Review: Kaunotar ja Hirviö

The glorious Disney musical does not disappoint expectations

Based on a Disney animation, Beauty and the Beast is everything you could ever want from a fairytale musical for the whole family: a visually lush and imaginative, endearingly educational story with just the right amount of suspense, skilled actors, singers and dancers, a linguistically rich, multi-layered and funny text (thanks to the Finnish translator Liisa Ryömä) and captivating music: the magic and magic of a fairy tale.
It is easy to believe that the musical is one of the most expensive productions at the Helsinki City Theatre. Everything shows that nothing has been left to chance and of course the Disney company’s demands have been such that no poor man’s version could be out of the question.
The performance closely follows the structure and spirit of the Disney animation made in 1991, so there will be no unpleasant surprises even for child viewers who know the story well. There may be many opinions about whether it makes sense to copy the film so accurately to the stage, but at least 33,000 people who have already bought tickets think so. About 70 per cent of the musical’s tickets have been sold in advance.
Discussing whose money has been used to make a great performance is another thing, but theatre is always theatre and enchants its viewers in a completely different way than film. That is what the creators rely on, and not in vain. The musical Beauty and the Beast grabs the adult viewer beyond everyday reality for a moment, and the performance of just under three hours feels much shorter. Entertainment at its best.

Arffman moves

sings wonderfully

From an Eagle perspective, what is interesting about the performance is that the role of the monster is played by theatre director Kari Arffman, who alternates with Sören Lillkung . Arffman was involved in the casting for the premiere, which probably indicates that Asko Sarkola trusts the man’s skills
And Arffman does a great job of acting and singing, even though there are not as many vocal parts written for the monster as many might hope. The most brilliant solo of The Monster is If I Can’t Love Her, which closes the first act, and which Arffman interprets wonderfully with touching empathy for the monster’s pain and ultimately sparing no vocal resources. The solo was followed by resounding applause.
The hardest part for Arffman must have been learning the monstrous movement language. Ashamed of its appearance and wallowing in the depths of self-esteem, the monster hides its insides under a shell that it has grown out of anger and rudeness. The monster moves on stage at the floor level like a wounded animal, curled up in itself and its desperate fate.

Inner beauty

and acceptance of differences

To change from a monster back to a prince, you need love. The monster still manages to show love to Bella (Marika Westerling), but it’s much harder to believe that anyone could love an ugly person like her.
So it’s about inner beauty and seeing it, and accepting difference both in yourself and in others. The monster is forced to taste its own medicine, because the reason why the good fairy becomes the prince’s monster and the various objects of the entire castle servants is that the prince did not give way to the old lady in his castle, but turned her away. What if there had been a beautiful girl at the door?

Marika Westerling is fresh, sensitive as Bella and she sings brightly beautifully, but an extra touch of charisma could be an advantage.

Funny men

Beauty and the Beast is a celebration of both skilful individual performances and spectacular crowd scenes. Sometimes the stage is filled with villagers in their colourful costumes, sometimes forest creatures, tavern customers or human-shaped plates, cakes, cabbages, trays, pots, crayfish and so on.
Of the all-around brilliant cast, we could mention Mikko Vihma, who plays Gaston, who nicely woos Bella but gets gloves, whose ego, in addition to his muscles, is so big that it takes the whole village to support it, led by the somewhat simple LeFou, played by Pertti Koivula , a kind of Gaston’s armour-bearer. The sound of rain carries far away.
In addition to Koivula, the actual men of humour in the performance are Eero Saarinen as Gogsworth, who has been conjured up as a clock, and – surprise, surprise – Risto Kaskilahti as the French-cracking, candle-like Lumiére. The England-France match brings a fun extra spice to the play.