“Area Stage Company’s new immersive production of Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast” is, as the French would say, magnifique…the care that Area Stage Company has taken with its “Beauty and the Beast” is evident in so many aspects of the show. What Rodaz and Area Stage Company are bringing to the table is a different, involving way of storytelling, one that makes theatergoers of all ages look at a familiar piece with fresh eyes. And isn’t that what theater is all about?”

“I thought I was done with Beauty and the Beast…There is a reimagining, and then there is director Giancarlo Rodaz’s visionary, deeply moving new production…by involving us in the drama rather than positioning us as spectators of it, our emotional involvement increases tenfold. When we’re in the mix too, the passions are operatic, the humor is infectious, and the stakes have never seemed higher.”

“Like Belle reopening her own favorite fairy tale despite the fact that she’s memorized every page, I more or less expected that I’d enjoy another trip through this fantastical fable; but what I didn’t predict is that I would find myself awash in a sense of genuine wonder at the daring, fun, and spectacle of it all rather than simply waiting out the beats. Against all odds, it seems, something of that long-lost magic had been recaptured, and I, ostensibly the impartial critic, had actually found myself immersed.”

CAST