This is perhaps the most dangerous post I will ever write; certain people who were in the show do or might read this post sometime in the future, and could result in some broken bones or at least vicious rumours. But I can’t simply harp on about how good it was, et cetera, because the longtime drama/theatre studies student in me is begging for some critical analysis! So here we go.
Lucien and I made a mad dash from my work to the town performing arts centre to see the Saturday night show of Beauty and the Beast. Like I said, a lot of my friends were in it, and a lot of other friends had declared it the most spectacular and professional looking show our town had ever seen. So I had very high expectations.
In some ways, these expectations were well and truly exceeded. In other ways, the show fell a little short, but overall, it was an incredible production.
I’m sure that everybody is familiar with the story. The musical version surprised me – the majority of the script is lifted straight from the film, but other parts were new and just as delightful as the movie. Some of the new musical additions were brilliant; they really gave the Beast a ‘voice’ that he lacked in the film (bad pun, I know). One song that irked me though was “A Change In Me”; it was sung beautifully, but the lyrics got on my nerves and the melody was quite bland – apparently this wasn’t in the musical originally until Toni Braxton demanded a new Belle song during her run on Broadway, and it was tacked on to the show. The moral of the story? Composers shouldn’t bend to the demands of lacklustre divas!
The cast were on the whole brilliant, but there were a few real standout performances. Kimberlee Bone played Belle with a grounded sensibility that really separated her from the dime-a-dozen ingenues that saturate musical theatre, and her voice was beautifully resonant and bell-like. Tony Wasley absolutely stole the show as Lumiere; nailing the accent, dazzling with his singing, and outstanding in his characterisation, especially in moments with the feather duster Babette (played perfectly by Simone Lawless). Glenn Murray as Monsieur D’Arque was absolutely thrillingly scary, crazy, absurd and shockingly unsettling – he certainly made the most of his one song by making it one of the best in the show. And Ferri Bond as Mrs. Potts was gorgeous – she looked perfect, sang beautifully and exuded maternal warm-fuzzies.
There aren’t enough words to describe the rest of the principal cast – they all suited their characters to a tee and performed with gusto and precision. However, at times there seemed to be a little bit of .. cohesion missing from the scenes where multiple characters were on stage at once, for example, times when Lumiere, Cogsworth, the Beast, Madame le Grande Bouche, Belle and Mrs Potts were on stage together. Perhaps they didn’t like each other in real life? Or perhaps the direction of the show hadn’t quite extended to fleshing out relationships, hierarchy and motivations of character in these group scenes. At times, the blocking in the scenes appeared a little clumsy or even non-existent – when characters are wearing bulky costumes, it is paramount to ensure that they are not blocking each other or walking straight in front of the action, and at points in the show both of these things happened.
But for me, the Beast was a character who shook me to the core. Played by Ed Harcourt (who I had never seen perform before), I wasn’t sure what to expect. He had presence and then some; even when he was lurking in the shadows, he absolutely oozed whatever emotion he happened to have in him at the time. He physicalized the raw animalism of the Beast as much as embodying the spoilt little boy, although I have to say that the former trait came out perhap a little too much in the second act. As a singer, he had something rare and exciting after hearing (sorry guys) the same old voices in lead roles in our town for a long time – he had possibly the ideal tone. Can you have a crush on a voice? If so, I choose his – power, depth, clarity, and bursting with emotion. Ed surprised and delighted – highlights of his performance were, for me, his lament at the end of the second act, and all his interactions with Belle… the way he looked at her as she was reading to him made me melt. Lucien thinks I’m a little too liberal with my praise for Ed Harcourt, but I can’t find enough words to convey just how much I adored his performance, and just how much I can’t wait to hear his voice again.
The ensemble were fabulous, but at times I felt it could have done with a bit more padding – a mob isn’t really a mob if it only has about 8 people in it. Standouts were Asheigh Watson, Jessie Upton, Jazz Tweeddale, Leigh Murray, Michael Cunningham and Lachy Joyce. The ensemble singing was rich and spot-on, though at times certain members tended to fall half a beat behind in their dancing. In the tavern scene surrouding the “Gaston” number, the ensemble seemed like they may have been enjoying themselves a little too much though – during a couple of aside conversations between Gaston and LeFou, the volume and movements of the ensemble pulled focus a bit. But these guys really shone the most in Be Our Guest – the audience couldn’t have applauded louder.
As director, Bryce Ives obviously did a great job in getting the cast to give it their all – the level of enthusiasm was great overall, and the show was generally snappy and sharp. However, I took exception to a few of the decisions – i.e. the constant “deep breath” inclusions, where characters would stop and ‘breathe’ as if they were warding off a panic attack in the middle of dialogue. While this was humourous, it sort of acted as an alienation device – detracting from the ability of the audience to allow themselves to be wrapped up in the world of the show. Also, I felt that the pyrotechnics were a tad overused – at times they worked brilliantly (such as at the end of Be Our Guest), but at other times they seemed unnecessary and distracting (such as during the transformation scene – did we really need five? Our eyeballs suffered greatly, and the beauty of the score was ruined by the volume of FIVE explosions).
Costumes were fabulous – Gaston’s outfit was perfect, especially with it’s little leather codpiece. The ensemble’s costumes were great, but they seemed a little bright in the opening scenes. The enchanted objects costumes were gorgeous – the napkins headpieces were beautiful, and I especially adored Mrs. Potts’s costume. One enchanted object though, I have to say, looked silly – I think she was a corkscrew or something, but the weird combination of spiral tights, silver lycra and a purple skirt looked like some sort of alien… I also had a small issue though with Belle’s yellow ball gown – why did she have a huge sparkly yellow bow, circa 1986, in her hair? The dress just seemed a tad plain, considering that it came from an enchanted wardrobe living in the castle of a wealthy prince!
As for the orchestra – thumbs up guys, especially Amy Wert for keeping everything oh-so-precise and perfect, as usual! They definitely did the fabulous score justice.. sounding brilliant all the time. There was one person in the brass section who seemed a little shaky during some solos (grrr) but I was later informed that one of the trumpeters was a fill-in who was performing his first or second show, so he’s excused. I am also required to sing the praises of my sister who was playing cello – so I will say this: nice that she can finally tell the difference between FMajor and GMajor! No, she was very good in her solos!
Unfortunately, the over-enthusiasm of some of the audience drowned out some of the music – it’s definitely a pet hate of mine when audiences clap along in time to songs. AUDIENCES – your conception of tempo sucks, so leave it alone! Lucien always says I am a spoilt sport for refusing to clap in time, but I think it eeks of disrespect: applause should be reserved for after musical numbers, at the end of acts, and after particularly good one-liners – otherwise, it is distracting and annoying. But then again, I can’t exactly judge the audience, it is amateur theatre in a small town after all – theatre etiquette is less of concern than ‘cheering on’ their friends and family members.
Choreography by Mark McCabe was great, as usual – he got everybody moving and found ways of accommodating those who could dance as well as those who could really dance. His innovative ‘mug-banging’ choreography for Gaston was great… it was really something different and interesting! I’m not sure if it was done on Broadway, but if Mark invented it, well done! Lucien had issues with the use of punches in some of the choreography, but I actually thought it suited quite well – in that way, the choreography is less feminine and suits the male dancers better.
Ahh, anything else? Despite my issues, I loved it!
