ZTP's Beauty and the Beast
Friday Aug 08, 2008
Last night we hit the brand new Freebirds on Burnet Road that opened yesterday, then headed down to Zilker Park for the Zilker Hillside Theater production of Disney's Beauty and the Beast. After a slow drive into the park, which I think was caused by the slow process of every car stopping to pay, we finally parked, grabbed our blankets and cooler, and headed to the hill in front of the stage. Once we got there, we discovered that the hill was pretty packed already, but we found a decent spot near the top of the hill to the right of the stage and set up.
We had about an hour or so to wait, so the boys ran off to run up and down the hill, climb a tree, and use the port-a-potties. Karen and I sat on the blankets and waited for the show to start. While we waited, things got more and more crowded around us. Some folks parked in front of us and filled up an air mattress, which put them a bit higher than us, but Karen and I could see over them and through the gaps, and the boys could still see well on the right side.
The people who moved in behind us, on the other hand, were a bit of a problem, at least at first. They bumped into us, and I felt very crowded. Eventually they backed off a bit, we moved forward a bit, and that all worked out.
While we were waiting for the show to start at dusk, I got a program, and was looking at the actor bios and pictures, and noticed a familiar name. Our neighbor Ben, the son of Nick's second grade teacher, was in the show as Chip! We had no idea Ben was in the show, it was a nice surprise. And he played his part well.
As for the actual show, it seemed to be pretty well done. The female lead, Belle, was well cast, and she had an excellent voice that was easily understandable. I'm sure part of that was her, and part the songs and lyrics.
My only criticism is that I thought the first half was a bit long and dragged a bit. The second half was a bit shorter and faster paced. The only glitch I recall in the show was Gaston's wireless face microphone broke at one point, so he grabbed a hand wireless microphone and used that, which I thought was pretty quick thinking of him or the directors (or both).
After the show, we went down to the stage to say hello to Ben, then headed back to our car. It took us 10-15 minutes to get out of the park. I noticed most people were heading west towards Mopac, so I headed east and hit Barton Springs Road and then headed west, and that got us to Mopac much more quickly than if we had stayed on the park road. We got home at midnight, so it was kind of a late night, but I think we enjoyed it and thought it was worth it, even if Sam almost fell asleep on the blanket. :)
