The Rival Beauty and the Beast

Here we are when we had just gotten engaged-this is the picture I sent to mom and dad so they would know what he looked like. I didn't want you guys to forget what we look like.

So, this evening Eric and I attended a high school drama presentation of Beauty and the Beast with his parents. The whole time we were comparing it to Jimmy's show and we thought we would share with the rest of you what we saw-since all of you went and will know what we are talking about. At first, we were very impressed with the scenery-Eric says that this school isn't very good at sports so they spend a lot of their money on their shows.

Here's the analysis:

The scenery and the costumes were absolutely amazing-they really looked like the cartoon and the pros. Belle came out and she was pretty good-very pretty, an okay singer and actress. She didn't really blow either of us away. There were hundreds of townsfolk. At intermission Eric counted all the people in the show-ensemble and main characters-and there were 183 members and over half of them were girls. The opening town song was pretty amazing. The only disappointing part in the beginning song was Gaston. He came out on stage and I laughed for a good couple of minutes. He was puny. Not only was he skinny, but they didn't even have him in the blow up suit that would make him look bigger-just skinny. And Lafu was all over the place with his body-like a puppet on Seaseme Street...maybe even bigger movements than a puppet. He was such a distraction and annoyance that I dreaded everytime he would be back on stage. Belle's father was great-he actually looked old and played the part well.

I know that everyone will be confused and little disappointed when I tell you that during the song "ME" we found out that Gaston was lip syncing. It's true, he did not sing for himself. We aren't sure why-he didn't sound sick. And it was really obvious in places when he would forget the words and mess them up or stop moving his mouth and the voice would keep singing. OR there was also a time when whoever was singing, I'm guessing their mic wasn't on because he would start lipping the words, but there was no voice. It was sad and kind of annoying. And just crazy!

The wolves were actual dancers, so their scenes were really cool. During the tavern song, we were really disappointed because they used sound effects for the clinking of the glasses and they didn't even make it look like they were trying to hit the glasses together-it could have been way cooler. Cogsworth was eons above the guy in Jimmy's show. He was bigger, his costume was really cool, and he acted like a pompus English guy. He fell down during Be Our Guest and couldn't get back up-it was soo funny...but we thought it was supposed to happen. Then he came out later limping and we felt bad that he was hurt, but the falling down was still hilarious. Lumire and Babett were both pretty disappointing and the Mrs. Potts was good just like in Jimmy's. The wardrobe was hilarious and sang most of her lines-they even let her make up her own aria at one point and it was just awesome.

The Beast did a great job-he didn't sing very well-but his acting was great and if Jimmy had had his costume, I think he could have done so much more with his character. This kid looked just like the Beast from the movie. He had the exact wig and beard and then they just painted his face to look like the cartoon so he could look up and move around without worrying whether his hair would fall off or of people seeing his face. AND at the end, Belle and the Beast practically made out on stage-pretty scandalous. You just hoped that they prepared their parents for that.

SO...overall...Jimmy's show is the winner. If they had had these costumes and if Cogsworth was played by the kid we saw tonight, it would have been just wonderful. But, Jimmy as the Beast was beyond compare. The Beast's mic was out tonight for one of those short little songs he sings and you couldn't hear him at all...and we were sure that if that had happened to Jimmy that it wouldn't have mattered. :) Just wanted to share with you our evening tonight and how we felt about it. We do miss you guys but hope that you have a great Thanksgiving and we hope that we get to see you next summer.

P.S. Eric sent in two secondaries today completed (Michigan and Missouri) so please cross your fingers and say your prayers that they look on his application with favor and that one or the other will want him. He does have two left to finish and so they are still potential places to go, but he has these two in and so, right now, they are the better chance. Thanks guys! We love you!