The Munster Theatre Company Presents its Spring Musical Production: Disney’s Beauty and the Beast

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The Munster Theatre Company (the Performing Arts Department of Munster High School) is pleased to present the musical Disney’s BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, with book Linda Woolverton, music by Alan Menken and lyrics by Howard Ashman and Tim Rice.

The Artistic Staff includes: Larry A Brechner Producer/Director; Carol Lynn Brechner as the Producer/Director; William Woods Music/Orchestra Pit Director; and Lane Terry as Student Choreographer. The Munster Theatre Company production will feature a cast of 60 in the production plus over 40 on production staff and musicians.

The classic story of Belle (Allison Hemingway), a young woman whose interest in her books makes her not quite fit in this provincial town. Gaston (Casey Terry), the town’s self-appointed big shot, has his sights set on Belle for his wife aided by his sidekick Lefou (Elliott Fus). Belle’s inventor father, Maurice (Ethan Courney), gets lost in the woods seeking refuge from a pack of wolves, and appears at a castle of the Beast (Thomas Speranza). The Beast, who is really a young prince trapped under the spell of an enchantress, imprisons Maurice for trespassing, and Belle upon finding him there offers to stay forever if the Beast releases Maurice.

munster-hs-beauty-and-the-beastBelle discovers the whole household has fallen under the curse with the castle’s staff transformed into enchanted objects: Cogworth (Drew Adams) a clock, Lumiere (Rohan Chatterjee) a candelabra, Mrs Potts (Rachel Jamrose) a teapot, Chip (Chloe Jancosek) a tea cup, Babette (Anna Bilse) a feather duster, and De La Grande Bouche (Peyton Tinder) a Wardrobe. They all try to make Belle comfortable in her new surroundings, and she discovers that the curse will end and they all will be restored to their former selves if the Beast can learn to love and be loved before the last petal of the rose falls, otherwise they will be doomed for all eternity. Meanwhile Gaston paints Maurice as a lunatic and schemes with the local proprietor of the local insane asylum, D’Arque (Billy McDunn) in order to blackmail Belle into marriage, which has returned to the village and confirms that the Beast is real.

Based on the classic fairytale and Disney’s 1991 animated feature film, Disney’s BEAUTY AND THE BEAST premiered on Broadway at the Palace Theatre on April 25, 1991, running for over 5000 performances through July 2007 staring Terrance Mann as The Beast and Susan Egan as Belle. It was Disney’s first venture adapting one of their animated features films onto a Broadway musical. Now an established practice, Dinsey brought The Lion King (1997), Tarzan (2006), Mary Poppins (2006), The Little Mermaid (2008), Newsies-the Musical (2012), and Aladdin (2014). Disney is also adapting Broadway musicals into live-action films most recently with Into the Woods, and in 2017 Beauty and the Beast featuring Emma Thompson (Harry Potter) as Belle, Luke Evens (The Hobbit, Dracula Untold) as Gaston, and Dan Stevens (Downton Abby) as the Beast.

An ironic coincidence that on April 16, Susan Egan, the original Belle in Broadway’s Beauty and the Beast appeared in concert as part of the Northwest Indiana Concert Association series.

Disney’s BEAUTY AND THE BEAST will run Thursday, April 30; Friday, May 1; Saturday, May 2 at 7pm, and Sunday, May 3 at 2pm in Munster Auditorium. Tickets are $7 at the door (senior and student tickets $5). Tickets are available at the Auditorium Box Office on performance nights