Broadway Company’s Beauty and the Beast Begins October 13th
Arrowhead High School Broadway Company is an extracurricular performance group where students audition to be in the club. The audition consists of singing, dancing, and acting and each year the group performs one musical in the fall and one Musical Theatre Night in the spring. This year the Broadway Company musical is Beauty and The Beast.
Tickets go on sale the 28th of September. Tickets are sold at three different prices. The close seats are sold for $20, the middle and side seats are sold for $15, and the back seats are sold for $12.
Tickets are sold online at www.arrowheadchoirs.com and they are also sold at school in the front office and they can be bought at the door.
The two Broadway advisors, Grace Bielski and Gustavo Chaviano, are also Arrowhead choir teachers. They said they started thinking about the fall musical during spring.
Bielski said, “Mr. Chaviano and I decided to pursue Beauty and the Beast after looking at who would be in Broadway Company for this current school year. We love recognizing the talents of each year’s company and knew Beauty and the Beast would be a success. We have a bunch of hard working students who love Disney.”
Last year, Broadway Company performed the musical Legally Blonde and hey sold out two out of the six shows they performed.
Arrowhead senior Jackson Ashby says last year he went because it, “sounded like a great experience and was fun. I went with friends, we were bored.”
Beauty and the Beast was originally a movie before it became a live musical. There will be some differences between the movie and stage show because Broadway does not have the resources for special effects.
Bielski said, “There are differences between the movie and live musical. The biggest difference is that we don’t have the live special effects that are seen in the movie like CGI. The Broadway version accounts for this and still brings the magic of Disney in live form.”
Belle is played by senior Mia Zgrabik and Alyssa Proell. Beast is played by Dwight Maynor (senior); Brady Jager (senior) is playing Gaston; and Sydney Nelson (junior) is playing the part of Wardrobe.
All of the kids in Broadway are also part of Arrowhead choir. Students from choir who aren’t in Broadway like to support their Broadway friends.
Senior Barrin Griffin said, “I wanted to support my fellow seniors last year that was in it. and I like the musical stuff. I think of myself as a cousin towards Broadway, I’m not in it so I’m not family but I’m a cousin.”
Bielski said, “We have two costumers. One is from Indiana and has created all of the enchanted objects and the other is local. We are so thankful for their talents and gifts in costume design. We also have characters that wear wigs in the musical as well.”
Senior Kyle O’Connor said, “I think I’ve been to one [Broadway musical]. I think my parents wanted me to go so I just went with them.” The opening day is the 13th of October, and subsequent performances are on the 14th, 18th, 19th, and 20th. Broadway students advertise in the morning announcements.
