PAC to stage 'Beauty and the Beast'

"Beauty and the Beast"

Dec. 5, 7:30 p.m.; Dec. 6, 2 p.m.

Framingham High School, 115 A Street

Tickets: $14 adults, $12 children ($2 advance discount)

Info: 508-875-5554, www.pacmetrowest.org

Tibor Toth hopes he hasn't been typecast when he appears on stage next weekend as the "handsome brute" Gaston in "Beauty and the Beast," staged by the Performing Arts Center of MetroWest.

"I'm pursing Belle, the 'Beauty,' but she's stuck on the Beast and can't stand me," said the Framingham resident who's preparing for his sixth dramatic role with PAC. "This will be the biggest show and biggest production the company has ever done."

Directed by Kara Sullivan, the Walt Disney version of "Beauty and the Beast" will run Saturday, Dec. 5 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, Dec. 6 at 2 p.m. at the Framingham High School auditorium.

Featuring a cast of 40 children, teens and adults, the musical is jointly produced by the PAC Family Players and Framingham Community Theater.

Musical Director Eliomar Nascimento will lead a four-piece orchestra comprised of two PAC members and two high school students. Catherine Freeberg plays Belle and Jon Baril plays the Beast.

After more than two months of rehearsals, Toth described the show as "energetic and buoyant with powerful singing and great dance numbers."

"It's going to be a big family show just like the Disney movie. We're expecting a big audience," he said.

Based broadly on a traditional French fairy tale, "La Belle et la Bete," the musical play tells the story of high-spirited Belle who wants to escape her dreary provincial life.

But after Belle finds herself trapped in the Beast's enchanted castle, the atmosphere becomes magical and menacing by turns with dancing silverware, singing furniture and frightening wolves.

Toth credited the company's crew of costume and set designers for "bringing the period to life" by creating "a small provincial French town" and colorful outfits for the show.

As her directorial debut approaches, Sullivan said, "It's been very challenging but it's going to be a huge and fun production."

The Southborough resident has ties to theater and PAC but, not perhaps, the usual ones. She dances with PAC's Moving West Dance Company and teaches drama at Wellesley Middle School.

"I heard through word-of-mouth they were looking for a director and was intrigued by the idea of working with kids and adults on this particular show in a community-based setting," said Sullivan.

Since mid-September, the cast of 40 has been rehearsing five hours a week on a Broadway style production with 15 songs and five dances, some up to seven minutes long, she said.

Sullivan credited Assistant Director Susan McKie and Caroline Olson, costume designer, for "their time, energy and expertise." "Caroline has really helped bring these characters to life including a living candlestick and a dancing teapot," she said.

Sullivan said the coming production will combine the "Disney fairy tale and my own vision." "It's definitely a feel-good fairy tale with big vibrant and colorful song-and-dance numbers. I've given it my own twist with a somewhat darker aspect," she said. "It'll be great for kids and adults to see these popular characters come to life on stage. I think audiences will really like the way we're going to put it on."