The clock ticks and petals continue to fall. It’s an image that is embedded in the minds of anyone who has seen the 1991 Academy Award Best Picture nominated animated film, based on an 18th century French fairytale.
A tale as old as time, Beauty and the Beast is one of the most successful Disney productions ever to hit the screen, and stage.
Making its Broadway premiere in 1993, Beauty and the Beast is about open in Vernon when Big Apple Production and Valley Vocal Arts present it at the Powerhouse Theatre next week.
“It’s the story of unrequited love… and how inner beauty wins out in the end,” said Craig Howard, who plays the narcissist role of Gaston in the Big Apple Productions version.
Beauty and the Beast became the very first full-length animated feature film to be nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars, and the stage musical was just as successful. It ran on Broadway for 5,461 performances between 1994 and 2007, becoming Broadway’s ninth longest-running production in history.
With musical and stage direction by Melina Moore and choreography by Lisa Schofield, Big Apple’s Beauty is set to those beloved Oscar winning songs by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman (Tim Rice also contributed lyrics to some of the songs on the stage soundtrack).
“Many of the songs are from the movie, but there are solos not in the Disney film that are in the stage musical,” explained Nina Ogasawara, who plays Belle in the production along with Harriet Gardner (both will alternate roles on various nights).
Some of those seven new songs include Home, a duet between Belle and Belle’s dad Maurice, played by Devon Weston and Peter Byrnes, and If I Can’t Love Her, a ballad sung by the Beast, played by Paul Rossetti.
The Beast, of course, is the once cocky prince who is cursed by an enchantress because of his rudeness. Not only is he transformed into a less-than appealing horned creature, his castle becomes a dark, foreboding place, and his servants are turned into anthropomorphic household objects to reflect their different personalities.
And in this case, your favourite sunny morning show host at Sun FM, Brian Martin, plays Lumière the candelabra, Karen Kulak Bliss is Mrs. Potts the teapot, while Don Cecile is Cogsworth the clock, and young stars Mason Bal and Emma Martin play Chip the tea cup.
As the story goes, if the Beast can learn to love and earn love in return before the final petal falls off the rose, the curse will be broken, but if not, he will remain a beast forever.
“I related to the Beast a lot,” said Rossetti, who some may remember for his leading roles as Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof and Max Bialystock in The Producers.
“Melina and I were talking about it earlier; a lot of the guilt he carries is remorse. His resentment makes him ugly, as he is not allowed to be free. He is forced to remain the Beast until he falls in love.”
That love interest, of course, comes in the form of Belle, who enters the Beast’s castle looking for her father, who has been imprisoned for trespassing. She begs the Beast that she switch places with her dad, and a relationship later forms, but not before Gaston, who has been chasing after a disinterested Belle, shows up with an angry mob to attack the castle, and tragedy ensues.
“Belle has logic, beauty and imagination. She is not only beautiful but knows what it’s like to be an outsider, while Gaston is shallow. He sings a song called Me, after all,” laughed Howard.
“When Beast realizes he loves Belle, he has to let her go. It’s that old adage, if you love someone, you set them free,” added Rossetti. “When they first fall in love it’s like Eros and Psyche, of love being blind, and that theme continues. Love conquers in the end.”
Beauty and the Beast takes the stage at the Powerhouse Theatre June 2 to 5 at 7:30 p.m., with matinées June 4 and 5 at 2 p.m. Tickets are available at the Ticket Seller, 250-549-7469, ticketseller.ca.
