Tale as Old as Time

I must hand it to West Side Civic Theatre. Their latest production, "Beauty and the Beast" (which they promoted as their biggest undertaking in their history) was wonderful.
Ken, Mallorie, Cade and I saw the show last night. Well, Cade didn't finish the show. I had to call Allan to come pick him up since he was a bit restless and chatty. (Cade, not Allan.) As soon as Allan got there, it started to rain. Some folks decided they didn't want to brave the outdoor performance and left. (Rain plagued this production. One of the performances was rained out last week.) We decided a little rain never hurt anyone. As long as the show was continuing, we'd support the actors by remaining. We were glad we did.

I saw CTG's production of "Beauty and the Beast". Overall, I liked CTG's better; they had much better singers. Still, West Side deserves the standing ovation. They did a beautiful job. The set was the most amazing thing-huge!-filling the Lewisville Square perfectly.

The best part of the show was the "Be Our Guest" number with dancing napkins, plates, forks, spoons, knives, etc. It was a showstopping dance extravaganza. We nearly wet our (already fairly wet) shorts watching Kenny Mathews, a former castmate, dancing around as a Pepper Shaker. Hilarious!! Allyson Edwards, also a former castmate, took us backstage at intermission so we could chat with Kenny. He had taken off his Pepper shaker, Pepper hat, and was parading around in his silver Pepper unitard. Priceless. I'm getting the giggles just thinking about it.

If you haven't seen a West Side Civic Theatre production, you really should. Performances are in the Lewisville Square and are absolutely FREE. My suggestion is to stop by the Square early (4 to 6 hours before performances) to set up your chairs, blankets, beach towels, etc. Everyone from Lewisville and many from surrounding cities support this town event. "The Wizard of Oz" is their next production. From the size of the cast, I'm sure it's gonna be another extravaganza. You can get more details by going to their website at www.westsidecivictheatre.com/.

Oh, and one last note, Ken and I are still singing Mrs. Pott's song. Yep, complete with accent...