One of my favorite scenes! And the backdrops! These high school students displayed superb artistic talent!

After attending the theater [said with a  bit of Broadway flare] this past weekend as Locust Valley Jesters performed the musical Beauty and the Beast, I’m still going to sleep with the songs in my head. It was that good! 🙂

Beauty is my all time favorite. I mean, come on, as a reader/writer, my connection to a character who walks on stage with a book in her hands is instantaneous. And when the Beast takes Belle into his library, it’s like the equivalent of putting Nemo back in the ocean. She’s home, away from home. 

And I love how there are so many awakening moments in the story. The Beast, rising from an emotional connection to King Arthur’s story, says it so well. “I never knew books could do that. Make me forget who I am. What I am.”

We all long to forget at times. And escape our worlds and troubles. Walk in another’s shoes. Or dance, in the case of Belle.

Yes, the dance is where the story turns. From fear to freedom. Despair to hope. Anger to love. And when the writer wrote the lines, “Ever just the same… ever a surprise,” this sums up what it means to be loved. By God. Really. No ones else does it better.

And the Jesters, cast, crew and orchestra, superbly held my hand and invited me into “A Tale as Old As Time.” Every song, dance, and scene delivered. But the moment that took me there—to that place where I knew this was much more than just a story for me, was when Belle asks the Beast, “I’d like to ask you for something. A second chance.”

Because, she shows two attributes that lift her to favorite princess status in my eyes: humility and courage. To look in the mirror and see herself for the beastly quality she possessed, her inclination to judge a book (or in this case a person, namely, the Beast) by its cover. And then to refuse to stay stuck. And ask to try again. To not give up. Not to mention, a daughter willing to say, “Take me instead,” to free her father. That’s plenty reason to love the girl! 

Thanks again, Jesters, from the bottom of my own messed-up heart, for reminding me of why I love stories. And music. And second chances.

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And you? Who’s your favorite Disney princess? Or Character? Can you recall a time when someone gave you a second chance that changed your life?