Skip to main content

REVIEW: The Academy of Music Presents 'Beauty and the Beast'


Growing up I was obsessed with the concept of 'happily ever after'. I didn't have any evil stepsisters and my mother wasn't murdered by hunters, however, I still daydreamed about the day my prince would rescue me and I too would live 'happily ever after'. 
My favorite fairytale was 'Beauty and the Beast'! And I'm not just saying this for the sake of this review ; I honestly consider this to be a classic love tale. The only way Prince Adam could break the spell Enchantress cast upon him was to learn to love and be loved. Enter Belle, our Beauty, add Gaston, the typical antagonist, and a slew of other characters adding comedic relief and shedding light on this dim tale and here we have 'Beauty and the Beast'. 

The original creators of the Broadway play, the original design team, and the original score have all been meshed together to create a theatrical wonder piece. The animated version literally jumped to life with the scene changes the design team put together. Add in five new songs sung by wonderful performers and there is nothing not to love about this production. The script remains the same so the only fear I had was that the acting wouldn't be up to par. Luckily, these performers proved me wrong. Emily Behny was totally believable as Belle. Which wasn't hard; what's not to love about Belle? Her performance was warm and her personality firm. Dane Agostinis is our 'Beast' and his baritone voice combined with his confidence showed us exactly why he was selected for the role. Lumière and Cogsworth were the dynamic duo, keeping the laughs coming, while Mrs. Potts and her optimism kept our hearts smiling. Gaston played his role perfectly, I almost wanted to 'boo' when he took his bow at the end. 

We all know the details of this classic tale and this production does it much justice. Everything from the lighting, swift scene changes, and amazing vocals makes this a wonderful show. The running time is approximately 2 1/2 hours but the way the cast captures your attention the time flies by, making it enjoyable for even the younger children. 

MAIN CAST
Director: Rob Roth 
Belle: Emily Behny 
Beast: Dane Agostinis 
Gaston: Matt Farcher 

BEHIND THE SCENES
Costume Design: Ann Hould-Ward 
Lighting Design: Natasha Katz 
Scenic Design: Stanley A. Meyer 
Sound Design: John Petrafesa Jr. 
Music Supervision: Michael Kosarin 
Choreography: Matt West *score with music by Alan Menken and lyrics by the late Howard Ashman, with additional songs with music by Alan Menken and lyrics by Tim Rice  


PHOTOS BY: Joan Marcus

-- Nola Darling
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Bold, Brown, & Beautiful

"She's cute for a dark skinned girl."  "Stop acting light skinned." We've heard all these phrases. Some of us even say these phrases. But under the surface what do they mean to us? The other day I walked by a young girl with a cute puffball ponytail. She complimented me on my hair and I smiled, exchanging compliments with her. As I kept walking I started to wonder if she liked my hair because it was long and straight or if she really, at about 8 or 9, liked my teased mane. It may sound conceited but I really worry about our female youth. I automatically thought about the infamous Oprah baby doll episode. Then I thought about Chris Rock's 'Good Hair' documentary. One thought led to another and I wanted to hug every little brown girl I saw because the media pushes so much on them I just want to protect them. But then I thought about it and in this situation you sort of have to work from the top to the bottom because if we're the li
Post a Comment
Read more

Dear Diary...

Dear Diary, So. Clearly I haven't posted anything in about two weeks. I blame this little fact on LIFE. Well, actually, I would LIKE to blame life but I think I will blame REALITY instead. Life goes on around me and mentally I sometimes shut down. Luckily for me, when it comes to work I move in autopilot so I don't have to be fully present mentally to get the job done physically.  Well. At least that's what I thought. These past two weeks that I haven't written I lost two people very close to me. One I grew with for almost a decade and one I've watched grow. One whom I share a bloodline with and another who is family but doesn't share a drop of blood with me. I pushed myself to keep going because I know life will keep going around me and I fear I'll get left behind. I force myself to bury my emotions because I don't want to appear broken, although if anything were to break me this would be it. I force myself to not only stand up straight and shake it off
1 comment
Read more

numb. or not.

TheFreeDictionary.com defines 'numb' as: " emotionally unresponsive ."  I thought I was numb but I'm actually the complete opposite of that. I've felt every emotion imaginable in the past 24 hours. Denial, frustration, anger, confusion, pain. I've laughed, cried, screamed. I took a walk. I took a nap. I ignored some calls. I answered some texts. I think I'm still in some weird, warped form of denial. The loss of a loved one is insane. It's motions you go through and emotions you're absorbed in. And it never gets easier. In fact, I feel like as you get older and as more people begin to return home way too soon it's like, "oh no, not another funeral!" When I was younger I wasn't where I am religiously or mentally. I didn't fully understand the power of having your whole life ahead of you and making every moment count. I surely didn't understand that you can't question His timing. You rely on it daily so to que
2 comments
Read more