As Belle, understudy rings true on High Street stage

By Cary Ginell

It was understudy night at High Street Arts Center in Moorpark on Sat., Oct.19, but when young Rachel Wilson stepped into her role as Belle in High Street’s production of “Beauty and the Beast,” you would never have guessed it was her first time on this stage.

Wilson led an outstanding cast in a colorful, utterly delightful performance of the Disney classic about two outcasts finding love. The story explores DEI issues and the ostracism of people from society simply because they’re different.

It wasn’t always viewed that way. “Beauty and the Beast” got its start as an 18th-century fairy tale written by French novelist Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve, the story intended to help prepare young girls for arranged marriages.

Walt Disney had his sights set on doing an animated version of the story as early as the 1930s, but it wasn’t until 1991 when Disney Studios finally made it happen following the overwhelming success of 1989’s “The Little Mermaid.”

Songwriters Alan Menken and Howard Ashman provided the score, although Ashman died from complications of AIDS shortly after the movie was released. In 1994, it was adapted into a Broadway musical, with Menken and Tim Rice providing new character defining songs. Two of the tunes provide the show with its musical highlights: “Me,” an egotistical romp by the villainous Gaston, played with comic relish by Kyle Critelli, and “If I Can’t Love Her,” the soaring, anguished cry of the tortured Beast, given an outstanding performance by Dave Hatfield.

The adapted storyline deals with a spoiled, self-centered prince who is transformed by a witch into a gruesome beast after ignoring her pleas for shelter. Years later, Belle, a young village girl, is warding off the advances of the brutish, egotistical Gaston when her eccentric father (Joe Mulder, looking like a disheveled Woodstock survivor) becomes lost in the woods and is imprisoned by the Beast in his castle.

The Beast’s enchanted staff is one of Disney’s best ensemble creations. Lumière, a French candelabra, is played with panache by Tony Cellucci, who was understudying for Jack Cleary. The versatile R. Shane Bingham is superb as Cogsworth, transformed into a stiff-legged mantle clock. Paige Pensivy is wonderful as Babette, a giggly, flirtatious French feather duster, while Christina Kushnick is a delight as the operatically inclined chifferobe, Madame de la Grande Bouche. Nora Morris plays the motherly teapot, Mrs. Potts, while Arielle Friedman (double-cast with Kayden Crocker) is adorable as her pint-sized teacup son, Chip. It is Morris who sings the tender title song during Belle and the Prince’s romantic dinner in the castle, one of the show’s many endearing moments.

Despite its stellar cast, it is the delightful performance by Wilson as Belle that ties the production together. High Street regularly gives understudies a scheduled chance to shine, and Wilson nearly upstages Critelli in his performance of “Me” through her barely disguised revulsion and limp physicality during their forced dance. She is utterly charming and winsome whenever she is onstage, exhibiting a lovely soprano singing voice and acting skills that make Belle much more than a two-dimensional fairy tale character.

As always, High Street’s vaunted video wall provides the production with magical AI-generated backdrops that enhance, but do not dominate, each scene. Michael Rosenblum directs with a sure hand, Paige Loter’s elaborate costume design does not overly hide the characters, while Melina Ortega and Abel Alderete provide the choreography, which is most effective during the sumptuous “Be Our Guest” in Act I.

Photo courtesy of John Tedrick Photography