DaytonDailyNews.com

By Terry Morris

Staff Writer

One supposedly mismatched couple is making way for another at La Comedia Dinner Theatre.

Tony, Maria and "West Side Story" have just exited. Belle and the grumpiest beast ever to own a castle with a great library will enter Wednesday, July 9, in Disney's "Beauty and the Beast."

Decades, genres and a debate about art vs. commerce may separate them, but both musicals are firmly entrenched in the "successful" category.

La Comedia is counting on that to keep the customers coming through the doors and bellying up to the buffet tables in what can sometimes be a slow season for indoor entertainment in this pocket of country between Las Vegas and Broadway.

"Beauty and the Beast" did well in its Miami Valley premiere in 2005 on the same stage, 11 years after it opened on Broadway. The show by Linda Woolverton, Howard Ashman, Tim Rice and Alan Menken ended its 13-year run in New York last year.

With additional costumes and sets, the return to Springboro will be the biggest show there ever, producers say.

With the cost of gasoline at an all-time high, La Comedia can offer "a one-day Disney vacation much closer to home," marketing director Justin Walton said. "This is as close as we could ever come to producing a Broadway show. We've done everything we can with the size of the stage to give our audience that experience.

Songs include "Home," "How Long Must This Go On?," "Be Our Guest," "If I Can't Love Her," "A Change in Me" and the title tune.

MONSTEROUS WEATHER

It might seem odd for Frankenstein's creature not to come out in the rain, considering the lightning that fueled its jump start, but when your creature is a 10-foot puppet (think how soggy that could get), you'd rather conjure up fair skies and breezes.

Yellow Springs Kids Playhouse has dodged and suffered some raindrops since the scheduled opening of its original show "Frankenstein, or The Difficulty of Changing One's Mind," but the plucky kids under John Fleming's direction have kept trying.

There's no show tonight, but two last performances are slated for 7:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, July 5 and 6, at the Antioch Amphitheatre on Corry Street. Call (937) 767-2718 for ticket information.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2377 or

tmorris@DaytonDailyNews.com

how to go

What: "Beauty and the Beast."

When: Wednesdays through Sundays, July 9-Aug. 31.

Where: La Comedia Dinner Theatre, 765 W. Central Ave., Springboro.

Tickets: $47-$65 for adults, $25 for children 11 and younger, with discounts for groups, "early bird" (first-month) patrons and 4-for-3 specials at the Sunday brunch.

Call: (800) 677-9505 or (937) 746-4554.