DIRECTOR'S NOTES
I am extremely proud of this year’s production, Beauty and The Beast. The quality of the cast, pit orchestra, stage crew and Port Theatre staff are outstanding. A truly successful production however, involves more than what is presented on stage. It should not only be an artistic learning experience, but a personal one as well. I’m especially proud of the collaboration, cooperation, mutual respect, the level of commitment, and the teamwork that has been demonstrated by everyone involved in this production. These students have put egos aside and discovered that whether they had one line, harmonies, or several lines and solos; were on or off the stage, that everyone shares equally in the pride and success of such an outstanding accomplishment.
MUSICAL DIRECTOR / CONDUCTOR'S NOTES:
Our story is drawn from the French novel, La Belle et La Bete, first written in 1740 by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve. Its theme of redemption from a punishment for tragic pride that viewed appearance as beautiful, rather than selfless love, is an old tale indeed. Ironically, it is that selfless love and being loved which redeems the beast from a world where people are made into objects and he is trapped in his own emotional prison, reduced to a beast. The original story was influenced by ancient European fairy tales dating back to the Greco/Roman times. It is certainly a “tale as old as time”.
But a song as old as rhyme? The operatic world has stories of tragic love and characters searching for redemption. At the time they took on this project, Disney Corp. was inspired by the successes of Cats, Les Miserables, and Phantom of the Opera. The Disney show has been most compared to Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of the Opera. The dramatic character and majestic scale of the music fits both productions.
Alan Menken, the musical composer and his lyricist, Howard Ashman, had successes with Little Shop of Horrors and the Little Mermaid, but while writing Beauty and the Beast, Ashman died during the AIDS epidemic and Tim Rice (Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber’s lyricist with Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita, etc.) was brought in to fill in the gaps in the adaptation from the cartoon movie to the stage. Human Again and A Change in Me are both songs not found in the cartoon version, and the latter was added to appease the actress who was promised, by an inebriated Tim Rice, her own song if she would do the show. Another tale as old as time…
This score is rich,and while varied, has a sense of majesty and epic proportions.
So, sit back and be carried by the music into a passionate world of tragic pride and redemptive love.
