Sure. I know. You've seen the movie. You’ve probably seen the Broadway production or the national tour. Heck, you may even have seen the Disney on Ice version. But believe me, this is different. It really is.
I don't care if you’ve seen Beauty and the Beast before. Go see the production at Marriott's Lincolnshire Theatre as soon as you can. Unlike the National Tour, this Beauty and the Beast has a lot of heart to it. You won't see a cookie-cutter version of the "Be Our Guest" number, which looks surprisingly like the one in the animated film. Here you'll see people working hard to entertain you and you can’t help but fall prey to it. Sure it's manipulative, but it's honest and it will make you smile. Directed and choreographed by Marc Robin, this Beauty...is a beauty.
You know the story: Belle (Johanna McKenzie Miller), a local girl who the townspeople find odd because she likes to read, goes in search of her dotty father (James Harms) when he gets lost in the woods. There she encounters a Beast (Michael Gerhart) who is really a handsome prince transformed because of his inability to love. The Beast has some odd servants, among them a candelabra named Lumiere (Bernie Yvon), a clock named Cogsworth (David Lively) and a teapot named Mrs. Potts. The servants have also been transformed by the same spell the Beast fell prey to, and none of them can emerge from their transformed appearances until the Beast proves he can love and be loved in return. Then there's the comic element: a muscle-headed oaf named Gaston (Michael Minarik) and his dumb sidekick Le Fou (Matt Rafferty) who conspire to get Gaston married to Belle at all costs.
It is always amazing what can be done with the theater space at Marriott, with its complete lack of fly or wing space. In this case, the audience is surrounded by the town, and the town’s inhabitants appear from all around you. Thomas M. Ryan's set design is impressive in its simplicity and functionality. Diane Ferry Williams' lighting design and Nancy Missimi's costume design are as functional as they are beautiful.
Miller, as Belle, is as perfect for the role as possible. Her voice is as sweet as Belle herself. Gerhart's Beast is gruff but playful (the tail-chasing scene will keep you laughing on the ride home). As Gaston, Minarik is the perfect blend of bigot and buffoon. This Gaston so completely blind to his own ridiculousness that you can't help laughing, and Bernie Yvon's Lumiere nearly steals the show with his Maurice Chevalier-like charm. Other fine performances are Rafferty as Le Fou, Mary Ernster as Mrs. Potts, Lively as Cogsworth and Marilynn Bogetich as an opera singing wardrobe.
"Beauty and the Beast" is something you can bring the whole family to and actually be entertained as well. It just goes to prove a good holiday show doesn’t actually have anything to do with Christmas to be great.
Music by Alan Menken, Lyrics by Howard Ashman and Tim Rice, book by Linda Woolverton
Marriott's Lincolnshire Theatre
through February 12, 2005
