<< Previous   of   Next >> contributed photo/Jay Koh  (click to enlarge) Jennifer Paz (Belle) and Eric Polani Jensen (Beast) in Village Theatre’s production of Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast.”

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‘Beauty & the Beast’

• On stage: Village Theatre presents the live musical adaptation of Disney’s animated musical, at the Everett Performing Arts Center, 2710 Wetmore Ave., Everett. • Performances: 8 p.m. Wednesdays-Saturdays, 2 p.m. Saturdays & Sundays, 7 p.m. selected Sundays, through Feb. 1. • Tickets: $16 to $52, available by calling 425-257-8600 or 888-257-3722, or online at www.villagetheatre.org.

CONTACT THE ENTERPRISE Jocelyn Robinson, News editor jrobinson@heraldnet.com

One beauty of a 'Beast'

Village’s production of Disney musical is sure to lift your spirits

By Dale Burrows
For the Enterprise

I can't say theirs will stick with me the way Emily Jackson's original "Beauty and the Beast" has. But this one of Village's is certainly a slam-bang free-for-all and one heck of a good time. It still lifts my spirit.

Jackson's timeless fable proceeds straightforward and poetically from the premise, "beauty is only skin-deep." No comedy, no embellishments.

Same premise for Village's; but it's based on Linda Woolverton's Book, Lyrics by Howard Ashman and Tim Rice, Music by Alan Menken. Add-on characters abound. A little pathos figures in. The music, still gorgeous, is derivative to some extent. Comedy is king.

Jackson makes you think. Village makes you laugh, makes you cheer.

Which isn't to say Jennifer Paz in the title role doesn't merge the best of both worlds. She does, and does with a Beauty that goes far deeper than skin-deep.

Easy to look at, definitely; But Paz also sings like an angel and projects real-life. On paper, Beauty still-lifes an allegory, an idea. On stage, Paz wins you over. You may never run across anybody with her sparkle. You'd sure like to.

Similarly, for Eric Polani Jensen's not-so-easy-to-look-at Beast. The turmoil and torment connect. The loneliness breaks your heart.

For a bully so self-fawning you gotta laugh, you can't beat Troy L. Wageman's Gaston, the he-man suitor with sights set on Beauty. The guy's bravado makes him so outrageous you soften up. Wageman is not the villain you love to hate. He's too funny. Also, his sidekick, the clown, John David Scott's LeFou, is slapstick incarnate, silly, silly. Put the two together, show highlight.

The clock, romantic candlelight and tea pot that would all three be human provide warmth, humanity and uproarious comedy you won't soon forget. They are Ian Lindsay, Bobbi Kotula and Nick DeSantis. Think things aren't people, too? These three run rings around logic proving otherwise.

Sets are storybook imaginative; costuming, too. Overall direction and choreography bear the Steve Tomkins seal of approval. They are supercharged tap, soft shoe, can-can, waltz -- chorus-line, solo, duo, trio, you name it -- all of it battery-operated with high-energy physicality.

This one caught me off guard. How anyone could make a musical blockbuster out of a fairy tale, never once crossed my mind.

I like Jackson's original. But got to hand it to the folks from Issaquah. They brought the Disney version to stage in their own big, bold, brassy, Broadway way, and CNN's gloom and doom lightened up. No biz like show biz.



Reactions? Comments? E-mail Dale Burrows at entopinion@heraldnet.com or grayghost7@comcast.net.