REVIEW: The Beast is BACK!
The current production of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast comes from our spunky local musical theatre production company, Foote in the Door. The troupe began when a group of graduates of the Citadel’s Foote Theatre School, having tasted the magical waters of musical theatre, decided to found a platform for their continuing obsession. Earlier productions have included the Fringe hit The Wondrous Marvelettes, Carousel and A little Night Music.
Their shows are usually ambitious in approach and excellent in execution. Their Beauty and the Beast is quite irresistible and dare I say enchanting. Depending on your ability to withstand the overfamilar – which the show certainly is – Disney’s original movie (and subsequent stage shows) are so rich, tuneful and easy to take that another version goes down easily. Particularly when it’s produced with the obvious love of the material that Foote in the Door brings. The production runs through November 17 in the Westbury Theatre of the Arts Barns.
The company makes little effort to add anything new to the hummable tunes and eye-filling delights, which is something of a blessing. As Cogsworth, the fussy, tightly wound clock observes sagely, “If it ain’t Baroque, don’t fix it.” And when you take a cast that refuses to believe they are only two-dimensional Disney animations giving a feeling of vibrant life to the characters, you have a recipe for an entertaining evening.
For those who may have been living on the far side of the moon, Beauty and the Beast is the classic story of a handsome prince condemned by a magical curse to life as an ugly beast. The curse is cast by an enchantress he had turned out into the cold rather then giving her shelter. It is also the tale of Belle, the beautiful and strong-willed small town proto-feminist bookworm, who becomes his salvation. She teaches the Beast how to love and be loved so in the end the curse will be lifted. The spell extends to everything in the Beast’s baronial lair – including Cogsworth, Lumiere the candlestick, Mrs. Potts’ tea pot and all the silverware and dishes. Time is running out for their master, and for all of them.
Ruth Wong-Miller has a lovely voice and an empowered headstrong attitude as Beauty. You can certainly see what warms the icy heart of the beast, particularly in the sprightly number Belle. The strapping Scott McLeod is a hoot as Gaston, the boneheaded, self-absorbed hunk who covets Belle – especially in his hymn to himself, Me. Even his voice has muscles.
Russ Farmer is sympathetic as the scary horned creature (part buffalo, part Quasimodo) expressing an ability under all that matted fur to convey the delicacy of an awakening love. He is notably impressive in the epic anthem, If I Can’t Love Her, that Tim Rice and Howard Ashman wrote for the stage show. Wong-Miller and Farmer strike such sympathy that you really hope they will see that “beauty lies within” and fall in love. The enchanted all-singing, all dancing (and talking) silverware, napkins, clock, candelabra, teapot and armoure are delightful. Trevor Worden is an oh-so-smooth Gallic Lumiere, particularly when we invites us to Be Our Guest in the show-stopping number. Jason Duiker is properly finicky as Cogsworth, while Carolyn Waye spreads gobs of motherly love and locates the beating heart in the title song Beauty and the Beast. Edward Medeiros makes a fine comic lackey foil for Gaston.
Director/choreographer Adam Kuss has in recent years shown great ability as a musical comedy director. In this modest production he hasn’t the budget of Broadway Across Canada, or the two brilliant Bob Baker productions at the Citadel, but he more than makes up for it with a lot of creativity and heart, while pulling a gung ho performance from his game let’s-put-on-a-show cast. The full bodied singing was masterful, not a bad voice in the lot. Kuss marshals a cast of 25, which even in the expansive stage of the Westbury Theatre (impressive two-story design complete with parapets, from Leland Stelck) sometimes looks a bit like a traffic jam, but he moves them about the stage smartly.
The costumes are spectacular and I suspect spend time in a Disney vault between rentals, but it would be hard to imagine the show without them.
This family-friendly “tale as old as time” is a captivating enterprise.
Photos by Karen Schenk
