Disney Does Theater With Beauty

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST

Produced by Disney

At the Wang Center

The Disney Corporation is like that one unbelievably popular girl we all knew in junior high. She's cute and adorable in many ways but increasingly irritating as you get to know her. Plus, most of her comments and actions lack any kind of substance whatsoever--they're just re-hashings of things she's already said and done. Once you figure all this out, you wonder how long it's going to take before other people realize her charade and call her on it. Surprisingly, no one may ever notice, leaving you wondering if you should just go back to pretending to enjoy her shallow and empty mannerisms.

That metaphor may be a bit of a stretch, even for Disney, but after seeing Beauty and the Beast: The Musical, the stretch may be worth the exercise. In the self-proclaimed "Smash Hit Musical," Disney works hard to prove that, as with everything else, it can put on a really pretty show with many dazzling special effects and less than 10 percent new material. Hey, if it succeeds in one form, one needs only alter the package a little to make it instantly popular again, right? While one would hope that this isn't true, it is. By the conclusion of the two-and-a-half hour musical that's the same (line for line) as the movie, with a few new pitiously cliched songs and even more slapstick humor and underwear references, most adults (and, of course, children, too) in the audience were still happily singing along and leaping to their feet with applause. And why not? B and B: The Musical basically resembles a great big picture book of the original cartoon, with everyone screaming even louder and drawing out the funny lines even longer. Is this truly what people look for in a musical? The night that this critic attended the performance, it certainly seemed so.

The production opens strongly enough. The pyrotechnics (that's right kids: there's enough fire in this show to roast Mr. Stay-Puft himself) and lighting during the prologue are stunning enough to capture the attention of even the most TV-numbed hyperactive 4-year-old. As mentioned earlier, the lines of the musical are identical to those of the movie, but this repetition remains endearing at first. Then Belle (Erin Dilly) struts onto stage, and everything changes. What Disney marketed in the cartoon as a socially misfitted but introspective heroine who reads aloud to sheep has morphed onstage into a bubbly, happy Broadway baby with a voice so perfectly tuned for the stage that there's not too much room for real emotion or passion. So much for the changing face of American musical theater.

Yet genuine comic relief is not too distant. Gaston, played with expected egotistical shmuckness by Tony Lawson, and his human punching bag of a sidekick Lefou (Jeffrey Howard Schecter) are funny simply because they are so repulsive. While the overdone pitfalls and exaggerated screaming initiated amongst the walking housewares in the Beast's castle may make one cringe with embarrassment, Gaston's idiocy and the rest of the town's blind adoration of him remains mildly entertaining. Lawson's portrayal of the handsome villain as Elvis with extra testosterone remains particularly amusing, and the enormous stain glass wall picturing him as a Christ-like figure is downright hilarious.

As the focus of the story changes from Belle's village to the Beast's castle, the show grows simultaneously better and worse. The wolves that chase Belle's father Maurice (Grant Cowan) and the Beast himself (Fred Inkley) resemble the cast of Cats infinitely more than they look like vicious forest carnivores. In addition, while all of the living objects in the castle don exquisite costumes, their exaggerated gestures and facial expressions worth of Jim Carrey start out cute but quickly degenerate into irritating. They deserve props for being able to perform at all in such rigid costume designs, particularly the suave pseudo-French "gentleman" candelabra Lumiere (David De Vries), who has to sing and dance with flames coming out of his hands. A note to all the younger male viewers (and the older critical ones): he does not set anyone else on fire, so don't hold your breath waiting for it.

However, two alterations to the additional cartoon's plot become evident at this point and add some interesting angles to the hackneyed production. Rather than starting out as full-fledged living clocks and feather-dusters, the castle characters reveal that they are slowly turning into houseware, which adds a nice touch of humanity to the painfully splashy musical. Also, through conversations and (ahem) read-aloud sessions, Belle's love for the Beast develops because they both feel isolated and rejected in their respective homes. This is a particularly refreshing change, since the "beauty" in the story is usually depicted as coming down from her pedestal to love the "beast" despite his ugliness, rather than because they have something in common. Despite the other achingly unoriginal aspects of B and B: The Musical, praise must be offered for these two plot adjustments.

But many flaws of the production still remain at large. For example, in the afore-mentioned bar scene of the song "Gaston," a difficult dance involving steins and the praising of beer is performed. One would think that, for all the child-directed points of this musical, that the scene would not include so much...well, beer. In addition, though the stein dance is obviously intricate and difficult, it pales in comparison to the other tricks of the musical, and becomes disappointingly boring. Also, the menagerie that is "Be Our Guest" is done in true all-out Disney fashion--the plates on the dancers' backs spin around, and even the rug from "Aladdin" shows up--but that doesn't change the fact that Belle, who was pleading for adventure at the start of the musical is now more than content to do the can-can with silverware. Could Disney be sending out subliminal messages to young girls about how a woman's place should be in the home, or is this critic simply paranoid? After witnessing the feather duster (Heather Lee) grab at her breasts while proclaiming how attractive she is, this reviewer leaves you to make the call.

But we've all got our soft spots. As much as one could criticize the romantic ballroom scene, I simply can't do it. Although expectedly cheezy, the slow waltz into adoration that Belle and the Beast have is enough to melt even the harshest heart. By the time the Beast--who previously climbed walls rather than stairs and who took almost a full minute to suppress his pride enough to ask "please"--tells Belle, "You're not my prisoner. You haven't been for a long time," one becomes ready to forgive and forget about the rest of the musical in exchange for that one moment of purity and love.

Unfortunately, after the Beast's sweet surrender, the energy level never reaches its full steam again. Gaston and the townspeople's invasion of the castle is good for a few cheap laughs and a Wagner leitmotif (all you good "Lit and Arts B-55: Opera" students should be able to recognize which one) but runs low on special effects. The Beast's metamorphosis dazzles everyone but stands as the last captivating moment of the show. Finally, as the orchestra swells to a passionate finish as the now-human cast waltzes around the stage...nothing happens. The curtain falls, the cast members take their bows, and that's it. One would think that with all of the fireworks in the previous numbers that the finale would have been a huge blowout, but alas, to no avail.

At this point, you may be wanting to hurl the paper across the room in disgust,or, even better, be ready to pick up your pen andwrite an irritated letter about how this criticcan't appreciate wholesome musical theater. Tothat, I ask this question--what is the point ofmusical theater? If you believe it is simply toentertain, to create pretty images onstage andapplaud special effects without even thinking ofthe word "art," then to you I apologize. In thatcase, this is your show; watch it and enjoy it.But if you, like me, want to believe that even thetraditionally substanceless genre of musicaltheater is finally starting to be pushed in a newand meaningful direction--if you want people to beshocked or reborn by Rent rather thancheerfully and contentedly applaud ShowBoat--then think about these words a littlebit more. True, perhaps some kindness should beshown because Beauty and the Beast: TheMusical is basically a children's show. Butmaybe some children would rather see newness andcreativity rather than repetition andregurgitation