On Watching The Tale As Old As Time.
Date: 24th October, 2015
Time: Around 8 in the Night
Place: NCSI @ Dome
It is not everyday that you get the chance to watch one of your favourite Disney movies as a live-action musical.
Yes, dear reader, I got to watch Disney's Beauty And The Beast The Musical at NCSI @ Dome in Mumbai! And you know what? This is the first time ever that a musical on a scale as grand as that of Broadway has taken place in India!
Naturally, being the colossal Disney fan that I am, to say that I was giddy with excitement would be the understatement of the century.
Outwardly, I seemed (somewhat) calm, because:
a) I was with my uncle, aunt and nine-year-old cousin because I'msupposedly an influence on my cousin. One stupid move, she'd ape it and my uncle and aunt would be very disappointed in me.
In case you're a regular reader of my blog, you do realise how much I care about not disappointing my family, right?
b) There were fancy people about, dressed in uncomfortably tight clothes, faces slapped with an insane amount of makeup and tottering around in ridiculously high heels. Most of them were bigshot CEOs, actors, actresses, business head honchos with their kids and if there's one thing my grandmother and mother have instilled in me, it's this: you just can't run about acting like Rafiki from The Lion King in front of people, no matter how crazily happy you are.
But on the inside, the childish, hyperactive Archie was on a roll.
She was cartwheeling around, dancing in her full-two-left-feet glory and screaming out in delirious joy.
When we found our seats, my eyes were literally struggling to grasp everything, committing everything - the stage, the people, the lights - to memory.
Inside the theater, the lights were a dim red, with the trademark rose light floating around the walls. The stage wasn't simply a stage with a dais and a bunch of painted props.
It was a work of art.
I think there would be a lot of people begging to differ with my statement, because they must have seen musicals, plays on a grander stage. But to me, the stage was impressively done. It was literally converted into a tiny village in France. There were cozy cottages, huge trees and a homely (yes, homely) looking tavern.
To me, it looked exactly like it had come out of the Beauty And The Beast movie.
Then, after Lumiere and Cogsworth had ended their hilarious conversation about keeping all mobile phones shut, the play began.
When the clock struck eight, the entire room darkened. When the dim lights popped again, the village had been shifted to give way to the grand palace. the haughty prince, dressed in his finery and a shivering old hag, begging for shelter in exchange of a rose.
The prince, repulsed by the old lady's appearance, denied entry. Because let's face it: the prince was handsome, he was rich and all he required was a hot wife.
However, the hag wasn't going go away that easily.
All of a sudden, the old hag stopped shivering and before we knew it, she had transformed into a dazzling beauty - dressed in a sparkling pale blue gown, shining curls tumbling down her waist but her beautiful face...
She was furious and it was clear that she was in no mood to spare the beast.
She shot up into the air and cursed him - cursed him that he will contort into a hideous, ugly beast like he is and he will continue to remain so, until the time someone falls in love with him, despite of his hideousness.
Of course, before we knew it, the handsome prince had transformed into an ugly beast.
Then, the stage darkened. When the dim yellow lights flickered on, it was the small town, again and we were presented with a rather energetic performance of "Belle". We saw how the whole town thought Belle was 'queer' because she was a voracious reader and their sheer shock at the fact that she was the only one who rejected Gaston, the big bad bully.
(This was the point when my mouth had flew open and my lips were curved into a rather creepy smile. You know, try imagining the guy in the portrait, "The Scream" smiling. Mine vaguely represented that smile!)
But little did the townsfolk know what a fascinating person Belle was!
She was not only a bibliophile and a beauty, she really, really cared about her Papa, a crazy inventor who was scorned upon by the entire town for his eccentricities. We got to see how Maurice (Papa) had invented a really cool wood-cutting machine and was going to leave the town for presenting it at a fair in some other town.
Naturally, our heroine's excitement was palpable. Because let's face it, who would want to live in a town filled with shallow people? Not to mention the fact that the said shallow people failed to understand you and your complexities!
(Personally speaking, I really admired how classically Belle dealt with those bimbos in the poor provincial town. If I were her, I wouldn't have minded chopping of those idiots' heads with the woodcutting machine!)
Then, us viewers were transported to the darkened forest. The warmth of the provincial town had disappeared to give way to the ominous forests. The entire auditorium was darkened, except for the faint blue hue of the lights embedded at the edge of the stage.
RAAAWWWWR!
My heartbeat started racing faster. What was that?
Then, Maurice emerged from the side, running for his life. On his trail were...
Wolves.
From each and every corner of the auditorium, barged in wolves - growling, hungry and menacing wolves! And their target was Maurice.
They were pouring from each and every corner and we saw, helplessly as they ganged up, surrounding poor old Maurice and preparing for the kill.
I swear to God I actually let out a tiny scream when I saw them. I literally picked up my cousin's hand and gripped it tight. Thankfully, my cousin understood my fear and didn't say anything crazy like, "Aren't you an adult, sis? You should be so rawring back at them."
(Yep, that's how scared I was)
Thank the Gods, Maurice could fend them off and he could enter the mysterious palace.
Yes, dear reader, we were back at the palace.
At first, there was nothing out of order. Our curiosity and wonderment at discovering the palace mirrored Maurice's. But slowly, as we saw that the things in the palace actually spoke, we - like Maurice - realized something was wrong.
Of course, the candlestick Lumiere and the kindly kettle Mrs. Potts were more than eager to help out the heaving, gasping, terrified Maurice but wary old Cogsworth (who had just discovered that he got a new screw on his body, thanks to the old witch's curse) was worried about the beast...
His fears weren't unfounded because soon, the ferocious beast entered into the fray. Naturally, the embittered beast was angered at the fact that his servants were serving some random stranger. So, without further ado, our beast threw the poor old inventor into prison.
Meanwhile, as Maurice suffered under the horrors of the dungeon, us viewers were led back to Belle, sneaking away from the lusty Gaston.
It was a perfect sequence to break the somberness and tension that had settled in the previous scene. Everyone laughed as Belle sneaked up the stairs and into her house and Gaston, in his pompous foolishness, tried to search for her.
"Dude! Hide! He's coming!" My cousin and I hissed, as Belle finally came out and heaved a sigh of relief. "He's coming!!"
And guess what? Pompous Gaston found her again.
This led to a wild, hilarious performance of "Gaston". Despite the fact that I detest pompous braggarts with a passion, I couldn't help but laugh at Gaston's swagger and the townsfolk's stupidity.
My laughter soon evaporated when Belle found out that her papa was in trouble.
Naturally, the dutiful daughter that she was, Belle was upset and she, without thinking about the dangerous consequences, trudged through the dark forest.
Yes, the wolves came againand I nearly wet my jeans.
But thankfully, Belle escaped and reached the Beast's glittering, mystical palace. Like her father, Belle came across the talking objects. But instead of sitting 'round and hearing them bicker, Belle sneaked off to the dungeons.
There she found her haggard, tired Papa and she couldn't help but cry.
Unfortunately, this was a very brief reunion because...
Because the nasty beast had arrived!
To say old Beastie was furious would be the understatement of the century. He was beyond furious. You could literally feel his anger emanate from the stage.
Poor Belle, though! My heart really ached for her when I saw her so fearful and yet, so strong. It really was heartbreaking to see her say, "Take me instead of my father."
But the worst part of it all was this: the Beast dispassionately hurled Maurice out of the castle, without allowing Belle to say goodbye and then demanded Belle to get ready for dinner.
Thankfully, all the servants understood that Belle needed some time to let everything sink in. And you know what? They (meekly) reprimanded the Beast and told him to stop acting like an idiot.
Thus began the entire romantic spiel - how Belle and the Beast clash at first, how they become friends and how there's a little bit more than friendship until...
Belle told the Beast that she missed her Papa. The Beast produced his magical mirror where Belle saw Maurice, lost in the forest and in a pathetically weakened state.
Belle instantly became worried and she asked the Beast if she can leave. The Beast, deeply saddened, told her to go, giving her the enchanted mirror, just so she could "see him whenever she wants to".
Meanwhile, as the gooey-gooey, sweet (although slightly snoozeworthy) romance was going on, our rejected Gaston plotted to throw old Maurice into an asylum. Come on, the guy's ego was bruised faster than you could say the 'f' of 'wtf'. He practically had to do something just to assuage his mighty ego because hey, he was a misogynist needing strapping boys and his submissive, dainty wife,
The worst part was he actually got the warden to drag poor Papa away. Things did not go better when Belle showed the image of the Beast in the mirror. In fact, they grew worse.
Gaston transformed from the swaggery suitor to a sinister villain - he locked Belle and Maurice up and he literally convinced EVERYONE IN THE VILLAGE THAT THE BEAST SHOULD BE KILLED.
And the song, dear reader, damn. It really changed the entire vibe of the theater from a happy (though slightly dull) romantic aura to something morbid. The mob song really livened the whole room up, even though all they were singing about was killing the beast.
Meanwhile, Belle escaped the house, to warn Beast.
When she reached the palace after trudging through the treacherous forest, she saw him. Before she could say anything, Gaston sprung up and then...
There was a gruesome fight, wherein Gaston ended up falling down the tower but not without brutally stabbing the Beast.
Our heroine, on the other hand, held Beast as he fell. She started sobbing her heart out as the life in the beast vanished and the rose wilted...
All of a sudden, the beast transformed into the handsome prince that he once was! Immediately, like every set of lovers I've ever seen on screen, they locked their lips.
Yes, dear reader, that happened to be the first time ever that I saw a kiss happen.
Thankfully, my grandmother wasn't there or else she would have screamed something crazy like, "Sheeeee sheeee sheee! What is this? Stop kissing now! Kaisa zamana aa gaya hai!"
Of course, the song that came up in the end where all the utensils were human again and everyone was dressed in their finery was really snoozeworthy. I don't know why, but I actually felt like dozing off when I saw it (even in the movie). I think it's probably because it was just a boring dance and nothing snazzy.
All in all, I had a blast watching the musical because:
a) Everyone acted really well, especially Belle - damn, I wish I could act as well as she could, man! She was phenomenal! Even the guy who played Gaston was fantastic, He will go far, I tell you.
b) the set, especially in the first half, was well-designed. The aesthetic-enjoying, detail-loving Virgo in me really enjoyed observing the stage.
c) almost all the songs were good, except maybe 'A Tale As Old As Time'. That song is incredibly slow and plus, it ended with Belle and the Beast sitting on a pretty swing, talking. There was no 'eating dinner' like they'd proclaimed before.
When that part got over, my cousin and I looked at each other.
"Dinner." I echoed, my eyebrows up in disbelief.
"That was not a dinner! I didn't see food at all." My cousin said solemnly.
d) The whole event really gave me a lot of exposure on how big events work. Before going inside the theater, my uncle had told me, "You should observe how things work here. This will give you a really fair idea on how events work and how they should work."
Of course, the parking was sloppy (according to my uncle) and I did not like the fact that they gave a really short time for refreshment break. Because you know what? We had to guzzle down our food instead of eating it properly.
Otherwise, it was a really well-executed event.
With this, dear reader, I will close on this long 'spiel' on how I saw my first musical ever. It was a once-in-a-lifetime-experience and somehow, I'm glad that I could watch it when I still had that childish glee in me.
On other stuff, let me tell you this: I've been working on this post since the past two weeks. Some disaster or the other has been happening so I couldn't finish it properly.
My semester two will start in a matter of two days, along with my German classes and I will have a ton of extracurriculars. So I don't know how fast/slow my updates will be. But I am going to update!
Most importantly, have you heard about what happened in Paris? It was honestly a tragedy and I don't get why some turds have to kill innocent people just to get what they want. Moreover, did you know that barely a day before the Paris attack, a blast happened in Beirut? It pains my heart to see so much violence and I want to do something about it, more than just discuss about it in social media.
Stay safe and healthy and awesome, dear reader,
Much love,
Archie <3
Time: Around 8 in the Night
Place: NCSI @ Dome
It is not everyday that you get the chance to watch one of your favourite Disney movies as a live-action musical.
Yes, dear reader, I got to watch Disney's Beauty And The Beast The Musical at NCSI @ Dome in Mumbai! And you know what? This is the first time ever that a musical on a scale as grand as that of Broadway has taken place in India!
Naturally, being the colossal Disney fan that I am, to say that I was giddy with excitement would be the understatement of the century.
Outwardly, I seemed (somewhat) calm, because:
a) I was with my uncle, aunt and nine-year-old cousin because I'm
In case you're a regular reader of my blog, you do realise how much I care about not disappointing my family, right?
b) There were fancy people about, dressed in uncomfortably tight clothes, faces slapped with an insane amount of makeup and tottering around in ridiculously high heels. Most of them were bigshot CEOs, actors, actresses, business head honchos with their kids and if there's one thing my grandmother and mother have instilled in me, it's this: you just can't run about acting like Rafiki from The Lion King in front of people, no matter how crazily happy you are.
But on the inside, the childish, hyperactive Archie was on a roll.
She was cartwheeling around, dancing in her full-two-left-feet glory and screaming out in delirious joy.
When we found our seats, my eyes were literally struggling to grasp everything, committing everything - the stage, the people, the lights - to memory.
Inside the theater, the lights were a dim red, with the trademark rose light floating around the walls. The stage wasn't simply a stage with a dais and a bunch of painted props.
It was a work of art.
I think there would be a lot of people begging to differ with my statement, because they must have seen musicals, plays on a grander stage. But to me, the stage was impressively done. It was literally converted into a tiny village in France. There were cozy cottages, huge trees and a homely (yes, homely) looking tavern.
To me, it looked exactly like it had come out of the Beauty And The Beast movie.
Then, after Lumiere and Cogsworth had ended their hilarious conversation about keeping all mobile phones shut, the play began.
When the clock struck eight, the entire room darkened. When the dim lights popped again, the village had been shifted to give way to the grand palace. the haughty prince, dressed in his finery and a shivering old hag, begging for shelter in exchange of a rose.
The prince, repulsed by the old lady's appearance, denied entry. Because let's face it: the prince was handsome, he was rich and all he required was a hot wife.
However, the hag wasn't going go away that easily.
All of a sudden, the old hag stopped shivering and before we knew it, she had transformed into a dazzling beauty - dressed in a sparkling pale blue gown, shining curls tumbling down her waist but her beautiful face...
She was furious and it was clear that she was in no mood to spare the beast.
She shot up into the air and cursed him - cursed him that he will contort into a hideous, ugly beast like he is and he will continue to remain so, until the time someone falls in love with him, despite of his hideousness.
Of course, before we knew it, the handsome prince had transformed into an ugly beast.
Then, the stage darkened. When the dim yellow lights flickered on, it was the small town, again and we were presented with a rather energetic performance of "Belle". We saw how the whole town thought Belle was 'queer' because she was a voracious reader and their sheer shock at the fact that she was the only one who rejected Gaston, the big bad bully.
(This was the point when my mouth had flew open and my lips were curved into a rather creepy smile. You know, try imagining the guy in the portrait, "The Scream" smiling. Mine vaguely represented that smile!)
But little did the townsfolk know what a fascinating person Belle was!
She was not only a bibliophile and a beauty, she really, really cared about her Papa, a crazy inventor who was scorned upon by the entire town for his eccentricities. We got to see how Maurice (Papa) had invented a really cool wood-cutting machine and was going to leave the town for presenting it at a fair in some other town.
Naturally, our heroine's excitement was palpable. Because let's face it, who would want to live in a town filled with shallow people? Not to mention the fact that the said shallow people failed to understand you and your complexities!
(Personally speaking, I really admired how classically Belle dealt with those bimbos in the poor provincial town. If I were her, I wouldn't have minded chopping of those idiots' heads with the woodcutting machine!)
Then, us viewers were transported to the darkened forest. The warmth of the provincial town had disappeared to give way to the ominous forests. The entire auditorium was darkened, except for the faint blue hue of the lights embedded at the edge of the stage.
RAAAWWWWR!
My heartbeat started racing faster. What was that?
Then, Maurice emerged from the side, running for his life. On his trail were...
Wolves.
From each and every corner of the auditorium, barged in wolves - growling, hungry and menacing wolves! And their target was Maurice.
They were pouring from each and every corner and we saw, helplessly as they ganged up, surrounding poor old Maurice and preparing for the kill.
I swear to God I actually let out a tiny scream when I saw them. I literally picked up my cousin's hand and gripped it tight. Thankfully, my cousin understood my fear and didn't say anything crazy like, "Aren't you an adult, sis? You should be so rawring back at them."
(Yep, that's how scared I was)
Thank the Gods, Maurice could fend them off and he could enter the mysterious palace.
Yes, dear reader, we were back at the palace.
At first, there was nothing out of order. Our curiosity and wonderment at discovering the palace mirrored Maurice's. But slowly, as we saw that the things in the palace actually spoke, we - like Maurice - realized something was wrong.
Of course, the candlestick Lumiere and the kindly kettle Mrs. Potts were more than eager to help out the heaving, gasping, terrified Maurice but wary old Cogsworth (who had just discovered that he got a new screw on his body, thanks to the old witch's curse) was worried about the beast...
His fears weren't unfounded because soon, the ferocious beast entered into the fray. Naturally, the embittered beast was angered at the fact that his servants were serving some random stranger. So, without further ado, our beast threw the poor old inventor into prison.
Meanwhile, as Maurice suffered under the horrors of the dungeon, us viewers were led back to Belle, sneaking away from the lusty Gaston.
It was a perfect sequence to break the somberness and tension that had settled in the previous scene. Everyone laughed as Belle sneaked up the stairs and into her house and Gaston, in his pompous foolishness, tried to search for her.
"Dude! Hide! He's coming!" My cousin and I hissed, as Belle finally came out and heaved a sigh of relief. "He's coming!!"
And guess what? Pompous Gaston found her again.
This led to a wild, hilarious performance of "Gaston". Despite the fact that I detest pompous braggarts with a passion, I couldn't help but laugh at Gaston's swagger and the townsfolk's stupidity.
My laughter soon evaporated when Belle found out that her papa was in trouble.
Naturally, the dutiful daughter that she was, Belle was upset and she, without thinking about the dangerous consequences, trudged through the dark forest.
Yes, the wolves came again
But thankfully, Belle escaped and reached the Beast's glittering, mystical palace. Like her father, Belle came across the talking objects. But instead of sitting 'round and hearing them bicker, Belle sneaked off to the dungeons.
There she found her haggard, tired Papa and she couldn't help but cry.
Unfortunately, this was a very brief reunion because...
Because the nasty beast had arrived!
To say old Beastie was furious would be the understatement of the century. He was beyond furious. You could literally feel his anger emanate from the stage.
Poor Belle, though! My heart really ached for her when I saw her so fearful and yet, so strong. It really was heartbreaking to see her say, "Take me instead of my father."
But the worst part of it all was this: the Beast dispassionately hurled Maurice out of the castle, without allowing Belle to say goodbye and then demanded Belle to get ready for dinner.
Thankfully, all the servants understood that Belle needed some time to let everything sink in. And you know what? They (meekly) reprimanded the Beast and told him to stop acting like an idiot.
Thus began the entire romantic spiel - how Belle and the Beast clash at first, how they become friends and how there's a little bit more than friendship until...
Belle told the Beast that she missed her Papa. The Beast produced his magical mirror where Belle saw Maurice, lost in the forest and in a pathetically weakened state.
Belle instantly became worried and she asked the Beast if she can leave. The Beast, deeply saddened, told her to go, giving her the enchanted mirror, just so she could "see him whenever she wants to".
Meanwhile, as the gooey-gooey, sweet (although slightly snoozeworthy) romance was going on, our rejected Gaston plotted to throw old Maurice into an asylum. Come on, the guy's ego was bruised faster than you could say the 'f' of 'wtf'. He practically had to do something just to assuage his mighty ego because hey, he was a misogynist needing strapping boys and his submissive, dainty wife,
The worst part was he actually got the warden to drag poor Papa away. Things did not go better when Belle showed the image of the Beast in the mirror. In fact, they grew worse.
Gaston transformed from the swaggery suitor to a sinister villain - he locked Belle and Maurice up and he literally convinced EVERYONE IN THE VILLAGE THAT THE BEAST SHOULD BE KILLED.
And the song, dear reader, damn. It really changed the entire vibe of the theater from a happy (though slightly dull) romantic aura to something morbid. The mob song really livened the whole room up, even though all they were singing about was killing the beast.
Meanwhile, Belle escaped the house, to warn Beast.
When she reached the palace after trudging through the treacherous forest, she saw him. Before she could say anything, Gaston sprung up and then...
There was a gruesome fight, wherein Gaston ended up falling down the tower but not without brutally stabbing the Beast.
Our heroine, on the other hand, held Beast as he fell. She started sobbing her heart out as the life in the beast vanished and the rose wilted...
All of a sudden, the beast transformed into the handsome prince that he once was! Immediately, like every set of lovers I've ever seen on screen, they locked their lips.
Yes, dear reader, that happened to be the first time ever that I saw a kiss happen.
Thankfully, my grandmother wasn't there or else she would have screamed something crazy like, "Sheeeee sheeee sheee! What is this? Stop kissing now! Kaisa zamana aa gaya hai!"
Of course, the song that came up in the end where all the utensils were human again and everyone was dressed in their finery was really snoozeworthy. I don't know why, but I actually felt like dozing off when I saw it (even in the movie). I think it's probably because it was just a boring dance and nothing snazzy.
All in all, I had a blast watching the musical because:
a) Everyone acted really well, especially Belle - damn, I wish I could act as well as she could, man! She was phenomenal! Even the guy who played Gaston was fantastic, He will go far, I tell you.
b) the set, especially in the first half, was well-designed. The aesthetic-enjoying, detail-loving Virgo in me really enjoyed observing the stage.
c) almost all the songs were good, except maybe 'A Tale As Old As Time'. That song is incredibly slow and plus, it ended with Belle and the Beast sitting on a pretty swing, talking. There was no 'eating dinner' like they'd proclaimed before.
When that part got over, my cousin and I looked at each other.
"Dinner." I echoed, my eyebrows up in disbelief.
"That was not a dinner! I didn't see food at all." My cousin said solemnly.
d) The whole event really gave me a lot of exposure on how big events work. Before going inside the theater, my uncle had told me, "You should observe how things work here. This will give you a really fair idea on how events work and how they should work."
Of course, the parking was sloppy (according to my uncle) and I did not like the fact that they gave a really short time for refreshment break. Because you know what? We had to guzzle down our food instead of eating it properly.
Otherwise, it was a really well-executed event.
With this, dear reader, I will close on this long 'spiel' on how I saw my first musical ever. It was a once-in-a-lifetime-experience and somehow, I'm glad that I could watch it when I still had that childish glee in me.
On other stuff, let me tell you this: I've been working on this post since the past two weeks. Some disaster or the other has been happening so I couldn't finish it properly.
My semester two will start in a matter of two days, along with my German classes and I will have a ton of extracurriculars. So I don't know how fast/slow my updates will be. But I am going to update!
Most importantly, have you heard about what happened in Paris? It was honestly a tragedy and I don't get why some turds have to kill innocent people just to get what they want. Moreover, did you know that barely a day before the Paris attack, a blast happened in Beirut? It pains my heart to see so much violence and I want to do something about it, more than just discuss about it in social media.
Stay safe and healthy and awesome, dear reader,
Much love,
Archie <3
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