Beauty and the Beast

I'm taking advantage of my coffee induced urge to chatter. This blog post is going to be the rough draft of an extra credit assignment I'm turning in for humanities class. Of course, I'll probably make it a little more formal before I turn it in and I'll format it correctly, blah blah blah... Oh, and actually proof the grammar/spelling. Anyway.

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST!
Rating: 9.5/10

I went to see the Broadway production of Beauty and the Beast at the Tulsa Performing Arts Center on Wednesday, March 2nd. I was excited for months in advance because I love the Broadway season at the PAC, and Beauty and the Beast is one of the ones that really gets hyped up. The musical follows the Disney version of the story, so I knew most of the songs they sang. I loved the live instrumental versions of the music I've enjoyed since I was little watching the movie. My favorite songs were, “Belle,” “Gaston,” “Be Our Guest,” “The Mob Song,” and “Beauty and the Beast.” It was probably because these were the ones I already knew from the movie. I wasn’t as impressed with the new songs, although they did add something to the performance.

Belle's voice was really great. She reminded me of Bell from the movie, which is always a good thing when they're re-creating such a well-loved movie. The one voice I wasn't sure I liked was the beast's. He had this amazing, deep and booming speaking voice. However, I didn't think he sounded as great while he was singing. I did like the very last song he sang, but other than that I could have gone without hearing his solos. They completely created a song for Beast, which is probably to be expected for making a Broadway musical out of a movie.

My absolute favorite character was Lumiere, and Lefou was my runner-up favorite. Lumiere was energetic, wild, and perfect. His accent was over the top and it really made his character pop. I felt like he really carried most of the castle scenes. Lumiere got the most laughs out of the audience and out of me for sure. He also got the loudest applause at the end of the performance. Lefou was the source of the physical comedy. He was one of the most flexible men I've ever seen. He was always tripping and somersaulting across the stage, landing in awkward heaps of arms and legs. I also enjoyed the fact that his speaking voice and singing voice were both spot on from the movie character's voice. It really enhanced his character.

I really enjoyed all of the brightly colored costumes. The castle cast members were all wearing some very creative things. Cogsworth the clock was very obviously a clock. And Mrs. Pots had a great tea pot costume as well. Belle had a beautiful gold ball gown for the end scenes. I thought the beast’s costume was really well done. It stood out from the stage to me, and I was all the way up in the balcony. All of the villagers and other supporting cast had on vibrant, interesting outfits as well. I couldn’t find anything bad to say about this area of the production at all.

Overall, I gave the production of Beauty and the Beast a 9.5 out of 10. It was entertaining all the way through and only one of the newer songs made me feel like it was dragging on. Whenever intermission came I was disappointed that we had to wait for the second act. I know the audience, which included a lot of little girls in cute little sparkly dresses, loved it just as much as I did.