The current show at Fall River Little Theatre is Disney's "Beauty and
the Beast". The show first opened on April, 19,1994, ran for 5,464
performances before closing in September of 2007. It is based on the
1991 movie. It tells the story of a spell cast on a Prince which
transforms him into a ferocious beast. He must love and be loved before
the last petal falls from the rose or he will remain a beast forever.
The show transports audiences to a lovely French provincial town where
the beautiful, bookish, Belle lives with her father, Maurice, a dotty
inventor. When her father doesn't return from a trip to the local
fairish rushes off to find him. To her dismay, she discovers he is being
held captive in an old castle by a horrible beast. She trades her
freedom for his and the "tale as old as time" begins. They must learn to
love each other after he makes her a prisoner in his desolate castle.
Belle could melt the polar ice cap and even his heart. But will she see
through his facade before it is too late? Throw in many colorful
characters including the town strongman, Gaston, his crazy sidekick,
Lefou and the numerous enchanted humans turned into household fixtures
at the Beast's castle and you have the makings of this outstanding
musical production. Co-directors Robbie Burke and Deborah Sadler,
musical director Bobby Perry and choreographer, Loralee Lesvesque pick
the best 42 cast members for these roles and their hard work earns them
a standing ovation at the close of the show.
Robbie and Deborah combine the comic and poignant moments beautifully
while Bobby obtains the best harmonic blend from his cast and his
large orchestra. Loralee creates some splendid dance numbers including
can-can, tap, soft shoe, tango and ball room dancing. The co-directors
are aided by topnotch behind the scenes people, too. Sets and lighting
are by Shawn Elliot with two backdrops as well as the huge three story
indoor castle set. The lighting for the show is topnotch, too. Costume
designer is Aaron Gendreau-Visco, who created the multitude of human and
enchanted costumes needed for the show (sewing most of them
himself) with additional costume coordination by Kathy Castro.( Aaron
has been a freelance costume designer for the past five years, having
created costumes for Festival Theatre in New Bedford, On Stage Dance
Academy of Fall River, Dartmouth High School and Portsmouth New
Hampshire School of Ballet.) Beverly Robinson is the stage manager and
she keeps things running smoothly all night long with this enormous cast
with their many entrances and exits, while Pat Taylor is props mistress.
The fantastic leads of this show are Jessalyn Sadler as Belle and
John Tavares as the Beast. She is a stunning brunette with a fabulous
soprano voice which soars off the charts in her many numbers including
"Belle", where you learn she is a bookworm and the townspeople find her
odd, "Is This Home?", where she laments being held prisoner in the
castle and "A Change in Me" where she finally admits she loves the
Beast. Jessalyn's strong voice is matched by her strong acting ability.
She gives Belle a backbone to stand up to the Beast's bad behavior as
well as fending off Gaston's obnoxious advances. Belle is determined to
control her life and is head strong at times but finally sees through
the tough exterior of the Beast to find the good within him. The
audience loves Jessalyn as Belle and they root for a happy ending. She
and John do a wonderful job in all their scenes together. John's Beast
is frightening at first because he doesn't know how to act around a
lovely young woman but he also conveys the humorous aspects of the Beast
especially in the eating scene where he sits on the top of the chair
instead of the seat and in the reading scene with Belle where he keeps
interrupting her while she reads the King Arthur story to him . The
pathos of the Beast comes through in his solos "How Long Must This Go
On?" and especially in "If I Can't Love Her" at the end of Act 1 finally
evoking the sympathy for his character by this powerful song. The
transformation into a handsome prince at the end of the show moves the
audience to tears and is splendidly done. The spotlight on the happy
couple is the perfect finishing touch to a marvelous show. The last show
I reviewed John in was "Jesus Christ Superstar" at Community Players
where he played Peter.)
Richard Pelletier plays the narrator who opens the show while reading
how the prince was placed under the curse while an animated slide
presentation is shown on the video screen onstage. Dennis Robinson is a
hoot as Belle's absent minded inventor, father, Maurice. His entrance in
a steam engine sort of like from "Chitty, Chitty, Bang, Bang" is
humorous while his love for his daughter is sincerely felt throughout
the show and in their lovely ballad called "No Matter What". Robin
Weldon plays the scene stealing egomaniac, Gaston who constantly flexes
his real muscles while he beats up his sidekick, Lefou played with
impish charm by Kris Johansen who gets to show off his voice with Robin
and the chorus. Kris' pratfalls and other antics during this show are
phenomenal) Gaston's chauvinistic song, "Me" is hilarious where he wants
Belle to marry him whether she wants to or not and carries her around
while dancing with her which is hilarious. Robin's other song "Gaston"
is where he beats up all the men and shows of his muscles to all the
women. The three silly girls madly in love with Gaston are wonderfully
played by Abigail Smith who I reviewed as Johanna in "Sweeney Todd" in
2007, Savannah Amaral and Erin Cote) Gaston turns into a villain in Act
2 when he hires the head of an insane asylum to lock Maurice up in the
song "Maison De Lunes" which he sings with Kris and Benjamin
Medeiros plays the sinister, M. D'Arque. Gaston's evil behavior
continues when later on he incites the townspeople during the mob song
to kill the Beast and when he stabs the Beast at the end of the show.
Gaston is thrown out the window of the castle as his just punishment. (I
reviewed Robin and Kris in "Sweeney Todd" and both of them have grown
more talented over these two years. Robin is studying music at RIC while
Kris is a freshman at Bridgewater State.)
Another scene stealer in this show is David Mello who plays one of
the Beast's servants, the candlestick, Lumiere. His French accent is
perfect while his one liners are topnotch as are his interactions with
all the other characters, too. He leads the chorus in two big singing
and dancing show stopping numbers, "Be Our Guest" in Act 1 which has a
multitude of dance steps in it including a kick-line, tango, among
others and "Human Again" in Act 2 with ball room dancing amidst the
joyous celebration of becoming alive again. The dancing dishes, salt
and pepper, floor mat and other enchanted dancers in these numbers are
excellent, too. Susan Fortes-Couitt is marvelous as Mrs. Potts, the
teakettle. (She played the Beggar Woman in "Sweeney Todd".) Her warmth
envelops Belle and her love for her young son, Chip played wonderfully
by child performer, Tyler Tavares. Susan gets to sing the title song
which tugs at your heartstrings while the two leads fall in love. Tyler
does a great job with her acting scenes and gets to show off her strong
voice in her solo lines of the songs. She recently played young Eponine
in New Bedford Theatre Festival's Les Miserables") Jeff Belanger plays
the major domo, who is a clock called Cogsworth. He shows off his
strong comic acting chops in this role and is an excellent dancer but
couldn't do much dancing due to his clock costume. ( I acted with Jeff
in "Shenandoah" at Academy Players in 1987) The ultra sexy Babette who
is in love with Lumiere is played by Lauren Provost. She gets to strut
her stuff in the dance numbers especially a tango with David in "Be Our
Guest". Kelly Camara as Madame de La Grande Bouche, the wardrobe gets to
show off her operatic soprano voice in the defending of the castle in
the mob song. (she has several funny one liners and this role shows off
her comic side while she played the kindhearted Mrs. Goody in
"Mrs. Goody" which I reviewed her in three years ago.) So for an
excellent rendition of the classic tale, be sure to catch "Beauty and
the Beast" in Fall River before time runs out.
BEAUTY AND THE BEAST ( 30 April to 3 May, 2009)
Little Theatre of Fall River, BBC, 777 Elsbree
Street, Fall River, MA
