On the night of the Dance Concert on Jan. 17, living candlesticks, clocks, teapots and other household items danced and sang across the stage of the San Gabriel Mission Playhouse, giving their audience a sneak peek of the upcoming musical. While the spectacular performance focused on the supporting cast, it also featured the on and off stage pair Mackenzie Byers and Billy McGavin as Beauty and the Beast.
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the annual musical, and apart from having amazing special effects, a huge cast and an expensive license for the rights to “Beauty and the Beast,” the drama department seems to have cast the perfect pair as the main characters of the play.
“Both Beauty and the Beast, Mackenzie and Billy, are fantastic actors,” Business Manager and Choreography Coordinator Ms. Kristi Ferntheil said. “They make it look like it’s just real.”
Though very talented individually, the couple’s relationship helps them achieve the authentic performance that they need for this classic Disney love story. After going from dating to being close friends, Byers and McGavin rekindled their relationship during the course of auditioning and rehearsing for the play.
“It’s kind of cliché, like ‘High School Musical’,” Byers said. “We’re both pretty good performers on our own, so when you put us together, it’s nice to work with someone who knows what they’re doing.”
Although their relationship adds a level of sincerity to their performance, Byers and McGavin still have to work diligently in order to meet higher expectations for the 50th anniversary of the TCHS musical.
“The hardest part of playing the Beast is yelling all the time, because you show a big range of emotions with him,” McGavin said. “You have to make sure that the audience sees you moaning under all that makeup and lights. We haven’t done it yet, but I heard it takes about half an hour to put on all that makeup.”
For Byers, the difficulty lies in her act as well. Disney was able to fully capture the magic of Belle’s character with their amazing animation, but it can be very difficult to replicate and take on the expressive and vivacious personality of this princess in real life.
“There’s a lot of pressure because a lot of girls have this image of who Belle is, and every girl wants to be a princess,” Byers said. “Belle is a princess and is really girly, but she’s also fiery. I’m kind of a tomboy, so it’s hard to be the cliché princess.”
“Beauty and the Beast” will grace the stage of the San Gabriel Mission Playhouse on the first weekend of March. Audiences should be delighted to know that no expense has been spared in ensuring that the music, cast, costumes and special effects are at the quality worthy of the actual Broadway production.
“It creates some challenges from a production standpoint to create the magic that’s there in the cartoon,” Producer and Director Mr. Matt Byers said. “It’s time consuming and expensive, but it fits with the quality shows that we’ve been doing for 50 years now.”
TCHS School Newspaper