'Disney's Beauty and the Beast' at Nashville Dinner Theatre

If you ever needed any evidence that musical theatre is alive and well in Music City USA, you need look no further than Nashville Dinner Theatre's production of Disney's Beauty and the Beast, which this weekend wraps up its run at the Senior Center for the Arts. It is superbly acted, beautifully sung and confidently staged. It remains a compelling piece of theatre, as moving as any I've ever seen.

Directed by Laura Lindsey, who makes good use of the space (she sends her actors all over the building it seems as she involves the audience in the play's action) and utilizes her amazingly talented cast to great effect, Beauty and the Beast is enormously entertaining. From the first notes of "Belle"(which, quite frankly, is one of my favorite showtunes) to the evocative "Home," from the hilariously over-the-top "Gaston" to the show's memorable title tune, the company delivers the musical goods. Mitch Fuller's music direction is terrific and his orchestra nothing short of excellent.

Suffice it to say that "Be Our Guest" gives the audience everything they hope for-and then some. Some delicious choreography by the peripatetic Kate Adams-Johnson, the ebullient dancing of a cast of seemingly hundreds of people, Lindsey's theatrical staging and outstanding costumes by Jane Schnelle all combine to make it one of the evening's certain highlights. This is what musical theatre is all about: creating magic night after night, transporting audiences to worlds only imagined and touching hearts with genuine, loving gestures-and that's exactly what this show is all about, anyway.

This is a show full of highlights, not the least of which is the total commitment from every member of the cast. From Belle and her Beast (who's kinda hot, I gotta tell ya) to the smallest plate in the china cabinet, the cast uniformly delivers top-notch performances. It's extraordinary to find such attention to detail in community theatre, yet here it is in all its glory.

Certainly, you have to suspend disbelief and immerse yourself in the fairy tale-like aspects of the story. The Senior Center for the Arts doesn't have the budget for a full-scale Broadway production, but they put their money to good use, giving us an economical production that pays off handsomely. Brad Kramer's set design is well-conceived and colorful, but it's relatively simple. That may be why it works so well; there aren't a lot of special effects, thus giving the cast the opportunity to use their talents to articulately relate the tale.

While there is a wide range of acting capabilities on display in Beauty and the Beast, the principals are superb. Melissa Bailey makes for a lovely Belle, her voice ideally capturing her character's wonder at the world and her growing affection for the Beast, who is played winningly by Joseph Robinson; he, too, has an impressive voice. Bailey and Robinson are perfectly paired, displaying a romantic chemistry that is evident from their first moments together.

Jacob Garza is wonderfully bigger than life as the arrogant Gaston, with a voice to match. His lilliputian henchman Lefou is played with sly abandon by 16-year-old Will Miranne, and together the two men make a delightful pair.

Another teenager, Dustin Gregory, is cast in the pivotal role of Cogsworth, the Beast's major domo, and he does a fine job (where do Nashville directors keep finding these talented teens?) with the role. Ben Gregory is a handsomely charming Lumiere and the stunning Megan Roddick is perfectly cast as the coquettish Babette. Ronda Hill Walter is in fine voice as Mrs. Potts (her performance of "Beauty and the Beast" is sweetly sentimental), with young Hatten Mullins making his NDT debut as Chip. Sarah Elizabeth Spain is given the opportunity to display her beautiful voice as Madame de la Grande Bouche.

Jonathan Hayes, in the small role of Monsieur D'Arque, very nearly steals the show with his frighteningly sinister portrayal, and Larry Rhodes is well-cast as Belle's bumbling inventor father. Special notice is also due Melissa Pardo, Kylie Jamison and LaQuita James as the trio of "silly girls" who pine for Gaston and generally mix up the mayhem onstage.

Beauty and the Beast exemplifies what is right and good about musical theatre. Sure, it's emotionally manipulative, but that's what I want from my musicals. I want characters who burst into song when their hearts are so full they can't be contained; I want stories that make me forget my day-to-day life. I want to be moved by the unexpected, as well as the expected. That's exactly what I have found in Beauty and the Beast from the first moment I saw the Disney animated movie to the first time I saw the Broadway production and its subsequent touring companies. And that is what I got from the Nashville Dinner Theatre production. I'd see it again tomorrow if I could and there's no higher praise I can give than that.

--Disney's Beauty and the Beast. Music by Alan Menken. Lyrics by Howard Ashman and Tim Rice. Book by Linda Woolverton. Presented by Nashville Dinner Theatre at the Senior Center for the Arts, Donelson. Directed by Laura Lindsey. Music direction by Mitch Fuller. Choreography by Kate Adams-Johnson. Produced by Jane Schnelle and Richard Sparkman. Through August 16.

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