Beauty and the Beast

Everything this week led up to the big performance- the singing, the costume making, the rehearsal of lines, and, of course, the dramatics from dawn to dusk.  Emma landed a speaking part this year.  You know that super creepy guy who comes to haul Maurice away to the insane asylum?  Yah, him.  He has a name- Monsieur D'Arque.  My lovely 12 year old daughter got to be a creepy dude whose name sounds like Mr. Dark.

Annie and Maddie were candle sticks, and happy ones they were too.

 Emma's age group was walking on, and I could not for the life of me pick out my daughter.  I knew she was supposed to be wearing a black shirt/costume of some kind, and would be wearing a man's wig.  But I could. not. see. her.  Ryan found her and laughed at my stupidity.  But seriously, without the arrow below, could you?

 She was wearing a horrendous wig.  I never managed to get a really good photo of it, mostly because Emma ran off the stage as soon as the performance was done to take the thing off.  Think black colonial wig, with a pony tail all the way down her back.  Ryan wants one to go with his mullet wig.  It's that bad.

Elizabeth was much easier to spot.  She's sitting down:

You can tell Elizabeth spotted us too.  She's sporting a great smile.

And a better picture of Emma with the cast.  She has an awesome brown vest to go with the wig.  Emma got to be a male villager when not Monsieur D'Arque.

 Elizabeth's number- the Bonjour song at the beginning of Beauty and the Beast.

 Annie and Maddie's song was Be Our Guest.  The soon-to-be-1st graders were candlesticks and the 2nd graders were food.

And here's Monsieur D'Arque, looking very sinister in the long, black robe.

 And trying to haul Maurice to the Insane Asylum.

 The action was riveting.  Elizabeth's group was entranced.  (Elizabeth by this time had rearranged the stickers on her apron about 5 different times.

 Finale!

One last thing about this performance of Beauty and the Beast.  This has nothing to do with my kids, but it's worth remembering.  So, as the Beast lies dying on stage, Belle says, "I love you," when the Beast suddenly gets up, leaves, and is replaced by a much shorter boy (Ben A who is from church) who lies down flat for about 3 seconds.  Belle is still weeping, and Ben sits up, stands up, and tells Belle, "It's me!"  Belle gets up and has to look way, way down to see that this smaller boy is indeed her true love.  They stare awkwardly into each other's eyes, and fist bump.  No pretend kisses for this crowd!  Ryan loved it.  He thinks we should tell our kids that fist bumps are appropriate displays of affection at least until the end of high school.  We'll see how well that goes over.