A tale as old as time continued its enchantments around the world at the school this past week.

The production of “Beauty and the Beast” said called “eye candy” and “cost a small fortune” according to David Hastings, theater teacher.

Costumes were rented from the Kansas City Costume Company and the theater even flew in professionals from Las Vegas, NV to help make characters fly throughout the auditorium, further elaborating the technique and overall experience of the show.

Cast members also loved the costumes, although Grace Strong, senior, who played Belle, said that she did not like her shoes, saying that “they hurt [her] feet.” John Dawkins, senior, who played the Beast, loved his headpiece and Ethan Christiansen, senior, played LeFou, said that his favorite part of his costume was his wig, saying that “it’s absolutely stunning.”

Every day from 3:15 to 5:45 the cast practiced at school preparing for the big show. Practices were filled with blocking out the scenes, running the show from where they left off previously, and “making the chemistry correct” according to Dawkins.

One of the hardest aspects of the show, Hastings said, was melding all of the different experience levels together. The show was filled with some students who had never previously been in a theater class in high school and students who are in Advanced Repertory Theater class, the highest theater course offered at the school.

Strong, who played the lead role as Belle, was one of the students who had never been in a theater class in high school before. She said that because of this the production was “a lot of work, but lots of fun.”

The only parts of the show that cast members would have changed about the show was that they wanted to have rehearsals over winter break to keep the content fresh in their heads and starting to work with microphones earlier to get used to them.

Favorite scenes of the musical were singing with the pit and seeing how far the cast had come. Christiansen also loved “seeing the amount of work put in” by everyone involved.

Seeing how characters and the cast had evolved was also a favorite of those interviewed. Strong also loved “getting to turn Belle into [her] own personal character.”

Dawkins also liked being “super dynamic” with the Beast and seeing “the change from act one to [act] two.”

Overall, the school’s production of “Beauty and the Beast” invited audience members to continue being their guests.