Yesterday we went to see Beauty and the Beast as the last play of the summer. Man, that was cool. I think it may be up there as one of my top three plays they've done there.

We went with my cousin-in-law Laurie and her kids and daughter's boyfriend. I hadn't seen Connor in some time, and was amazed that he hadn't turned into a brat the way I always kind of worried that he would ever since the last time I saw him. He's pretty quiet, but seems to keep it together. Frankly, I'm amazed he even knows who I am when I'm rarely seen around.

We finally got over there early enough for me to roam around the grounds, something I enjoy doing but rarely get to do because there are a LOT of stairs involved. (Plus well, Mom's usually hella late.)

I thought the musical did pretty well at elaborating a bit from the original movie- you hear a little more about what happened to other characters ("Remember him? Dumb as a brick? Became a wall."), and there's a little urgency put into things as certain characters develop more item-like characteristics (Babette gets feathers on her hands, Cogsworth gets a key in his back) as time goes on. And I rather liked the scene where Belle tells the Beast that she was a weirdo in her town. Short, but sweet. And I think they do a good job in bridging the two acts, considering that Belle doesn't like him at all by curtain fall of act 1.

I also had to give major props to the guy playing Lefou. He's a medium-sized guy, and only a few inches shorter than the guy playing Gaston. And yet, he totally gives the impression that he's much smaller. I don't know how he did it, but it was awesome.

There was also a cool dance bit involving beer steins clicking. Rock!

Another cool thing: Belle was standing around saying hi to people after the show. I felt like I was at Disneyland. Heh.

I am still wondering, though: was everyone in the castle's age frozen at the age of the curse, or have they all aged since then, but still looking like cutlery? I somehow always assumed it was the latter, mainly because I had the impression that the prince was a preteen when he slammed on the old woman. But then again, there's Chip. I don't know how old he is, but he can't be more than 10- and if he'd been 10, he wouldn't have ever known what it was like to be human if he'd been magicked as a baby. (And wouldn't that be weird to show?) So I guess maybe all of their ages were frozen in time or something.

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