#courtney that blue shadow looks so good on u but it makes u so hard to COLOR

[mortalis-arc]

desdemona's   band   +   standing   the   same   in   every   single   photo.

[theteaisaddictive]

Sooooooo how was Beauty and the Beast???

SO GOOD, OH MY GOD

(for future reference, i saw the 14:30 matinee at the edinburgh playhouse yesterday, 26/11/21, and the cast was as follows:

belle: courtney stapleton beast: alyn hawke (u/s) lumiere: gavin lee gaston: tom senior mrs potts: sam bailey cogsworth: nigel richards maurice: martin ball madame de la grande bouche: samantha bingley babette: emma caffrey lefou: louis stockil, and i'm fairly sure that chip was played by manasseh mapira, although i was in the cheap seats at the very back of the balcony so it's hard to be sure)

first off, this production didn't just have physical sets, but also LCD screens -- a big one at the back of the stage acting as the backdrop, and then three large ones at the front, like the physical proscenium arch. the screens were used a lot throughout, and i think it could have been gimmicky but in this case was actually really nice. the pre-curtain had the poster projected onto it; after the overture, the roses on belle's dress swirled up and covered them both, and then faded away to reveal the castle interior.

angela lansbury as the narrator was such a lovely nod to the original film. i really loved how they staged the prologue, too -- the prince is sitting with his big-ass chair facing away from the audience, one leg curled over the arm (bi!prince rights!!!) until he goes to get the rose. enchantress' transformation is very quick and cool, and the prince's transformation into the beast is also well-done. he looked down at his hands in horror before starting his show-long pastime of brooding over the rose, which i thought was a very nice touch.

(the rest is going under the cut, bc this turned out to be super long)

we then open for real on 'belle', which was a very fun number! it took me a while to notice this (again, cheap seats), but the belle in this production wears reading glasses, and she whips them on and off whenever she starts or finishes reading, which i thought was so cute. i have the same bugbear with this production that i had with 2017, sadly -- there are villagers wearing blue!! even one of the bimbettes is in a blue dress instead of her usual red!!! why!!!!!! also, they changed the lyrics so that belle was reading hunchback of notre dame instead of jack and the fucking beanstalk, thank god. however, everybody in this show sans maybe the castle servants and the beast spoke like they were presenting a children's tv show. and i would love to know why, because even though i get that this is a show which welcomes children, it was incredibly distracting.

instead of a wood-chopping machine, maurice invented a mobility scooter which i found hilarious. sadly, it didn't come back in the third act (they could have used it to get to the castle during the mob song!!! my dudes!!! why!!!!!). 'no matter what' got cut (actually, quite a lot of songs got cut), presumably to make time for the extended dance sequences in gaston and be our guest, but honestly i didn't really care that much. you got a good enough sense of their relationship from the script.

the wolves, oh my god the wolves. instead of physical actors, they used the LCD screens/the thin curtain at the front of the stage (idk what it's called) to project animated wolves on it -- they looked like shadow puppets, and they only appeared in brief flashes, it was very effective.

the castle intro was good, but one of lumiere's hand candles wasn't spurting flames as easily as the other, which i found unreasonably amusing (this continued throughout the show -- it was temporarily fixed at the start of act 2 but then started to noticeably fail again). and then!!! the beast!!! my boy!!! physically climbed on the chair maurice was sitting in, i guess to make himself look taller and more intimidating -- which, to be fair, it did. this scene also saw the beginning of my favourite recurring bit in the show, 'the beast has to awkwardly pause for 0.5s while the stage manager cues beast roar.mp3'. also also, i loved that he had a red leather jacket. i kind of want that jacket. belle with glasses/leather jacket beast rights!!

i really liked the staging for 'me' -- belle is puttering around just trying to do the damn gardening, while gaston is just singing his heart out. there wasn't a lot of physical comedy between the two of them in that scene, and while i kind of get why i do wish they had turned it up a little, if only for the final chorus. belle's cloak is also super sweet, although the 2017 one still owns my heart. also it was nice to see belle have a character for three seconds during belle (reprise) -- it's such a shame, bc courtney stapleton has the most incredible voice, but her belle felt so bland, excepting three moments -- belle (reprise), the fireplace conversation, and the mob song.

ok, here we are. the dungeons/first meeting. i think the biggest thing that was an issue for me was the lack of clear boundaries in the space -- i get that it's a touring production, and one that's going for a specific aesthetic, but i would have appreciated knowing, for example, that belle couldn't hear lumiere tell the beast to give her a room (it was unclear if she could or not, as they were both literally standing over her but lumiere melted away as if he was giving an aside). also, my one BIG problem with this production -- belle and the beast are way too handsy with each other way too soon. when he tells her not to go into the west wing, he grabs at her elbow -- but this is made pointless when he asks her to dinner in the next scene, when he reaches towards her and stops himself, looking at his paw in horror/disgust. idk. didn't pass the vibe check for me.

now. this might be controversial. but i actually didn't love 'home'. i love the song -- i've sung the song in int 2 music -- but it honestly felt unnecessary. i didn't really love having belle sing a big ballad when she's meant to be feeling at her lowest. this is more an issue with the show than this specific production, but yeah. that's my hot take. that said, courtney stapleton threw it out of the fucking park with this one. hot damn she can sing. my aunt was also very amused, because i noticed that they cut the second verse and chorus and went straight into the bridge. also in this scene (although again, hard to tell if belle can hear this or not): madame and mrs potts explicitly say they can't act like shippers because that's manipulation and the spell won't work if they don't genuinely love each other. (this also starts the recurring bit of 'lumiere/cogsworth/mrs potts as the beast's wingmen/shippers', which i found absolutely adorable and hilarious).

beast goes to belle to get her to come down to dinner, and i'm side-eyeing them again because he's in her room, looming over her. i get that you need some visual interest, but i really didn't like that choice. oh, oh!! and belle as a line about how 'you should act more like a gentleman!!!' and then the beast goes back to the west wing to brood and he says 'like a gentle . . . man' and i started losing my shit because i didn't even know that line existed and i still wrote a parallel to it in roses and lavender, which i personally found cool. he also has a line that goes something like 'to be cursed . . . it was one mistake, long ago! it was wrong -- i was wrong. but this is too much!' let me tell you, i was Shooketh. i honestly did not expect the beast to be this self-aware that early on.

now, the two big showstoppers back to back (yes, really) -- gaston and be our guest! they were both fantastic -- i loved the way gaston started in the village square, and then the set opened up until they were in the tavern. they had new choreography, but the iconic beer stein dance was still in there!! likewise, be our guest was incredible. the tapdancing sequence, a++++++.

and then. it's time. west wing, babey. they don't play up the spookiness at all, she just goes straight in which. ok. she goes up to the rose, beast leaps in, blah blah blah and then HE RIPS HER SLEEVE OFF???? i have to say, i really was not a fan. i strongly disliked that choice. belle getting scared of him yelling is a powerful enough motivation for her to gtfo of there. him attacking her (although i do believe it was staged in such a way that it's supposed to be accidental) is unnecessary. however, he does have a nice moment where he tries to lift his hands up placatingly and that just scares her more because of course it would -- and he looks to his paw, and then to her, and he just sinks.

act one finale, if i can't love her. holy shit alyn hawke has some pipes on him. one thing i haven't mentioned is that there were lots of children at the matinee yesterday, and they talked throughout the entire thing -- but they all shut up when he started singing if i can't love her. it was absolutely magical -- made even better by the lighting, because oh my god?? the little podium with the rose swings around so that the end of it faces the audience, and the beast is singing his heart out, and the lighting changes so that it looks like he's surrounded by constellations and stars, and the music swells, and then he lets out this powerful final note, and then we all start losing our shit because it was so good, and then the house lights come up for intermission.

act 2 time, babey!! the cool shadow-puppet wolves return, to great effect, and when belle comes to rescue the beast she drapes her cloak over him, which i found so cute. the fireplace scene is really great, and then . . . we have something there. which makes it canon in the musical that they start to fall in love on the same night that all of the above happened. why. literally why. again, this is not an issue with this production but with the musical itself -- but still. why. the beast also loses a lot of his dignity here being goofy for the kids, which would have bugged me more if i hadn't been forewarned when vi watched the bootleg -- but keeping in mind that they are aiming specifically at kids, it didn't bug me that much, and also belle and the beast were so sweet together.

human again was . . . eh, it was fine. it's funny -- i grew up with the special edition so i'm used to it being in the story, but you really don't get a sense of belle and the beast together in this production, so it just felt like time wasted not developing our leads. we get POETIC SCRIPTWRITING when belle asks the beast to join her for dinner (aka the ballroom scene), and yes i loved it. the beast also had a wonderful moment with lumiere and cogsworth -- they ask why he's so afraid to confess his love for belle, and he says 'i'm afraid . . . what if she laughs at me?' why was that line in neither of the films???!??!?!? it's SUCH a good line!!!! it's so (if you'll pardon the pun) . . . humanising.

'beauty and the beast' was wonderful. they toasted each other, belle initiated The Waist Grab, it was brilliant. it was also very sweet because everyone in the theatre sang along to the chorus. the LCD screens showed grey roses around the proscenium arch. and i found it hilarious that the applause at the end of the song was so loud that mrs potts couldn't get her final tag-line out in time. their costumes are so sparkly, it's a sight to see even way up at the back like i was. oh, and when belle stood at the top of the stairs?? a ripple went through the audience as everyone gasped. gorgeous.

the balcony scene is great. belle is still in cbeebies presenter mode when talking about how she misses her father -- but then. oh man. the goodbye scene. thank god for the beast saying 'you haven't been my prisoner for a long time'. he holds her hand!! she touches his face!!! he holds her waist!!! how is a simple bitch expected to cope!?!?!?! mrs potts still gets the 'he's finally learned to love' line though, which still annoys me. LET HIM EXPRESS HIS LOVE GODDAMMIT!!!

belle arrives home and fucking kills it singing a change in me. it's unclear why exactly she needed to go and find maurice as he appears to be in good health, but we're like ten minutes from the end so it's not that important. also, the maison des lunes song (which, uh. exists, apparently) was cut, as was any conversation between gaston and mssr. d'arc, so like the 2017 version he just sort of appears out of nowhere to take maurice away. the mob song is, again, a+++++. the rooftop fight reuses some of the village set, which i found really cool, and i'd still like to know how they did it -- if the castle sets are on the reverse of the village sets, or if it's a matter of projecting stuff via the 'thin curtain at the front of the stage idk the name of'. belle loses maurice at some point as well, which i only realised because she and maurice run off to get to the castle, but when she shows up there she's alone. beast spares gaston, but it doesn't hit nearly as well as it does in the film because belle is just There and like. has to tell him not to murder gaston. ok. anyway, stabby stabby knife, gaston dies, and the lighting is done in such a way that it seems to imply he's been sucked down to hell like in ghost the musical. lightning flash (which i did get a fright at) while we re-jig the set to be the west wing.

belle and the beast have a very awkward death scene, and once again belle's delivery had me doubting that she actually did love him. but that doesn't matter because it's TRANSFORMATION TIME, BABEY!!!!! beast-boy rises up in the air, spins around, lights flash, and everyone LOSES THEIR SHIT at the NORMAL HUMAN MAN re-appearing!!! it was fantastic!!! he has a really nice moment where he looks at his hands (parallels, bitches!!!!!) and then he sings the little tagline, and then they kiss and thank god, they have really good chemistry even when he's normal. human servants come out, and the prince physically lifts cogsworth in a massive bear hug which i thought was adorable. then they go off to do a quick change find belle's father -- and let me tell you. the transformed servant who got the biggest cheer was tiny little chip. and he fucking deserved it.

mrs potts sings the 'winter turns to spring' verse from the 2017 film, which i thought was a really lovely way to tie it all together, and then it's the finale!! everyone was losing their minds (i think bc the children thought it was the bows), the roses which were grey during the ballroom scene turned pink now that the curse was broken, and maurice and the prince had a handshake which i appreciated a lot. we had the bows, with lots of people trying to give standing ovations -- gaston got a brilliant boo like he was a panto villain, little chip got an enormous cheer when he came out for his solo bow, and everyone started screaming and hooting and hollering like it was a sold-out concert when belle and the prince came out for theirs.

and that was beauty and the beast!