While it may be a story as old as time, it is a story that has never been told before. Jade Jones is currently playing Belle in Beauty in the Beast at the Olney Theater Center in Maryland for the second time, and Jones doesn’t look like the cartoon princess from childhood. They are black, non-binary, and plus-sized. They reflect today’s audiences, and perhaps that’s why photos of them, decked out in a purple and gold dress, have gone viral.
“I think the reason why our production of Beauty and the Beast got so much attention is because [director] Marcia Milgrom Dodge cast real-life people,” explains Jones. “We weren’t trying to create a fairy tale; We were trying to tell a true story. I think that’s why people were so receptive. As soon as the photos started coming out, I got personal messages from people in Australia, Africa, South Korea. I never expected that.”
Beauty and the Beast, the musical based on the Disney film, runs at the Olney Theater through January 1. With audiences in Maryland and fans around the world responding to his work, the influence this production has had on Jones is remarkable. Having worked professionally for nine years as an actor in the DC region, his surprise at the level of love he continues to receive from the production is palpable.
“Even though I knew I had what it takes to lead a show, I never saw myself as this kind of leader, as the leader of a show like this,” Jones shares after taking a deep breath. “And now with this, you’re allowing me to look at myself that way. Now I’m having an inner revelation inside of me, like, ‘Jade, you can really do this, you don’t have to just be the supporting role, the funny supporting character.’ In fact, you can do it.’”
Jade Jones as Belle in Beauty and the Beast at the Olney Theater Center
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It is also a powerful statement for the public. When the wave of COVID last December brought the production’s first run to an early end, it wasn’t long before the Olney Theater knew they had to bring it back. Ticket holders for the canceled performances approached with mounting disappointment, and the theater’s artistic director, Jason Loewith, suddenly had to field questions about the musical’s future. Jones found out that Beauty and the Beast would be remounted about two weeks after the first one closed.
“The fact that a lot of people didn’t get to see it the first time is the main reason I wanted to come back for this cut,” shares Jones. “It was very important to Evan and I to go back and give other people a chance to see this story. We are a regional theater in Maryland, and it lasted about a month and a half. People didn’t really get a chance to say, ‘Okay, let me use the computer and get a ticket and go to Maryland. This time, Beauty and the Beast lasts for two months.
To most of today’s audiences, all the heroines and princesses in children’s stories were white, thin, unnaturally proportioned, and traditionally feminine. “We know Belle as a skinny white girl,” says Jones. That is why they more often identified with male characters like Aladdin and Simba.
It wasn’t until working on the Olney production that Jones was able to figure out how they can relate to Belle. “In the text, you see how she fires Gaston and doesn’t really give a shit about anyone except her dad,” Jones explains. “She has a tough exterior. She is her father’s protection, her family’s protection. She stays true to her values, the conviction she carries about what she believes to be right. And her being a teacher, but also opening up and being vulnerable. She is willing to learn, willing to step into a world she knows nothing about.” And it’s those characteristics, often underappreciated in other performances, that Jones amplifies.
Bobby Smith as Lumiere, Jade Jones as Belle and Company from Beauty and the Beast at the Olney Theater Center
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That edge that Jones sees in Bella is also communicated to the audience through Ivania Stack’s wardrobe. Jones spends the first act in blue overalls and red Doc Marten boots. Jones is clearly a fan of the outfit, calling it “fierce” and commenting offhand, “She’s wearing this half sleeve now, which is kind of silly because she got in a big fight.”
And then comes the shift to vulnerability that Jones also sees in Belle. In the second act, “she comes out in this pink dress that Madame gave her. And it’s so sexy and so beautiful. Oh my gosh, it’s amazing and, like, pink is Jade’s least favorite color,” Jones shares. “But it’s such a beautiful, soft moment. She, for the first time, cares about how she looks.” Jones begins to pretend to nervously preen while pretending to refine her appearance. “’She says, ‘I don’t want to wear this dress, but do I look good?’ It’s very smooth.”
It’s surprising to hear Jones talk about this moment as the one where Bella starts to worry about her appearance. Other characters in the musical often comment on Belle’s beauty, but Jones’s Belle pays no attention to the comments, until Belle dons the pink dress and allows herself to be vulnerable. It’s a moment that meant a lot to Jones: “As a non-binary artist, I had to get in touch with a more feminine side that I kind of pushed away.”
While playing Bella has given Jones the opportunity to explore her femininity, it has opened doors for her on the other side of the gender spectrum. “I’ve been getting a lot of calls for male hosting roles, which is great,” says Jones, a genuine smile on her face.
Jade Jones and Evan Ruggiero in Beauty and the Beast
Teresa Castracane Photography
But the moment they look forward to the most every night? Emerging from the double doors with the princely Beast, played by Evan Ruggiero, while the song “Beauty and the Beast” is sung. Jones isn’t the only barrier-breaking cast member; Ruggiero has a prosthesis because he lost part of his leg to cancer as a teenager. “In the show, I end up in a ball gown, which has a purple base and gold detailing, and he ends up in his prince costume with his one prosthetic leg exposed. And he is so beautiful,” says Jones. “Every night when they open the double doors, the first thing you see is us in our prince and princess costumes, but also us as humans. It’s a powerful image, and I see people in the audience with their mouths open and their hands on their chests, and I’m like, ‘Let’s give it to them.
For Jones, that pacing in the show captures the humanities of the characters. It reflects what the Beauty and the Beast team feels people often miss about their main characters: they’re not perfect archetypes, they’re people anyone should be able to relate to. “I want to set the record straight: these are two outsiders,” Jones says emphatically. “It’s not just that a pretty girl and a beast fall in love, and then become a prince and princess. Thats not all. There’s a whole arc to these two characters.”
Source: news.google.com