Beauty and Beast The Musical: Arguello’s ‘Belle’ is Masterful

CONROE, TX -- I’ve been to France before, but not to its 1750’s version, where a small village and surrounding woods has been transported to Conroe’s Crighton Theatre. In ‘Beauty and The Beast: The Musical,’ you will find an arrogant prince, cursed to a life with a grotesque facade, while a beautiful young lady has a passion for books but doesn’t quite fit in with village life. An assertive brut of a man will make his play for a wife, and a search for a missing father yields to self-sacrifice and the adventure of a lifetime. For Stage-Right of Texas, it is the final event of their 2023-24 season.

Beauty is based on the Disney animated film in 1991, and 1994 stage play. The play begins when an enchantress happens upon a castle during a storm, and offers a rose as payment for shelter to an arrogant prince. When he refuses, she turns the man into a hideous Beast (Ryan Dinesen), and his servants into objects found around a wealthy man’s residence. To break the curse, the beast must find a way to love someone, with the kicker, that she must express love for him too. Years later, a beautiful young lady, Belle (Melisa Arguello), the daughter of an odd inventor, in a village not far away, has visions of saying goodbye to her provincial life. She is harassed by the womanizing Gaston (Gerald Eddins) in his hopes of one day marrying Belle. On a trip to a fair in another village, Belle’s father Maurice (Richard Franks), nearly becomes a meal for the wolves, before he finds refuge in the same castle in which the Beast resides. He enters, and is thrown into the castle’s dungeon by the owner. Back in the village Belle finds Gaston’s side-kick LeFou (Luis Ayala) has found her father’s scarf. LeFou tells her where he found it. She looks for her father, finding the castle, and discovers him locked up. Belle selflessly surrenders herself for her father’s freedom, and so begins her true adventure with the Beast to find an everlasting love.

The singing in Beauty was hit and miss. Melisa Arguello’s Belle came to the plate and homered every time. Her voice was magical and uplifting, crisp and clear, and enjoyable. Even with a mishap with the sound system in ‘No Matter What,’ the song with Richard Franks, Arguello saved it, overcoming Frank’s humble offering, and garnering a great applause. Gerald Eddins’ Gaston, in Act One, appeared winded at times, with his voice suffering, but he did much better in the second act. The First Act just seemed to drag on, with the audience’s attention waning, and was attributable to the dragging transitions that needed a traffic cop for the show to stay on time. ‘Be Our Guest,’ with its riding high, would have made a perfect end, with performances by Lumiere (Carlos Holstein), and Cogsworth (Stephen Hill) standing out. Ryan Dineen’s Beast, ‘If I Can’t Love Her,’ was very commendable. Thankfully, in the Second Act, all the singing overall was much improved.

The stage fog would have been nice, but dry-ice wasn’t to be found, another bad omen that Hurricane Beryl had beset upon the region. And for a second week run, and on a Sunday matinee at that, I would have expected all the issues of ‘tech week’ to have been hammered out. Not only were my eardrums nearly burst with an (Apple Watch ‘Loud Environment’ notification) obnoxious noise coming from the sound system during ‘No Matter What,’ the Belle and Maurice song, thankfully the actors kept in character, but looked deeply concerned. Following the segment during transmission, another unscripted incident took place causing laughter, when the concrete seat on a moveable set piece fell off leaving poor Silly Girl (Ellie Williams) having to drag the thing off-stage, leaving a trail of concrete dust in its wake.

The lighting was insufficient in numerous scenes, and all-in-all, I thought it was an overly dark stage. In Ryan Dineen’s Act One ending song, it would have been nice to see some detail of The Beast. Then there was an errant blue light from the stage that blinded me and many audience members on the balcony. I like to sit up there to catch everything, and I actually had to put my clip-ons’ just so I could concentrate on what was going on with the stage. On top of that the sound of the music I felt was underwhelming, especially during dance segments, when the stage floor is not supposed to be the primary noisemaker.

In regards to casting, there were way too many people on stage. Was a ‘Pillsbury Dough Boy’ really needed? A boy and girl playing ‘mustard’ and ‘ketchup,’ with an actual dog playing, ‘hot dog.’ Again, needed? Did LeFou really need to massage Gaston’s upper right thigh in a highly sexualized moment, which I thought very inappropriate with tons of kids in the room? Kids emulate what adults do, and I fear what damage has been done by that simple act. And I also didn’t appreciate Cogworth’s phallus-like pendulum, of which all the designers had to do was to copy the animators. I was initially worried about the set coming in, having seen some top notch sets in my reviews in Midtown Houston, but with the dark stage that fear was alleviated. But I do commend the dual purpose moveable sets that incorporated The Beast’s lair on one side, and the balcony for the fight scene between The Beast and Gaston, on the other.

It really pained me to write this. There were a lot of mishaps, and it is one of the most difficult musicals. But I knew the day would come where there would be something I wasn’t happy with. I want to promote Montgomery County theater with all my heart, but I’m not gonna lie and say something was good when it didn’t meet my expectations. You either have integrity or you don’t. And instead of avoiding publishing like I did with another musical at the other theater with its woke interpretations and sexual innuendo that I didn’t support, with kids in the room by the way. I’ve decided to print this as a way of stimulating thought amongst the movers and shakers. To encourage them to think about the consequences of pushing material inappropriate to kids, who should be allowed to be just that. Kids!!

Ruben can be reached at: ruben@montgomerycountynews.net