they do, it is usually small and can best be described as ‘back up dancers.’ BATB has a full blown chorus reminiscent or the grand Lerner & Lowe or Rogers & Hammerstein productions of the ’50s and ’60s. And believe me when I tell you, the production numbers are worth the price of admission alone. The staging of “Gaston” and “Be Our Guest,” essentially one right after the other in the first act, had both myself and my nine year old daughter cheering. The overall staging is very subtle in its own right. They use a lot of scrims to go from scene to scene and to give the audience the sense of seeing through things to realize what is really important on stage. So as in the story itself, Belle must see past the ugliness of the Beast, the Beast has to see past the fear of people in general and Gaston…well, Gaston is shallow and socially inept so he never really gets to see past the veils to figure out what is important is on the inside.

All the songs were expertly sung and not once did I hear an off note or flub of the lyrics. Sam Hartley as the Beast was big and loud and powerful every time he opened his mouth. It didn’t matter that he is a tenor instead of a big baritone, he still pulled off the songs with ease and camp and bravado just as it should have been. Brook Quintana joins this tour after stints as Eponine in “Les Misérables” and Morales in “A Chorus Line.” She seemed to start her song, ‘Belle’ a little slow tempo but every note was perfect and every syllable was clear. Her performance was as solid as Gibraltar and made for an exceptional evening. Ryan N. Phillips was delightfully, comically naughty as Lumiere and his interaction with Samuel Shurtleff as Cogsworth is spot on.

Local resident Jake Jones played Chip at the opening night performance. His story is one of theatre fairy tales. He has only been interested in doing theatre for a short time and actually got his start locally at Artisan Center Theatre in Hurst. He performed with their Children’s Theatre and in Main Stage productions such as “The Music Man” and auditioned for and was cast as one of the two Chips in this tour. A local kid makes it big.

I must mention the audience for this Wednesday night opening. It was full. According to the ATTPAC website, there were less than 30 seats open at curtain…on a Wednesday night. There was a great chasm in the audience as well. That being one of age. I took my nine year old daughter as my “date” and that truly was the norm. Half the audience was close to forty, the other half was under twelve and I counted no less than 13 little girls in Belle costumes. This is nothing if not a family show. If you only have one opportunity to take your family to live theater this summer I implore you to take advantage of the twice daily performances available. I urge you to get your tickets NOW if you haven’t already because once it gets out just how good this production is, the remaining seats will go fast. Bring two books to donate to the Children’s Health® libraries in the Winspear Opera House lobby before your performance of Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast.” After donating, your child can choose a summer reading book to take home. Arrive one hour before curtain to enjoy children’s book readings from local celebrities including news personalities, athletes and the Funnyatrics Clowns from Children’s Health.

Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast” is playing at the Winspear Opera House through Sunday June 26th. Matinee and evening performances available from $35-95. For more information call the Ticket Office at (214) 880-0202.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJDr-drajPc
 
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1 Comment

  1. Thomas Richards says:

    I’ve been meaning to respond to this, Lori. Once again I have missed this show. I thought to myself, no big deal. After reading this I am really upset that I missed it. Your review and others all said this show was not to be missed and I did.

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