Morgana´s First Musical in Madrid

When I lived in London,I always wanted to go and see a musical, but either neither had the time or couldn´t find anyone to go with. So in my last few months in London, I got the chance to see 2. Mary Poppins and We Will Rock You. But there was 1 musical I wanted to watch when I was younger and when it was showing in the UK. But even more in Madrid. especially because of the lead characters of the musical. Beauty and the Beast.

Beauty and the Beast has always been my favourite story, because it´s about seeing people for who they really are on the inside rather than what they are on the outside and sometimes It´s OK to be different.

I was lucky enough to get as copy of a video someone made of the performance of Beauty of the Beast in Madrid with Carlos Marin a baritone with a voice that is just amazing and who is now makes a quarter of IL DIVO. I was not surprised that he played the role of the beast and even luckier for me this performance also has his lovely bride who also has an outstanding voice Geraldine Larossa also known as Innocence with the role of Belle. She was a temp for 2 months but hey even though the quality of this video isn´t good the sound is fantastic.

I wanted to watch it Live and so when I saw that It was on Teatro Coliseum in Madrid, I thought to myself I have to experience it live.

One day when I was out with my good friend Mia and Silvia , we were looking at the cast and one guy caught my eye. I Knew who he was, I had seen him before 7 months before in the Haagen Dazs theatre in Madrid. I quickly told Mia "Oh My God! Look it's Alex!"

Alex Arce Tula, let me explain is an incredible performer. He was part of the dance team Innocence had on stage at her concerts and in her music video and at her concerts he has a 3 minute stint with his brother Sergio doing an Acrobatic routine which was incredible. You were liturally left thinking to yourself "How the heck are hey doing that?" That aside Mia and I were curious to see what role Alex had in the musical.

Later that day we took the decision to get the cheapest tickets on offer and watch the show. And it was well the best decision we ever made. It was different to the casting of 2000 obviously, perhaps they had to change it on the grounds that no one broke a leg liturally. We were scanning through the programme and looking at the profiles of the characters and caught the making of the musical on the screens. pointing out to Alex everytime we saw him and Raul Peña who we met after Innocence´s first concert. I didn´t know who he was but my friend Vivi almost passed out at seeing him. Raul is a funny guy, what made us laugh was his transformation into the character Lefou.

OK the show was incredible. the experience of watching it, energy the singing. Sorry it is so hard not to compare the Beast of now David Ordinas who also has an amazing voice to when Carlos when he was the beast. I mean no one has that rumble in their voice when they sing or can say the comment "Entonces Muere De haaaaaaaaaambbre!" like carlos does but hey I liked David but my faves were Pablo Puyol who plays Gaston, he was outstanding, I liked him... Lefou of course played by Raul Peña who I Can understand why my friend likes him. Lumiere played bt Armando Pita and of course Alex who had two roles Felpudo where he had to sing as well as act and dance and let me tell you he has a big voice for a little guy, incredible and even more incredible was his other role. He was a carpet.

Now we were sitting very far from the stage but we could tell it was him when he was doing the back flips and leaping. Anyone who has seen Innocence in Concert when She´s singing Naturaleza Muerta towards the end can see Alex leap over well another dancer. infact when I was visiting my friend Vivien in Oxford who also has a copy of the Beauty and the Beast with Carlos and Geraldine I made a comment about the guy playing the carpet by saying Alex would make a great carpet. By then I had forgotten he was in this years' production.

Of course for me there was tears. The show proved to be emotional for me, epscially the part where Belle and the Beast are reading in the Library and she tells him that people think she´s strange because she is different. Something that rang a bell with me. I waslucky I had Mia with me at the time and we did laugh when Belle was reading the story of King Authur because we have both read The Mists Of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley.

Julia Moller plays Belle beautifully, and the scene in the Tavern with Gaston, Lefou, Alex and everyone else looked like so much fun, we wanted to join in too.

After the show, it was raining cats and dogs but, we wanted to meet Alex and tell him he was great. we waited for a while and one by one the production left the artists door. we must have looked a little bit nuts, 2 women under an unbrella la la la-ing until we saw a little guy run out. It was Alex, I called him over and well we were talking to him. he is one of the nicest guys you will ever meet and he said he remembered us from September 2007. OK I was starting to blush and I was a little nervous around him but he was lovely. I told him that he had a 14 year old fan in Holland who loves him and if he could sign a programme for her and also one for my friend Virginie who he remembers very well. we got chatting and we told him he was great as the character he was in the musical and in September. I chickened out from asking him something else so instead I asked him how his brother was. We took photos and my fave one is of the 3 of us together, me, him and Mia which you can see. After saying our goodbyes we went home.

My nick name for both him and His brother is Dulce De Leche, for the obvious.... Although I haven´t met Sergio, his face says he´s very sweet too and yes they are Argentine as well other wise i´d call them something else.

Of all the musicals in Madrid I wanted to see first, La Bella Y la Bestia wins everytime. I would reccomend it to anyone to go and watch it. If you want magic, if you want romance, if you want fun and energy, watch this show.