Beauty and the Beast

   Yes, the nation's #1 favorite musical about both Stockholm syndrome and implied zoophilia is here (we allowed to make jokes about that? Come on, you know it kind of is...) The nation's #1 favorite musical about just Stockholm syndrome, being, of course, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, and the #1 favorite musical about just zoophilia would be Wicked. (wait... what do you mean they cut that subplot out of the show? I used to have the slightest modicum of respect for that...)

   But, nope, Beauty and the Beast. November 8, 9, 10, 15, 16, 17 at 7 at the CCHS theater, with Saturday showings also occurring at 1. I went to go see it, and you'll probably go see it, so what I do isn't going to change your mind, but, uh... They'll probably iron out the kinks this time around. Not that there were many- just some dropped mics, and, when not that, the occasional feedback problems. The casting was alright. The songs were-- what they were... To be fair, I was never that big a fan of the source material in the first place. Tale as old as time, song as old as rhyme, Beauty and the Beast? I mean, what on earth is that supposed to even mean? And the magic system always struck me as being ill-defined. I'm not expecting Brandon Sanderson or anything (though how cool would that be?), but if you're going to come up with some magicky thing, you may as well stick with it. If he had an enchanted mirror the entire time (he did have it that entire time, right?), then why didn't he know that the old hag at the beginning might have been an enchantress? She'd have no reason to give it to him afterward. Not even to taunt him with showing how awesome the world he's now cut off from is- it's explicitly stated as being his only comfort.

   But maybe that's just passive aggression on my part. All of those plot-holes were probably present in the original fairy tale (which I read once, but all I can remember is the story of what exactly happened to Belle's mother.) So I guess it's not the adaptation's fault. It just magnifies any flaws that may have been there originally. At least it, for instance, draws attention to the parallels of the opposite nature of Gaston and the Beast. Which was kind of awesome- where the ugliness lay and all that.

   So that was good.