Interview: Sara Lessore Discusses the Joy and Beauty in This New Telling of BEAUTY AND THE BEAST

Sara Lessore is having a blast making her New York City stage debut in New International Encounter's retelling of Beauty and the Beast, currently at The New Victory Theater, a production she starred in when it played Cambridge, England.

Lessore took a break from telling the tale as old as time to chat with BroadwayWorld about how an unexpected path led to her being in the Big Apple, performing one of the most classic stories.

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What makes this adaption of Beauty and the Beast different from the other adaptions?

The main thing is this is the original classic tale that was written a very long time ago and we wanted to take it away from the Disney version everyone knows and loves which is a challenge because everyone does know it and everyone does love it. I think that is the main difference from what we're doing now with this show. It's quite a different story. Although ultimately it's very similar, it's all about beauty and how to love, what it is to love and what beauty really is actually. For us, we really want to emphasize that beauty is on the inside, it's not on the outside, which is the main reason why we didn't want Isabella to be called Belle. It's very Isabella. It's not about what she looks like or the beast looks like.

You're coming off a run in England, are there any changes to the piece for an American audience?

We used to do it in the round and now it's proscenium so it's quite tricky and the past few times it's been quite an intimate space, so this is massively differently in terms of scale, production, script work as well. There were lots of lines that just didn't translate here. Things like she's such a creep. Here creep means something completely different but back at home it's very much she's such a goody goody. There was a bit of a struggle to find the right word for that and things like bum, we use bum a lot, which doesn't mean the the same thing here. From what I understand there's a lot of conversation with production about what does translate and doesn't translate like culturally what we can and can't say. The audiences here are fantastic and that's not to say that they're not at home. They're absolutely vocal which is a great thing for us because we really like to play off the audience and there's quite a bit of audience interaction. It's not that at home they're scared to interact but here in America there is no fear at all which is perfect. It's exactly what we want, it's great for us.

We can be pretty loud here!

Oh it's great, it's absolutely fantastic.

How does this production appeal to both adults and children? Can adults bring their children but still enjoy it themselves?

I like to think so! From what I gather from the feedback we get and from people like my family in particular and friends, it is a family show, it's important for us to say that, it's a family show rather than a children show. Ultimately we don't want the parents to drag their children to the theatre or vice versa actually with kids to drag their parents and for them to not enjoy it as well, it's very important for us to include everyone.

The message is open for every single age group, it's all about what really matters in life. This whole thing is about beauty on the inside. You can't put a price on happiness and that is something very much the twins try and do is they put a price on everything. The twins are Isabella's spoiled and bratty sisters. After [the family's] bankruptcy, they come from a really rich background, the dad thinks that potentially his fortune has been saved and the twins ask for these lavish items like a diamond necklace and one asks for a gucci dress and Isabella just wants him to come home safely.

For me as a parent, it's speaking into actuality it doesn't really matter how much a present costs, it's the thought that counts. I think that can translate to any age range, be it a kid or an adult or the older generations, it's a life lesson. It's a value that hopefully we can hold on to.

It seems like it's a universal message, it is for everyone.

Yeah it is. There's a humor in our show. It's quite a deep subject, but we like to put humor on top of it. It's quite a funny show, you will laugh!

What is your favorite moment in the show? Is there a part in the show you look forward to every performance?

My absolute favorite scene is the dinner table scene. The beast tries and tries so hard to get Isabella to like him. He gives her this beautiful dress and she just refuses to wear it saying 'you don't decide what I wear.' There's this expectation to look beautiful for somebody. Slowly and slowly he starts telling a joke and then he sings a song and it goes from them being completely far away from each other and every scene we come back to they get closer and closer and they start having a laugh and then they have a dance together. For me I really enjoy that moment. I enjoy the audience participation and Martin Bonger who plays the beast is absolutely fantastic at what he does with him. I'm in the wings laughing and laughing, he's great. And it is that, it's another thing about the audience and how alive they are that I really enjoy. It's not really the bits of the show I enjoy, it's the audience's reaction to those bits in the show.

It can be totally different when an audience is there, it can change it all.

Exactly. I really also enjoy the reveal of when Isabella finds out she loves him and that reaction from the audience is always fantastic.

You're a performer in the piece but in terms of development of the production, were you heavily involved with crafting the show?

I was in the original, when we did it in Cambridge in England, I was part of the original cast. We devised, we all made it all together. The first day of rehearsal we just played, we were just playing silly games. I literally said it in a talkback to the children today, you have to be able to look silly. Everyone looks silly and you have to be ok with that. The first week we were just playing with how silly we can be, how silly we can make this show with having that element of seriousness as well.

We spent a few weeks looking at the story, we had to do our own research and we sat and picked out really poignant bits of the story we wanted to tell and what bits we could scrap. There's a limit to the amount of actors, so we couldn't have seven daughters as the original tale has. We played with it and our director Alex [Byrne] would say 'This is what we want, this the scene we want. I'll give you 10 minutes, make a scene, go!'

We found some really great things and we found some not so great things. We kept the crème de la crème in for you guys.

It sounds like it was a really collaborative experience! When did you join the New International Encounter (NIE) company? Did you have to go through the normal audition process or were you sought out?

I got really lucky. I never really imagined I was going to be an actor even though I went to drama school. I went because it was fun. I didn't really know what it was, I didn't know what the outcome would be. In my third year when we graduated, Alex, the artistic director of NIE, was recasting a different show. He was looking for an Asian violinist and I studied acting musicianship at Rose Bruford College which Alex had connections with, he used to work there. He asked the head of my course 'I'm looking for an Asian violinist' and Jeremy says 'Well I've got a mixed-race flutist' and he was like 'Ok great, bring as many people.'

Alex doesn't really like the straight up audition. He's all about collaboration, he holds workshop auditions. You can't really get a feel of someone's chemistry with another person onstage by just looking at them individually, so what Alex likes to do is get a whole bunch of people together and see how collaborative they can be with each other, to see if they work off each other. If they don't that's a shame, but if they do that's great. I did that, I went to a workshop audition and I got a call two days later saying that they wanted me for this part in a different show. This was three years ago and it was two weeks after I graduated from drama school. So I got really, really lucky I think.

I was really surprised because as I said I didn't have any intention of becoming an actor. I did this course and I went to Uni and I finished my degree, but I didn't know what I was gonna do with it. I wanted to be a pediatrician but I think I'm just too lazy to study for seven years. (laughter)

You perform all over the world! What has been the most interesting place to bring a show?

Absolutely 100% here. This is the most exciting ever. It's in another country, I'm in another continent. For me, this is insane, it's such a privilege. I can't begin to explain how ailing it feels to walk out of work and you're on Times Square. I never in a million years would've thought that that was going to happen. It is very exciting be here. I love New York. I've been here a week and I'm already like 'I don't want to leave.'

What do you hope the audience takes away after watching this new production of Beauty and the Beast?

I think ultimately if at least one of our messages goes through, that for me would be great. If even one person in any single audience will go thinking that's really important, this thing about packages and love and this thing about beauty and what that really is, I'd be really happy. Just to know that one child in that audience changed, even that little tiny thing that clicks in their mind, that would make me really happy. That's ultimately why I do work like this for family theatre because you get to build a platform. You get to mold someone's mind ever so slightly, just that little subtle thing. I obviously also want everyone to have a good time, especially the school children. They're on a field trip, they don't want a boring field trip, they want a great piece of theatre where you know you're going to laugh your head off and they do! That's great is that laughter.

Beauty and the Beast plays the New Victory until November 11. Learn more about at http://NewVictory.org.

Photo Credit: Mark Dawson Photography