TLTC Selects Beauty and the Beast

The Three Lakes Theater Company hopes you will be its guest in June when it performs Disney’s Beauty and the Beast in June.

“We really like to mix-up our offerings,” notes TLTC Marketing Director Linda Goldsworthy regarding the 2008 show selection.  “Peter Pan, Cinderella and The Wizard of Oz all represented out commitment to providing family-orient entertainment.  We thought that Beauty and the Beast would be a great contrast to last year’s The Sound of Music. Besides, the production has some really great music!”

Beauty and the Beast marks the fourteenth production of the TLTC, a non-profit organization made up of volunteers from throughout the Northwoods.  The brainchild of local residents Mari Lynn Garbowicz, Mary Karling, Dianna Blicharz and Kris Cunningham had just finished watching the Three Lakes High School talent show in 1995.  The group recognized the adult need for creative expression that was so common within the school district.  

This creative outlet had been present in the community during the 1950s when adults use to put on Vaudeville-like shows to raise money for things that the school district needed.

“I find it amazing that those four women were able to not only recognize the need in the community, but that they were also able to make it a reality,” says Goldsworthy who joined the group in1998.  

Tickets for the June 19-21 and 26-28 production show will go on sale Wednesday, May 21, according to Goldsworthy.  “We are evaluating the benefit continuing ticket sales in Rhinelander as the outlet wasn’t utilized as much as we had hoped.  But tickets will remain available in both Eagle River and Three Lakes.”

The Show

The first “cartoon” to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture in 1991, Beauty and the Beast did not get its start on stage like many other favorite musicals. The stage version of the silver screen story did not appear until 1994 on Broadway where it was nominated in nine different Tony Award categories, including Best Musical.

Set in France, Beauty and the Beast opens with the phrase “Once upon a time” and continues to tell the story of a selfish and spoiled prince who has no love in his heart.  After angering an Enchantress disguised as an old hag, he is transformed into a hideous beast, and all who dwell in his castle are placed under a powerful spell. 

She leaves him with a mirror in which to see the outside world and a rose.  Should he not learn to love another and be loved in return before the last long-lasting rose petal dropped, a beast he forever would remain.

In a nearby quaint village live the beautiful Belle, who is only interested in books, and her eccentric inventor father Maurice. Since young Belle is the prettiest girl in the village, one of its most popular citizens, Gaston, decides he must marry her and promptly seeks her out.

Belle avoids Gaston’s amorous attentions and returns home to ask her father if they are indeed odd.  Maurice assures her that they are special and have each other. He then leaves to attend a fair wearing a scarf Belle gave him for luck.

En route to the fair, Maurice is waylaid by a pack of ferocious wolves.  His fear causes him to run, leaving behind both his invention and Belle’s gift.  

He arrives at the Beast’s mysterious castle, pounds on the door, and finds a world of enchanted objects that once comprised the Prince’s staff.  The former servants work diligently to hid Maurice from their master, the Beast. But all attempts fail as the Beast soon discovers Maurice and imprisons him in the dungeon.

Meanwhile, Gaston continues his fruitless efforts of pursuing Belle.  She rejects his offer and begins contemplating what she really wants in life.  As she ponders this question,   Gaston’s comrade Lefou shows up wearing her father’s scarf and Belle races off to find out her father’s fate. 

The trail leads Belle to the old castle where Lumiere and Cogworth, two of the Beast’s servants lament their continued loss of humanity as the spell continues.  Upon seeing Bell, the pair one again has hope.  

Young Belle eventually finds a coughing and cold Maurice in the dungeon.  He warns her of the Beast’s cruelty and begs her to run.  When the Beast appears, Belle begs him to release her father and offers to become the prisoner in exchange for her father’s freedom. 

The Beast accepts Belle’s offer and has his servants take her to nicer quarters.  There Belle mourns the loss of her father and her freedom.  Her contemplation is interrupted by the Beast’s demand that she join him for dinner.  Although the enchanted servants do their best to convince her to dine with the Beast, she refuses.

In the village, Gaston mourns Belle’s rejection, but is soon buoyed in spirits by several visitors.  The gathering is interrupted by a frantic Maruice, begging for someone to help him rescue Belle from the Beast.

Believing Maurice’s rantings about living teapots and walking forks to be the ravings of a crazy old man, the villagers kick him out.  But Maurice’s pleadings give Gaston an idea.  He threatens to have Maurice committed to a lunatic asylum unless Belle agrees to marry him.

At the castle, the enchanted servants are working to make the Beast more presentable. But when they announce Belle’s refusal to come down for dinner, he storms up to her room and bullies her into joining him.

She remains defiant and he says she will not eat unless it’s with him.  He retreats to another part of the castle and through the magic mirror, watches Belle confess to one of the enchanted servants that she does not “want to have anything to do with him.”

Belle sneaks out of the room and discovers the enchanted rose under a glass.  Just as she is about to touch it, the Beast emerges and bellows at her to stay away.  She is so frightened that the breaks her promise and bolts from the castle, only to be surrounding by a pack of wolves.  The Beast fights them off and rescues her.  Belle takes him back to the castle where she tends his wounds. 

The Beast, who is unable to read, rewards her with his library.  The pair makes a fresh start while the staff dreams of the possibility of returning to their former selves.  At dinner that night, the Beast tries to express his love for Belle and shows her the power of the magic mirror.  In it she sees her father wandering in the forest.  The Beast gives her the mirror and watches her leave in search of her father.

Gaston learns of the Beast and convinces them that the Beast is a threat and must be destroyed.  As the mob marches to kill the beast, Belle and Maurice hurry to warn him.

In the final scene of the play, the Beast defends himself to near death.  Belle confesses her love to him just as the last rose petal falls and the spell is broken. And, of course, the pair lives happily ever after.