It's been one year since Beauty and the Beast closed...

it's only been a year....

there are enough money-hungry commercial Disney spectacles on Broadway, right now.

At first, I didn't miss it. I loved it, but I figured it had run its course.

Then, I saw The Little Mermaid.

Updated On: 7/29/08 at 12:31 AM

I always wanted to see it, and I never got to.

Granted, it doesn't seem like a year ago, it seems like a lot longer.

---

I miss Beauty....especially after I saw clips from Mermaid.

Beauty and the Beast was my first Broadway show, so a part of me will always miss it.

Especially after seeing the Little Mermaid last Friday. Then I missed it even more.

Updated On: 7/29/08 at 10:06 AM

The part of it closing that still irks me is this. Beauty is something that would have continued to stay open, despite the fact of another show wanting the theatre. If it wasn't for The Little Mermaid, I am sure that Beauty would still be running on Broadway as we speak.

I do hope that those rumors of Disney bringing back the show for a holiday run turn out to be true. And, that they realize that the show would be successful during that run, that they would bring it back for a revival.

---

Neither show is good...

We're doing it here next month at ARTPARK, the same place that did AIDA last year that we discussed on these boards.

Here is the Cast:

CAROL ANN M. SANITA (Belle) is thrilled to be making her Artpark debut! Regional credits include: Sweeney Todd (Johanna) and West Side Story (Maria) at Sacramento Music Circus, A Little Night Music (Anne) at South Coast Repertory, Thoroughly Modern Millie (Miss Dorothy) at The Cape Playhouse, Urinetown (Hope) at the Geva Theatre, Barnum (Jenny Lind) at Westchester Broadway, and Fiddler on the Roof (Hodel) at the Fulton Theatre. She also starred as Maria in the international tour of West Side Story and as Marian in the first national tour of The Music Man. Carol Ann also recently appeared Off-Broadway in the Encores production of No, No Nanette at NY City Center.

MICHAEL HUNSAKER (Beast) is excited to return to Artpark after performing Radames in last year's AIDA. Off-Bway: Listen to My Heart, The Odyssey, My Deah. Tour: Ragtime, Chess. TV: Sex & the City, Ed, As the World Turns, All My Children. Favorite Roles: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Brick), Merrily We Roll Along (Frank), Jesus Christ Superstar (Jesus), Ragtime (Younger Brother). Composer/Lyricist: Measure for Measure, Out of Frame, Supermodel, Fetching Water (w/Leslie Becker).


GLENN LAWRENCE (Gaston) was born and raised in the U.S. Virgin Islands, attended Walnut Hill School of Performing Arts in Natick, Massachusetts, and graduated with a BFA in Acting from the Hartt Conservatory at the University of Hartford. Past roles have included Miles Gloriosus in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum at the Denver Center; Gaston in Beauty and the Beast at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival in Montgomery, AL; L'il Abner in L'il Abner at the Goodspeed Opera House for which he received the 2006 Connecticut Critics Circle Award for Best Debut; Dale in Stu's Dead Dog at the Strawberry One Acts festival in New York City; Greg in A Chorus Line at the Endinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland, Cliff in Cabaret at Walnut Hill, Kenickie in Grease with the Summer Place Players in West Hartford, and Mike in the world premiere of Freedom Was Ours at the Cheney Hall in Hartford.


RON LEE SAVIN (Maurice) is pleased once again to give life to Maurice in Disney's Beauty and the Beast, a role he performed for two years on the Third National Tour and at many regional theatres over the last several years. Off Broadway credits include Greater Tuna and The Fantastiks. Other recent regional productions include Singin' in the Rain, Mame, Where's Charley and The Baker's Wife. On TV Ron has been seen in Law and Order, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, The Jury, OZ, Saturday Night Live, NY based soap operas and commercials.


KEITH ERSING (Cogsworth) is excited to return to Artpark! Some of his favorite credits include: The History Channel's Documentary, The Hauntings of New York (Sullivan Brother); The Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra's Fiddler on the Roof "In Concert" (Motel); Artpark: Aida (ensemble), The Full Monty (Tony/Police); Musicalfare: Pippin (Pippin), Tapestry (ensemble); Alleyway: Suburb (Man 1 - World Premiere); Kavinoky Theatre: Anything Goes (Purser); Studio Arena/Musicalfare: Bat Boy (Bud). Keith received a Bachelor's Degree in Music Education from SUNY at Fredonia and a Master's Degree in Music Education from Florida State University. He has been the Choral/Drama Director at West Seneca West Senior High School for the past eight years and is also a professor on the Musical Theatre Voice Faculty at the University at Buffalo.

SUSAN HOFFMAN (Mrs. Potts) is very happy to be joining the cast of Beauty and the Beast at Artpark. She has many musicals to her credit including My Way for Virginia Musical Theatre, six productions of the hit show I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change which she has performed all over the country, including Los Angeles and the West Coast premiere at the Laguna Playhouse, and three productions of Nunsense playing the streetwise Sister Robert Anne. Her National tours include Man of La Mancha (Aldonza opposite Robert Goulet), Hodel in Fiddler on the Roof with Theodore Bikel and The Unsinkable Molly Brown in which she understudied Debbie Reynolds. Regional credits include Professor Charlotte Kenyon in Good News, Chairy in Barnum, Sarah in Guys and Dolls and Nancy in Deaf West's production of Oliver!, their first musical for the deaf.


LORAINE O'DONNELL (Wardrobe) received her degree in theatre performance and started her professional career in New York appearing Off-Broadway in The Island and on the cabaret circuit. Favorite shows include MusicalFare's Beyond the Rainbow: The New Judy Garland Musical as Judy Garland, Bat Boy (MusicalFare at Studio Arena), Joseph... (Arvada Co.), Passion (Denver Critics & Artvoice nomination), MusicalFare's Familiar Strangers & Pete 'n' Keely (Artvoice Award), BUA's Tell Me On A Sunday (Artvoice Award), Much Ado About Nothing (Shakespeare in the Park), World Goes Round, Swing!, The Full Monty (Artpark) and Diva By Diva (O'Connell & Co.) Television appearances include The Jenny Jones Show & CNN (as an expert on the Jon Benet Ramsey case) and Unsolved Mysteries.

VINCENT D'ELIA (Lumiere) is thrilled to be making his Artpark debut in one of his favorite shows. He comes directly from his native NYC. Credits include: Broadway, Grease (Danny Zuko) starring Rosie O'Donnell, Kiss of the Spider Woman (Prisoner Fuentes , Esteban) New Broadway recording w/Vanessa Williams and The Best Little Whorehouse Goes Public (original cast album). Tours/Regional: 1st National The Who's Tommy (Lover,Local Lad, Evita (Che), Bye Bye Birdie starring Tommy Tune and Ann Reinking (Conrad), Tommy in Concert 99 ( 1st Officer/Hawker/2nd Lout ), The Full Monty (Harold Nichols), Lucky Stiff (Luigi Guadi/Tony Hendon), West SideStory (Bernardo), and Grease (Vince Fontaine), Joseph...Dreamcoat (Pharaoh), Godspell (John the Baptist/Judas), Copacabana (Rico), Footloose (Cowboy Bob), Kate Smith: The Original American Idol (Ted Collins) and State Fair (Pat Gilbert). Vincent created the roles of Seth/Shem/Snake in the PaperMill Playhouse production of Children of Eden. Television: General Hospital, Loving, All My Children, and The Nanny.


For tickets and more information, check out the site and make your travel plans now!
There's no place like BUFFALO and ARTPARK in the SUMMERTIME!

http://www.artpark.net/

---

Not one of the best shows I've seen but it was absolutely better than Little Mermaid. If they do bring it back for the holidays, I would see it.

---