Review: BEAUTY AND THE BEAST Enchants at the Orpheum Now Thru July 10

The enchanting musical "Beauty and the Beast" delighted audiences at San Francisco's Orpheum Theater on opening night making the case that transformation is possible and that true love can see beyond the façade of surface looks to the person underneath (beautiful or beastly).

Disney's timeless tale is touring the country and will be in San Francisco through July 10 and it's a show you should see time and again. Though Linda Woolverton's beautifully crafted female-positive book speaks directly to children, it most definitely has a message for adults. Powerful and engaging, the book is matched by the magic and melodic magnificence of Menken, Ashman and Rice's original masterpiece.

As any five-year-old child can tell you, "Beauty and the Beast" is the story of a mean and selfish prince who is turned into a beast by an enchantress who curses him because of his lack of caring. In order to break the spell he must learn to love and be loved in return or he will remain a beast forever. But who could learn to love a beast?

Sam Hartley is absolutely superb as the hot-tempered and touchy beast who is surprised and displeased to find first an old man, Maurice (the addled inventor is played by Thomas Mothershed) and then his beautiful daughter, Belle (played poetically by Brooke Quintana) inside his enchanted castle.

It's a tall order to evoke such a range of emotion and feeling on a face covered in fur, but even behind his beastly prosthetics Hartley manages, by turns, to make the beast frightfully large and terrifying and then endearingly tender as he dares to hope that someone might yet love him and lift the curse. His delivery is filled with awkward charm as the beast slowly seeks to find his way back to his humanity. Hartley's rich baritone (especially in "If I can't Love her") is nuanced, poignant and heartrending. And as if that wasn't enough, his comedic turns are true artistry.

At first the beast locks up Maurice but then allows Belle to be his prisoner in her father's stead. Maurice returns home to try and get help from the village hunk, Gaston (Christiaan Smith-Kotlarek) and his buffoonish sidekick LeFou (played with pratfall perfection by Matt DaSilva). Smith-Kotlarek is great as the cartoonish, muscle-flexing he-man who doesn't understand why Belle likes to read. He finds her odd (as does the entire village) because her nose is always in a book, but he is bowled over by her beauty and vows to make her his bride. She wants nothing to do with him but that simply doesn't register for the narcissistic Gaston.

Quintara is strong and sure as the beautiful and bookish Belle who just knows there's got to be more to life than her simple village existence. Her strong determination to stand up for herself despite her fear of the beast eventually allows her to come into her own. In "A Change in Me," her voice powerfully arches, conveying a determined spirit that is compelling and sincere. What a wonderful gift this character is to young girls everywhere.

The enchanted castle is filled with colorful characters who dazzle in supporting roles as servants who are in the process of becoming household items under the curse. In particular Ryan N. Phillips, as the charming and debonair Lumiere, is a standout as is Samuel Shurtleff as the tightly wound Cogsworth. Together with Stephanie Gray as Mrs. Potts and Stephanie Harter Gilmore as Madame de la Grande Bouche they make a touching and comical ensemble as best friends and confidants to the prince turned beast.

There are several outstanding ensemble dance numbers (Matt West, Choreographer), especially the cup clinking tavern number about Gaston, and the exuberantly performed showstopper "Be Our Guest," led by Lumiere as the master of ceremonies.

"Beauty and the Beast" enchants and delights and is musical magic at its best. Children will be charmed and transfixed while adults will be moved by the vulnerable beast who finds love by putting Belle's needs before his own, becoming human in the process. See "Beauty and the Beast" it before it leaves San Francisco.

Beauty and the Beast: Musical comedy
By Linda Woolverton, adapted from her screenplay
Music by Alan Menken. Lyrics by Howard Ashman and Tim Rice
Directed by Rob Roth
Through July 10
Two hours, 30 minutes
www.shnsf.com
Photo courtesy of Matthew Murphy