Belmont Ridge Makes Musical 'Beauty' of 'Beast'

Students at Belmont Ridge Middle School are in the final stretch of rehearsing their spring musical production Beauty and the Beast. The Walt Disney Broadway musical begins this weekend and continues into the next.

Producing a Broadway-length, two-and-a-half hour musical with 196 middle-schoolers might sound overwhelming, but Jason Augustowski was up for the task.

Not only is he managing it with finesse, his enthusiasm and teaching techniques inspire and motivate the students. As a language arts teacher at the school, many of "Mr. A's" students choose to be in the annual spring musical because of his outgoing personality.

“Mr. A is an amazing director,” said Ally Goodnight, who plays Babette in the show. “He makes it really fun and somehow manages to get everything done.”

Additional cast members echoed Goodnight’s praise, as well as fellow production members.

“Belmont Ridge has a history of putting on good musicals,” said co-producer Wendy Hampton, whose daughter Amanda plays Mrs. Potts. “But since Mr. A arrived two years ago, the kids have enjoyed how he relates to them on their level. He tends to inspire them. He has so much energy.”

Augustowski deflects any praise of his work and gives it all to the students. 

“There is extraordinary talent at Belmont Ridge,” he said. “It is definitely the premiere school in the county. The only reason why it was possible to put on this type of production is because of the kind of kids we have here.”

The school’s PTO backed the $30,000 production, and helped manage the accounting and financial side of Beauty and the Beast. The school rented big, bold, realistic costumes directly from Broadway and created a colorful set design for the show. 

With so many students participating, the producers divided the group into two equally talented, separate casts. The “white” cast performs April 4-6 and the “red” cast performs April 11-13. 

The musical has also created new friendships that may have not existed otherwise.

"I have met so many new people through the musical,” Goodnight said. “It takes you out of your own bubble. I wouldn’t know half of these people if I wasn’t in the musical.”

Hampton, who along with co-producer Karlene Gardner has been working behind the scenes with a team of 27 people, has put in at least 1,000 hours working on the show. The production team has put in more than 4,500 hours.

“This is an experience the kids will remember for the rest of their lives,” said Sharon Lanham, an 8th-grade science teacher serving as assistant director for the musical.

For the first time at the school, a 10-piece student orchestra (well, two are adults) will accompany the cast, led by Mike Jones. 

“The production contract required that we use live music,” Hampton explained.

While the enthusiasm has not waned for the current production, Augustowski is already making plans for a summer musical production called Back to the ‘80s, an Australian musical where every song is a hit from the decade. Performance dates are set for that musical are set for August 22-24.

“We plan to invite the audience to get dressed up,” Augustkowski said. “It will be a fun, different type of show, which I know the kids will enjoy performing.”

Tickets for Beauty and the Beast are available on a limited basis, some dates have already sold out. Visit www.lcps.org/tickets to buy tickets or www.lcps.org/bmrms to learn more.