My Sister and Father starred in "Beauty and the Beast" the last couple weeks as Belle and Maurice. They are both incredible actors with even more beautiful singing voices! I posted a few videos of the performance for your enjoyment at the bottom of this post, if you would rather just scroll through the pictures and watch videos, not that me blabbing about Lucy's every mortal experience isn't thrilling! They are so talented and very worth watching!
Lucy and I watched 5 of the 6 shows they performed! Wow! Lucy even made it through one full show (because she still had jet lag she slept half the time, which is very unlike her during an exciting event). The other 4 shows she made it through most of the first halves, but couldn't resist getting up and dancing in the isle for the second halves, so we migrated to the lobby.
During a rehearsal Lucy got to go on stage with her Grandpa and loved it, so she was confused why she couldn't go up during the real show. When Grandpa would come on stage she would put her arms out to try to go to him and then try to get down and go up to the stage herself. I guess you are never too young to get the theater bug, in fact Lucy has been invited to perform with me, my father and sister in "Annie" next week. I am going to be a tourist in New York with my baby, pointing everything out to her. The director is a little worried about Lucy upstaging the singers, but I can't blame anyone for wanting to look at her! I couldn't be more thrilled to perform with Lucy in her Theater Debut!
While at the shows we taught Lucy that the Beast was scary, and now whenever we talk about it she puts the most dramatic look on her face and pats her chest to sign "Scary." Although the show was over two weeks ago, Lucy still wants me to read her "Beauty and the Beast" book to her. As we read it she signs "scary" for the beast, "grandpa" for Maurice, says "Burg" for "Burger" when she sees Belle (it's a ridiculous and long story why she calls her Aunt Sierra "Burger") and when the beast changes to a prince she has to give the page a kiss (she just started doing that one on her own and I wonder if she thought of it herself or if one of my sister's taught it to her to be funny!).
Here's is my Dad showing some of his fans what Lucy thinks of the Beast. Sometimes she gets it mixed up and does the scary sign when we talk about Grandpa. I believe Lucy says "Scary" whenever there is anything dramatic!
Here is the whole Poppleton Gang after one of the shows (minus Brian who is stranded on a deserted island with incredible surfing waves! Poor Boy!) As you can see, my Dad is a little outnumbered these days!
I bet you wish you were there to see the show now, huh? Well, next best thing...watch the video!
Here is the Father/Daughter song Belle and Maurice sing together called "No Matter What" They are adorable! I completely teared up while watching them sing this. Both so talented and having way too much fun playing this kind of a role together (I will admit, I am soooooooo jealous Sierra got to do this with our Dad! This would have been my absolute dream come true to perform this with him!):
(Before watching scroll down to the "Prop 8" post and hit pause on the video. Sorry it's so annoying that it automatically plays! I will work on fixing it!)
Hungry for more? I know, it's pretty good! If you didn't get enough, here is Sierra performing my favorite song "Home":
So proud to be related to her!
If you still can't get enough here is one more clip of when Maurice enters the castle and meets the Beast:
If you absolutely love watching my family perform you can find some of their previous roles by searching "bpoppleton" on Youtube. We have put everything from my Dad playing Fagin in "Oliver Twist" singing "You've gotta pick a pocket or two" (which is by far the best character he has ever played), Sierra in "Sound of Music," and my Dad playing FDR in "Annie" last year.
I love my family and am so glad I grew up on the stage! It couldn't be more fun and I am excited to be on the stage again next week after almost 7 years (I did audition for one show at BYU, but that is a seriously talent overcrowded University and I gave up on ever making it on the stage there a long time ago)! Now if we can somehow get Dave on stage...hehehe
