Beauty and the Beast

Once upon a time in a university not so faraway, a student with no love in his heart was transformed into a hideous beast and a powerful spell was cast upon his classroom and all who learnt there. Ashamed of his hideous form the Beast put on a musical for the outside world to see and in a four-day run at the University College Dublin they told the story of how this spell would be broken.

This enchanting tale of Beauty and the Beast, based on the 1991 Disney film, has been created with the help of over 200 students, staff, alumni and friends of UCD and comes complete with the West End Touring companies set and costumes to ensure the true magic of Disney is brought to life. And so, amongst the rattle of crisp packets and flashes of fellow students ignoring the no camera rule, the fairy-tale launches with a powerful rendition of “Belle” from English and Drama student, Megan Cassidy.

Megan, who sang for Andrew Llyod Webber as one of the final 30 contenders on TV programme “How to solve a problem like Maria”, is accompanied by the seventeen UCD musicians and a score of perfectly coordinated townsfolk dancing around her. Watching her superb performance it is hard to imagine that she was the leading understudy until a week before the curtain raise when the original Belle was unable to play the role due to a medical emergency - a credit to UCD law alumnus Aileen Ryan who produced the show.

Belle’s affections are sought after by the Beast (Alec Ward), who sounds like a cross between Napoleon Dynamite and Christian Bale’s Batman, and the lovesick Gaston (Stuart Pollock) who’s bulging biceps herald girlish titters from the audience. Their fairytale of flirtation brings a host of marvellous characters played to perfection to the audience assembled in the O’Reilly Hall, the conference venue turned enchanted castle. Lumiere (Denis Grindel), Cogsworth (Diarmuid Browne) and Mrs Potts (Vickey Howell) somehow manage to keep their pitch-perfect accents throughout the performance, even in songs such as “Human Again” in Act II while dancing around the stage in their elaborate costumes. Even little Chip (Rian Middleton) manages to keep his English accent as he is wheeled on and off stage to the audiences coos. Their choreography, along with the 30 strong chorus members, is superb thanks to hard work from student Connor Nolan, as is the music direction from Breda McManus.

The West-end costumes are flawless imitations of the Disney film (even though the amateur make-up artists are a little over-zealous) and combined with the clever tricks of the set design a dream-like illusion is created in O’Reilly Hall. The performance starts with a see through-screen that covers the stage. While the characters act behind the screen, images are projected onto it to create a supernatural aura that lures the audience into the fantasy. The screen and projections are cleverly used throughout the performance to hide the stage-hands during set their changes which lets the story run flawlessly. The dexterous use of second actor for the beast during the fight and transformation scene doesn’t run as smoothly as a West-End performance but still draw a generous applause

from the audience and questions to the front-of-house staff after the performance on how it was accomplished.

The music for the stage version of the fairytale was written by Alan Menken, lyrics by Howard Ashman and Tim Rice and includes seven new songs in its score of 21 musical numbers. This performance is brought to life by the university initiative that invites all staff, students and alumni of UCD to be involved and thank to the show’s rights becoming available to amateur performing groups and musical societies (in association with Josef Weinberger Ltd). The adaption of the Broadway’s eight-longest running production “Beauty and the Beast” is UCD Community Musicals forth show and the group have been nominated for several Association of Irish Musicals for previous performances of West Side Story in 2008, Guys’n’Dolls in 2009 and Footloose in 2010. This is by far their most enchanting and ambitious production to date - the most endearing children’s love story that left the audience spellbound and a tear in even the coldest heart.

Beauty and the Beast at O’Reilly Hall, UCD Campus 15th March to 19th March, produced by Aileen Ryan, set design & costumes from West End Touring Co, lighting design by Keith Siew, costume design by Niamh Lunny, music by Breda McManus and choreography by Connor Nolan. With Megan Cassidy, Alec Ward, Stuart Pollock, Patrick Cooper, Denis Grindel, Diarmuid Browne, Susie Gibbons, Paul Sheehy, Vickey Howell and Rian Middleton.