Disney's Beauty and the Beast presents a "tale as old as time" at the tail end of March when the award-winning musical comes to Chicago. Ensemble member and local talent Anthony Fett returns to Chicago to shake it like a pepper shaker.
Windy City Times: Hi, Anthony. You are originally from Chicago?
Anthony Fett: That's right, born and bred—Ravenswood.
WCT: Did you go to school here?
Anthony Fett: Yes, I went to Franklin Fine Arts for middle school and Whitney Young for high school. I was in the Chicago Children's Choir for 12 years, which was a big start to my training. I moved to the East Coast for college. I had a major in musical theater at The Hart School in Hartford, Conn.
WCT: You did perform local theater here as well?
Anthony Fett: I worked with the Bohemian Theatre Ensemble. I was very fortunate to do their first musical The Wild Party. This was in 2005.
WCT: What led you to audition for Beauty and the Beast?
Anthony Fett: I needed a job like everyone. I had just gotten off tour from Bye Bye Birdie, literally the same day I went to my first audition for Beauty. The casting director had sent an e-mail to all of us on the road and asked us to audition. I learned a combination of several counts of 8 and kicked for Jesus! Here I am months later, kicking still.
WCT: And now you are a pepper shaker. [ Laughs ]
Anthony Fett: Exactly. I kick with a hat now. I have gold pants that were made for me by Ann Hould-Ward. God bless her—she designs the most luxurious things that you could put on your body every day and call it your work uniform.
WCT: Tell our readers about the show.
Anthony Fett: It is one of the shows that you have to see it live. All those emotional associations that you might not even realize that you have to the film start to bubble to the surface. I don't think the audience anticipates the emotional impact that the story will have on them. It is such a moving story. They just love it. You can really feel them responding.
You know the story. It's a beautiful girl who is looking for adventure [ singing ] "in the great wide somewhere." She stumbles upon a beast, and the rest is history.
WCT; Well, it is a sweet story.
Anthony Fett: It's funny, because you get critics of Broadway who get stuffy about Disney, but this score is just beautiful. These musicians are in the pit playing two or three instruments at a time. We have a reed player who is juggling three instruments during one song.
WCT: I interviewed the woman who sang the part of Belle in the cartoon.
Anthony Fett: Paige O' Hara? Oh, she is all over the DVD when I was researching it. She looks like the character.
WCT: She is great. Are there new songs as well as the Disney classics?
Anthony Fett: It is almost all of the songs that you know. There is an additional song or two that was written for the Broadway stage show in 1994. One was written as a showpiece for Toni Braxton but has become ours for Belle, sang by Liz Shivener. This girl knocks it out of the park every time. That is my favorite part when she sings "A Change in Me" in act two. You get a diva and put her center stage, it's gonna work.
WCT: You are hosting a cabaret at Sidetrack [ 3349 N. Halsted ] ?
Anthony Fett: Yes, we are. It's called Magical Musical Monday and is on March 29 at Sidetrack. It is a benefit for Season of Concern. The cast of Beauty and the Beast really wanted to raise money and awareness so any chance to get up and sing a show tune we will do. I love at this point in my life that I can give back to the city of Chicago and my hometown.
Disney's Beauty and the Beast will be inviting you to be their guest at the Cadillac Palace Theatre, 151 W. Randolph, through April 4. Visit www.BeautyAndTheBeastOnTour.com or www.BroadwayInChicago.com .
