Ottey brings out the ‘Beauty’ in Playhouse production

Supporting performances and colorful costumes added to the show.

By MILAN PAURICH

VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT

The Youngstown Playhouse production of “Beauty and the Beast” that opened to a rapturous standing-room only crowd Friday night would be inconceivable without the truly enchanted performance of Stephanie Ottey as Belle.

Ottey, among the brightest lights on the local community theater scene, previously illuminated the Playhouse stage in “The Secret Garden” and “Sweeney Todd,” but “Beauty” gives Ottey the kind of old-fashioned star vehicle that announces the arrival of a future musical theater superstar. Put it this way — if this show were still running in New York, Ottey could have stepped into the role of Belle on a moment’s notice and become the toast of Broadway. In fact, Ottey’s performance single-handedly justifies the Playhouse’s decision to mount Disney’s somewhat lumbering musical in the first place.

Although there’s a lot to admire here — including some spot-on supporting performances and colorful costumes — Ottey truly is the show’s raison d’être. She’s so good she might even fool you into believing that “Beauty” earned its transfer from beloved animated film to overproduced theme park musical.

At 85 fat-free minutes, the 1991 Disney ’toon (the first and only animated feature to ever receive an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture) was as close to perfection as a movie can be. The stage version runs an hour longer and suffers from conspicuous bloat.

Seven new tunes were added for the theatrical “Beauty,” yet none can compare with the six original songs from the film. Padding has rarely seemed so much like, well, padding. Conspicuously absent from the stage incarnation is any sense of true danger, something the movie — like all great fairy tales — had in spades. Belle is chased by some dancing wolves, but they aren’t particularly menacing.

Gaston (Vaughn Hudspath), Belle’s muscle-bound admirer, comes across as less brutish than buffoonish. The film’s suspenseful action climax in which Gaston and a lynch mob storm the Beast’s castle plays more like slightly labored slapstick comedy onstage.

The overlong first act has some pacing problems. And a few numbers (particularly the extraneous “Maison des Lunes” in Act Two) should have probably been cut by the show’s producers between the Houston previews and Broadway opening back in 1994. Jack Hanna, Jim Lybarger and Sindy Hanna’s scenic design is generally impressive, and the costumes — some of which were designed in-house by Playhouse costume mistress Patricia Petaccio — have a sumptuous richness that belies a community theater budget. At times, however, the excellent Alan McCreary seems like a prisoner trapped inside his cumbersome Beast costume. Leslie Brown’s lighting effects improve as the evening wears on, but the castle set seems excessively dark and murky, even for a smelly old castle. Veteran Playhouse music director Michael J. Moritz Jr. does his usual pro job with Alan Menken’s score, and Moritz’s 17-member orchestra provides stellar musical accompaniment.

Director Peggy Hanna gets splendid performances out of her terrific supporting cast (standouts are John Pecano’s Lumiere, Stephanie Holt’s Mrs. Potts, Candy DiLullo’s Babette, Denny Villa’s Cogsworth and Brandy Johanntges’ Madame De Grand Bouche) and nonpareil lead actors, Ottey and McCreary. I was somewhat less sold on Hudspath’s peculiar interpretation of Gaston, which seemed a bit like Paul Lynde doing Tim Curry’s Frank-N-Furter from “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.” As Gaston’s sidekick Lefou, Cardinal Mooney High School student Paul Sauline displays a nice flair for physical comedy. He just needs to crank it down a bit. Sometimes less can indeed be more.

Since YSU student Ottey will be graduating next year, local audiences may not have the chance to marvel at her talent and beauty for much longer. Don’t miss this chance to see Ottey live on stage while you still can. You can thank me after Ottey wins her first Tony, or Oscar, or Grammy, or Emmy, or... .