Love is Common Theme in Music Makers’ ‘Beauty and the Beast’ and ‘Rent’

One musical is about of poverty, discrimination, LGBT issues, bohemianism, loss, death and AIDS. The other has a French candelabrum singing Disney tunes.

Yet the producers of Rent and Beauty and the Beast, being performed these next two weekends by Music Makers of Western Springs’ high-school and junior reps, respectively, say there’s a thread that runs through both of these well-known stories: the triumph of love for outsiders and those different from the norm.

In one play, a beautiful woman is the only one who can love a hideous outcast. In the other, there are many outcasts, whose love sustains them through the more miserable parts of their lives.

Music Makers’ Micki Doherty, who is directing both plays, said she gets a boost out of each of them in their own way.

“I come in from Beauty and the Beast revved up, thinking the kids are so great and we’re working so hard, and then we go to Rent and I’m inspired in a totally different way, even though the subject matter is so much heavier,” Doherty said.

Rent is a play with fairly tough themes for high-school kids to tackle, but Doherty said she refused to water down the shadowy parts of the musical, and insisted that the story of young Lower-East-Side bohemians, many desperately poor, gay and/or HIV-positive, remains relevant—and that the cast totally pulls it off.

“They’re fearless with it,” agreed Rent musical director Ysraelia “Izzie” Garbutt. “I forget that they’re teenagers. I’m blown away by how well they’ve taken on these characters for issues that none of them, I would hope, have never had to deal with and will never have to deal with.”

Meanwhile, students from grades 3-8 are putting on Beauty, a show that requires elaborate costumes and sets and stands as one of the most elaborate productions in Music Makers’ history. With about 75 students involved, the show has been split into two casts who will perform on alternating nights.

“I love the fact that we can give lots of kids opportunities. There are so many talented kids in both casts that it was a gift to not have to decide between two kids for some parts,” said Beauty musical director Ann Maney, adding that the Disney show lets students shine in both solo and choral roles.

Both shows are being performed at the Lyons Township High School South Campus Performing Arts Center. Beauty and the Beast is playing Friday, Jan. 25 at 5:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., Saturday, Jan. 26 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, Jan. 27 at 2:00 p.m.; Rent is playing Thursday, Jan. 31, Friday, Feb. 1 and Saturday, Feb. 2 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $10 and are available at the doors.