Metropolitan Players' Beauty and the Beast to enchant Newcastle

The announcement was made at a New York function in April that commemorated the Broadway opening of the show 25 years ago. The musical, which was Disney's first stage version of one of its films, played on Broadway for 13 years, closing in 2007.

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The show has certainly been a hit with Newcastle people. Newcastle Dramatic Art Club staged a production at the Civic Theatre in 2006, soon after the rights were made available to amateur companies, Maitland Gilbert and Sullivan and Musical Society brought a touring show to a Newcastle venue in 2014, and a shorter junior version for young performers had productions by Hunter Drama in 2011 and Young People's Theatre in 2015.

Metropolitan Players will present the full-length version at the Civic Theatre from August 14 to 24, with a cast that includes renowned musical theatre performers, many of them in the backing ensemble, and young actors who have shown their talents in various musicals.

Metropolitan has been acclaimed for its musicals, with many of them winning CONDA Awards. This show's director, Julie Black, has directed all but one of the company's 43 productions since 1983, with her impressive work recognised when she received the 2016 CONDA Award for Excellence in Theatre.

The fairy tale nature of the musical certainly makes demands on its actors and production team.

The self-centred Prince, who has been transformed by a Witch into an unsightly creature because of his lack of compassion for other people, certainly has to have a beastly look. Danny Folpp, who is playing the Prince, wears a face mask, which, he smilingly says, makes him look like a "handsome devil", with two very large horns rising from the side of his head.

The Witch also makes the people who work in the Prince's palace look like implements in their jobs. Lumiere (Tyran Stig), the castle's valet who carries lamps to light people's ways along corridors, becomes an enchanted candelabra; Babette (Bec Kynaston), the chambermaid who uses brushes and brooms to do cleaning is a saucy featherduster; Cogsworth (Malcolm Young), the unsmiling butler, is a stuffy metal mantle clock; Mrs Potts (Michelle Burnitt), the cook, is an elegant blue teapot, with an arm being the spout, and her young son, Chip (Cooper Youmann and Lachlan McFarlane alternating), a teacup; and a former opera diva, Madame De La Grand Bouche (Wendy Ratcliffe), who is a house guest when the Witch arrives, becomes a wardrobe.

Belle (Rachel Davies), the story's Beauty, is a young woman who is the subject of sneers from her town's adults because of her love of books, and who tries to avoid the vain, self-proclaimed small town "hero", Gaston (Andrew Black). She is forced to stay with the Prince when she comes to rescue her father, Maurice (Rob Vidler), who has become his prisoner. She also has to deal with Gaston's bumbling sidekick, Lefou (Drew Holmes), and Monsieur d'Arque (Dom Lacey), the creepy proprietor of an insane asylum.

Her relationship with the Prince moves backwards and forwards as he regularly holds a rose that was given him by the Witch and sees its petals fall. The Witch told him he would only break the spell she placed on him and return to his real nature if he earned a woman's love before the last petal fell.

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Beauty and the Beast, with more songs added to those in the film that included Be Our Guest, Belle, Something There and Home, has a strong ensemble as silly girls, enchanted objects, townspeople, tavern patrons, and a mob, as well as an expert staging team, among them Chris Vidler as musical director and Mick Dean as choreographer.

The show plays at the Civic Theatre from Wednesday, August 14, to Saturday, August 24, with Wednesday, Friday and Saturday shows at 7.30pm, plus 1.30pm Saturday matinees, and a Sunday 1.30pm performance on August 18. Tickets: adult $67, conc. $57, student $57, junior $45, group 8+ $59 each. Bookings: 4929 1977.

THIS first Australian production of American playwright John Walch's Circumference of a Squirrel showed how engaging a work that has just one actor on stage for an unbroken 90 minutes can be.

James Chapman portrayed Chester, a 28-year-old whose life has certainly been caught up in a tight circle, thanks largely to his father's hatred of squirrels after he was bitten on the foot by one while helping Chester as a child in the backyard. The father had Chester and his brother joining him in chasing squirrels around their property and slaughtering them, something that has left a black shadow on Chester's mind.

He talks about the resulting circles in his life that made it hard for him to move on, with memories of what had happened being heard as remarks voiced offstage by actors including Phillip Ross (the voice of his Dad), Tracey Gordon (Mum), Stephanie Priest (Dara, his ex-wife), and Jack Norman (young Chester), plus Ben Mitchell, Elyn Tarran, and Jack Gudsell. The show left watchers wondering whether Chester would ever move straight ahead.

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