Â§hria's Spot

So I'm nearly me. Really.

And I promised a little blurb on Beauty and the Beast. The play was pretty good. Excellent company. It was very nice to spend a little time with Gus again. He's easy to hang with -- on the rare occasions that we can actually find matching time blocks in our busy schedules!

Bill Webb and Lauren Kinney were absolutely delightful in the lead roles. Adam Proulx, Bill Murphy, Richard Vallee, John Vincent and Laura Widgett also gave stellar performances. Jeannine Jefferson has the most powerful voice I've ever heard. However, the dancing seriously sucked. You'd think that six months of rehearsals would produce a chorus line in which all members could actually execute a stag leap. And Mrs. Potts??? Oh my Goddess. This is a musical. Who ever thought of casting a woman who CANNOT sing in such an important role. The costumes and sets were good but they are part of theatre in a box so I can't really give a lot of credit to the company for those. See, the way I understand it to work is that you give Disney a huge whack of money, they tell you what to do (in creative-killing detail) and send you the music, sets, costumes and props. Canned music is not my idea of musical, sorry. Jim Cronin was superb as the narrator but I suspect that the huge whack of money spent on theatre in a box from Disney could have been better spent on real musicians, locally produced sets and costumes. We have the talent. We have the commitment and professionalism. In my opinion, home-made is better.

But then, home made wouldn't have been Disney (read total control freaks) and, would people of Sault Ste. Marie have paid $27.00 a ticket for home made, not Disney? Maybe. I say do it and find out.

But of course it would have to be something other than Beauty and the Beast.

How about Handsome and the Beast? Imagine if you will, the scene where Beauty begins to relent and feel affection for the Beast. The one where she is reading to him and then invites him to have dinner with her. He jumps up and runs around excitedly, shouting 'YES, YES'.

At that point Beauty tears off her dress revealing a classic dominatrix look, you know, black leather corsette, thigh-high boots, fish-net stockings, riding crop.

"Then lick my toes, you bad Beast, you!" says Beauty.

So that would be the jumping off point for the concept.

What do you think, would the good folks of Sault Ste. Marie pay $20 a ticket to see it? Maybe not with their kids, but would there be a market for it?

Thanks, Gus, for a great night out.