Dancing Furniture on the Stage… Without An Earthquake

This afternoon we trudged out to Thousand Oaks to one of our favorite musical venues, Cabrillo Music Theatre at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza, where we saw “Disney’s Beauty and the Beast”. This was Cabrillo’s summer show, which is always family entertainment, so the audience was filled with kids of all ages, but lots of the younger ones.

For those not familiar with this show, it is basically the Disney animated “Beauty and the Beast” made into a theatrical stage show. It closed on Broadway on July 29, so this is one of the few current stage productions. It is a classic story, and one of the few Disney plotlines to feature a female heroine who loves to read. As for the storyline, it is pretty simple. Brainy beauty who no-one understands falls in-love with a man who has a beastly outside but inner beauty, while the outerly-beautiful man with inner ugliness falls by the wayside. We all know this happens in real life. Right? Right??

I should note that the book for the theatrical B&TB is by Linda Woolverton, with Music by Alan Menken and Lyrics by Howard Ashman and Tim Rice. Ashman and Menken were a very talented team, and I miss Howard Ashman and his truly clever lyrics.

Cabrillo did their usually excellent job with this production. Let’s start with the principals, and work our way down the cast. Our lead heroine, Belle, was played by Ashley Moniz, a drama major at UCI. She did an excellent job (reminding quite a bit of Susan Egan) in her playfullness with the character, bringing Belle’s unique humor to life. Her “beast” was played by Chris Warren Gilbert^*. It is hard to judge his acting underneath the layers of beast, but he didn’t come off as well. I don’t think it was an acting problem as much as a micing problem–the Beast needs to boom, and he didn’t boom until the end (so I’m guessing his mic was misadjusted).

Of course, the real beast in the production was Gaston, played by Matt Merchant^*. He had the right playfullness for the role, the right bounce, the right buffoon-ness, and a great singing voice. He needed more hair, though :-). His comic relief was Lefou, played by David R. Gordon. He acted the role well with all the right comic moves, but his makeup (to make him look like the cartoon character) distracted from the role instead of enhanced it.

Turning to the significant furniture and inhabitants of the castle. Lumiere was played by Joshua Finkel^*, who was excellent in the role. He sang well, danced well, and (uh) inhabited those candlesticks. Equally talented was James William Gruessing Jr. as Cogsworth, who had sufficient bluster in the role. Lisa Donahey as Mrs. Potts had a lovely singing voice for her main songs. Other significant castle inhabitants were Victoria Hart as Madame de la Grande Bouche, Brooke Murphy as Chip, and Elissa Wagner as Babette (the role that propelled Mindy Paige Davis Page to fame). Of the minor furniture, a special nod goes to Daniel Ross Noble as the Doormat, whose acrobatics and flips were simply amazing.

Others in this large cast (ensemble unless otherwise noted; roles in addition to the ensemble shown in []) were: Jack E. Curenton (Maurice), Beth Alison (Silly Girl), Tess Ferrell (Silly Girl), Laura Thatcher (Silly Girl), Trai Allgeier, Chrissy Anderson, Sam Arkin [+ Wolf], Phil Bandel, Gloria Bennett, Josh Christoff, Erin Fagundes, Steven Ferezy [+ Wolf, Pepper], Jennifer Foster, Alana Grossman, Jason Heck, Bradley Horwitz [+ Wolf, Salt], Emili Lauren, Patrick Logothetti, Daniel Ross Noble, Meredith Nussbaum [+Enchantress], Steve Perren [+ Monsieur D’Arque], Courtney Potter, Chris Ramirez, Michelle Y. Reyes, Catherine T. Ricafort, Tony Silva, Joey Sponseller [+Young Prince], Adrienne Storrs, Richard Storrs [+ Bookseller], Andrea Taylor, Bobby Traversa, Estevan Valdes [+ Wolf], Katie Young, Allie Stoller, Jenirae Beyer-Johnson, Jessica Dial, Andrew Fishman, Ben Gutierrez, Jenna Miller, Kayleen Murphy, Delaney Niehoff, and Bailey Tait. Whew. Large cast.

The productions was directed by Lewis Wilkenfeld, with technical direction by Hugh Scott, lighting by Rand Ryan, sound by Jonathan Burke, wigs/hair by Paul Hadobas. Wardrobe supervision was by Christine Gibson, and props by Joannie Meister. The excellent musical director was Tom Griffin, and choreography was by Peggy Hickey. Stage management was by Lindsay Martens assisted by Melissa Machat. The production runs through Sunday, August 5, 2007.

So, what’s coming up on our theatre calendar? Next up is something not quite theatre–we’re going to the Drum and Bugle Corps. Specifically, the DCI 2007 World Championship Finals in Pasadena on 8/11 @ 5:00pm. We then have a few unprogrammed weeks (but watch this space), and we pick up again with “Avenue Q” at the Ahmanson on 9/15 @ 2:00pm; and “Matter of Honor” at the Pasadena Playhouse on 9/22 @ 8:00pm. We’re also planning on going to the Hollywood Bowl for Big Bad Voodoo Daddy on either 8/24 or 25.