Beauty and the Beast

What a blast. This production of Beauty and the Beast was SO fun for our family, and it was a big hit on the stage. It ran for, what? four weeks? and could have sold out for at least twice that.

Jackson and Jordan took turns playing Chip. On the night they didn't play Chip, they played a spice -- they were either Cumin or Chives, depending entirely on their mood that evening. Cannon was a villager/croney and had plenty of singing and dancing to do (quote from Cannon's dad: "Cannon, I've never really seen you. . . uh . . . DO anything like this before!")

Rehearsals were rough for the family for the couple of weeks before the show opened, with rehearsals most nights 7-9 pm. Especially when you consider that the twins' bedtime is 7:00! Cannon had to really cram in time to study and get anything else done around the house. Once the show opened, the time committment actually seemed more do-able. Shows were Mondays, Fridays and Saturdays, with some matinees on Saturday.

These pictures are from the preview night, and Jordan happened to be Chip that night. Here is Maurice being surprised to find his tea cup talking.

Mrs. Potts was very helpful in getting Jackson and Jordan where they needed to be. As you can see, Chip doesn't actually have feet! This cart was on wheels, so Mrs. Potts and other characters just pushed Chip where he needed to be.

Cannon mostly kept track of the boys back stage. Well, this theater was too small for much of a backstage. There was what the twins called, "a secret passage way" backstage, which consisited of steps leading downstairs where they lounged as they listened for their cues. In fact, I hear Jackson took many a nap down there on the days he was a spice.

Below is a picture of Cannon (in the green hat) delivering his one line: "Crazy ol' Maurice!" He says he learned much better how to act drunk during his one line as the play went on. True acting for Cannon!

Above on the left you can see Cannon in his other role as a spoon for the song Be Our Guest.

Sometimes it was hard for J & J to see what was going on up on stage because they just had that small opening to stick their faces in. They couldn't move themselves to follow the action. So it was nice when the action was right in front of them. Although Jordan vehemenently denies it, there are rumors from cast members that he actually fell asleep on stage on Saturday nights. Who can blame him after a late Friday night, early soccer on Saturday, a Saturday matinee, then another late show??Above, Chip is finally human again!BRAVO! My boys all did a superb job in this play! I think we have two budding actors here, and we may have awoken a hidden talent in Cannon! I hope we can find more productions that we can be involved in. It was wonderful getting to know so many extremely talented members of our community.