‘Beauty and the Beast’ brings down the house

Sold out audiences filled Housatonic Valley Regional High School’s auditorium for the Musical Theatre Society’s production of “Beauty and the Beast” March 14 to 16.

Tom Brown

‘Beauty and the Beast’ brings down the house

FALLS VILLAGE — The Housatonic Musical Theatre Society’s production of “Beauty and the Beast” played to full houses last week at Housatonic Valley Regional High School (HVRHS).

When The Lakeville Journal visited the dress rehearsal the evening before the Thursday, March 14, opening, Aron Ladanyi — Gaston — was out sick, and Niya Borst, who played Belle along with Tess Marks, was filling in, reading straight from the script — and making it look easy.

But the cast was in order for the opening night.

Tess Marks played Belle for the Friday and the Saturday evening performances.

Niya Borst played Belle for the Thursday and the Saturday matinee performances.

The show held a few surprises, one that had the audience sitting bolt upright when wolves with glowing eyes chased Hudson Sebranek’s Maurice up one aisle of the auditorium and down the other.

And Tryston Bronson’s Beast got beastlier as the show unfolded.

Comic relief was provided by Andy Delgado’s Lumiere and Alex Wilbur’s Cogsworth, the former with glow-in-the dark hands and both with outrageous French and British accents. Ladanyi’s Gaston was splendidly oleaginous.

The entire cast was well-rehearsed, singing strongly and clearly, and moving confidently through the dance routines.

“Beauty and the Beast” was directed and produced by HVRHS teacher Christiane Olson, with musical direction from fellow teacher Tom Krupa. Amber Cameron of Falls Village was the choreographer.


Patrick L. Sullivan

Niya Borst played Belle in “Beauty and the Beast” for two performances, and Tess Marks for the other two.

Latest News

Employment Opportunities

LJMN Media, publisher of The Lakeville Journal (first published in 1897) and The Millerton News (first published in 1932), is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit news organization.

We seek to help readers make more informed decisions through comprehensive news coverage of communities in Northwest Connecticut and Eastern Dutchess County in New York.

Keep ReadingShow less
Selectmen suspend town clerk’s salary during absence

North Canaan Town Hall

Photo by Riley Klein

NORTH CANAAN — “If you’re not coming to work, why would you get paid?”

Selectman Craig Whiting asked his fellow selectmen this pointed question during a special meeting of the Board on March 12 discussing Town Clerk Jean Jacquier, who has been absent from work for more than a month. She was not present at the meeting.

Keep ReadingShow less
Dan Howe’s time machine
Dan Howe at the Kearcher-Monsell Gallery at Housatonic Valley Regional High School.
Natalia Zukerman

“Every picture begins with just a collection of good shapes,” said painter and illustrator Dan Howe, standing amid his paintings and drawings at the Kearcher-Monsell Gallery at Housatonic Valley Regional High School. The exhibit, which opened on Friday, March 7, and runs through April 10, spans decades and influences, from magazine illustration to portrait commissions to imagined worlds pulled from childhood nostalgia. The works — some luminous and grand, others intimate and quiet — show an artist whose technique is steeped in history, but whose sensibility is wholly his own.

Born in Madison, Wisconsin, and trained at the American Academy of Art in Chicago, Howe’s artistic foundation was built on rigorous, old-school principles. “Back then, art school was like boot camp,” he recalled. “You took figure drawing five days a week, three hours a day. They tried to weed people out, but it was good training.” That discipline led him to study under Tom Lovell, a renowned illustrator from the golden age of magazine art. “Lovell always said, ‘No amount of detail can save a picture that’s commonplace in design.’”

Keep ReadingShow less