An early Sunday afternoon quickly turned into a late evening as the Temple Israel Players in Great Neck ran through their planned performance of “Beauty and the Beast.”
With song, dance and colorful costumes, a small ensemble led by musical director Debbie Tartell rehearsed as director JoJo Conley’s corrections and advice sometimes boomed above the music. Stage workers also practiced transforming the stage from village to castle to forest and back.
“It’s a lot of work,” Mark Putter, a show producer involved with the Players for 15 years, said on Sunday night in between scenes. “And it’s a lot of fun.”
The Temple Israel Players, a theater troupe founded more than 40 years ago, will be taking on the iconic fantasy tale – and Disney – for the first time this weekend, with shows planned for Saturday and Sunday.
Conley said some people might view “Beauty and the Beast” as just a children’s show since it was an animated feature.
But, Conley said, working with a mature cast offered a chance to explore the script’s nuances through body language, like Gaston slowly imposing upon Belle, and female empowerment as seen when she defiantly weaves around his advances, makes her own choices and tames Beast.
“There’s a lot of meat on the bones of this story,” Conley, the mother of three daughters, said in an interview, noting its resonance in the “Me Too” era.
“I’m thrilled with how they’re doing it because they really dug into the issues that each character was having and really extract a lot of emotion out of the scenes,” Conley added.
The troupe is also “double-casting” many roles, producers said, a rarity that will get even more people involved with the show.
The production will star Lillian Rokhsar as Belle, with Abe Kanfer playing Beast on Saturday and Daniel Frankel playing him on Sunday. Kenneth Leff plays Maurice on Saturday, followed by Van Frankel on Sunday. Jon Kaiman will play Gaston in both productions, while the role of Madame de la Grande Bouche will be played by Kim Kaiman and Lois Sazer.
Cogsworth will be played by Harold Citron, Lumiere by Mark Cwern, Babette by Shoshana Cellers and Debbie Volk, who is also a producer, Mrs. Potts by Meredith Bachrach and Amy David, and Chip by Mia Bachrach.
Seventeen people will be in the ensemble, which includes townspeople and enchanted objects, while six people will consistently be among the “silly girls” fawning over Gaston, according to the playbill.
“A number of our roles are double-cast,” Volk said. “So each performance is genuinely unique as each actor brings their own personality to the character they play.”
Daniel Frankel, a 25-year member of the Players who will be Beast in the Sunday performance, said he is not normally very beastlike in real life.
But he said it is also a chance for a release, to bring his favorite childhood movie to life, and act with his father Van Frankel – portraying Maurice – with whom he remembered first seeing “Beauty and the Beast.”
“I must have been no older than 5 years old and I fell in love with the story, the music – just the entire animation of it was phenomenal,” Daniel Frankel, a 30-year-old opera singer, said between scenes. “It’s been a big part of my life since, and to be playing the Beast in the show that means so much to me is a dream come true.”
“By the time the movie was over, I was crying,” Van Frankel, a longtime member of the Temple Israel Players, recalled. “It was so great … I have an emotional attachment to Disney and I have an emotional attachment to the story.”
There are also a number of other family relationships among the cast and crew.
Meredith Bachrach and her daughter Mia will be playing Mrs. Potts and Chip, for example. Meanwhile Ella and Max Covitt, who are playing both villagers and the wolves who chase down Maurice, will join enchantress and ensemble member Lauryn Covitt – their mother.
There is also a husband and wife team: former North Hempstead Town Supervisor Jon Kaiman, who will be playing Gaston in both weekend performances, and Kim Kaiman, playing Madame de la Grande Bouche on Saturday and one of the “silly girls” fawning over Gaston on Sunday.
Jon Kaiman, who has been involved in the troupe for more than 20 years, said it has been a great way to bond with his family and make friends inside Temple Israel.
“It’s a great escape and it’s a good thing for us to do together, and again, we develop friendships,” Kaiman said. “It really makes a difference when you’re part of this group, when we are active in the temple – this is a very large temple, with thousands of members.”
“It’s a camaraderie,” Kaiman added. “There’s a sense of family within this larger family and that’s a real nice thing that we’ve had over these years.”
The shows will take place Saturday at 8:30 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m. at Temple Israel at 108 Old Mill Road in Great Neck. To order tickets, call Kathy at Temple Israel Box Office at 516-482-7800 ext. 1109 or email Krecckia@tign.org.
Saturday tickets cost $20 to $50 and include a champagne reception for patrons and sponsors, while Sunday’s tickets cost $10 to $36 for adults and $10 to $18 for children.
All proceeds benefit Temple Israel.
