My Review of the Theatrical Performance at Wallace State Community College

Yesterday we were able to attend the performance at Wallace State Community College featuring the enduring story of Beauty and the Beast. Years ago we’d been able to attend at the same theater and see the performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. At A Midsummer Night’s Dream, we’d been pleased by the quality of the play, but the lighting and sound were not good at all. Therefore, we were pleasantly surprised by the improvements that had been made in the areas of lighting and sound. There were still some problems with the sound which occasionally had the sound of a jet passing overhead. The last song of the play was hard to hear most of the way through, and there were a few occasions when it was hard to hear one or two of the actors.

It was remarkable to me that there was an orchestra that played throughout the entire performance. They did an excellent job although I did hear a sour note a time or two. The conductor of this little orchestra was actually one of my high school band directors. When he was let go at the school where I attended K-12, he took a job at Wallace State Community College, and it is good to see that he is still there after all these years. I was certainly impressed by the orchestra which played along as the actors sang their way through their singing parts.

This theatrical rendition of Beauty and the Beast followed almost exactly the Disney’s cartoon version of this musical. We were pleasantly surprised by this since the last theatrical performance we’d seen of Beauty and the Beast had been a fairly original version that was quiet good but lacked the humor and fun found in the Disney version. We loved the humor of Lumiere and Cogsworth, and they garnered many laughs during the two and a half hours that we watched the play. Belle had a fantastic, professional quality voice that amazed us. The silly girls did an excellent job, and I’m not just saying that because one of them happens to be a homeschooled girl that I’ve know since she was a baby. I also thought the young man who played the part of Lefou did an excellent job of acting his part.

We look forward to the next production from Wallace State Community College, and maybe we need to look into performances that may be taking place at other colleges. The children really enjoyed this outing as did my husband and I. We haven’t been to the Birmingham Children’s Theater in years, but maybe we need to plan on going to a performance next year. I am glad that we took the time out of our busy schedule to see this theatrical musical.