Beauty and the Box Springs

Disney's Beauty and the Beast Broadway musical will perform at the Tulsa Performing Arts Center Thursday-Sunday March 3-6 as part of Celebrity Attraction's 2010-2011 season. It has been 15 years since the musical first debuted on Broadway. During its original run Beauty and the Beast played for 35 million people in 21 countries.

The musical's original design team is back together led by original director, Rob Roth.

"As a director, it is rare to have the opportunity to revisit your work 15 years later," he said. "Hopefully I've grown and developed as an artist, along with my collaborators."

The beloved songs, lavish costumes and delightful characters will certainly win over audiences of all ages.

Also staging this week is Once Upon a Mattress, the hilarious, musical retelling of the classic children's fairy tale, The Princess and the Pea. The musical will be performed by Tulsa Community College's theater department at the VanTrease Performing Arts Center for Education, 10300 E 81st St. Performances are Thursday-Friday, March 3-5.

Queen Aggravain has made a declaration to her kingdom: no one can be married until her son, Prince Dauntless, has found a princess to be his wife.

Unwilling to lose her son to his future wife, the Queen sabotages every princess that Prince Dauntless shows any interest in marrying by forcing each princess to complete a series of impossible tests.

This kingdom-wide ban on marriage is frustrating to the townspeople, particularly courtiers Lady Larkin and Sir Harry. Larkin has recently discovered she is pregnant with Harry's child and the couple decides they must find a princess for Prince Dauntless to marry before her pregnancy is obvious.

Complicating matters is King Sextimus, who has been cursed and cannot speak a word to prevent his wife from driving the kingdom into a state of sexual repression.

The musical was originally written in 1959 and starred Carol Burnett in her breakout performance as Princess Winifred. The clever dialogue and hilarious plot has made the musical a mainstay for audiences throughout the years.

TCC has made Matress its own with a Vaudeville theme, an idea by director Lisa Stefanic, who pushes the envelope of the musical's comedic potential. With a Vaudeville twist, for example, the mute King Sextimus becomes a slapstick mime, played by Tulsa actor and TCC teacher, Jim Runyan.

TCC's theater department presents a full-scale musical of this nature once every two years. The process both provides the community with an entertaining musical production and serves as a theater-mentoring program for TCC students. All students involved in the production work alongside professional set designers, musicians, actors, light technicians and costume designers. The students learn the ins and outs of the profession and gain valuable insight into the world of theater.

Big Beast. It has been 15 years since Beauty and the Beast first debuted on Broadway. During its original run Beauty and the Beast played for 35 million people in 21 countries.

Mattress was originally scheduled to open on Feb. 25 but the debut was postponed due to the February blizzard.

"We lost a whole week of rehearsal, set building, painting, costumes and props," Stefanic said. "It was pretty detrimental."

With opening night drawing near the cast and crew have been working seven nights to prepare.

Also this week:

Choregus Productions presents So Percussion, a show-stopping percussion quartet from Brooklyn, N.Y. March 8 at 7:30pm, in the Cassia Hall Performing Arts Center, 2520 S. Yorktown Ave. For tickets and information, call 918-295-5965 or visit choregus.org.

Living Arts presents Dreams Dammed, in which choreographer Erin Dudley presents an evening of surreal dance that explores beauty, love and restraint within the limiting societal definitions of eroticism. The show is Friday and Saturday, March 4-5 at 8pm, at the Tulsa PAC, 110 E. 2nd St. For tickets and information, call 918-585-1234 or visit livingarts.org.

Oral Roberts University presents Lucky Stiff, an offbeat, and hilarious murder mystery farce. The show stages Sunday, March 6 at 2pm, in the Howard Auditorium, 7777 S. Lewis Ave. For tickets and information, call 918-495-6518 or visit oru.edu.

American Theatre Company presents Speech and Debate, which follows three teenage misfits in Oregon who discover they are linked by a scandal. The show stages Thursday and Friday, March 4-5 and March 9-13 at 8pm; March 6 at 2pm, at the Tulsa PAC, 110 E. 2nd St. For tickets and information, call 918-747-9494 or visit americantheatrecompany.org.

Broken Arrow Performing Arts Center presents Spencer's Theatre of Illustion, A spectacular production filled with magic and mystery. The show stages Thursday, March 4 at 7:30pm at the Broken Arrow Performing Arts Center, 701 S Main St. For tickets and information, call 918-259-5778 or visit thepacba.com.

Tulsa Oratorio Chorus presents Vespers, Rachmaninoff's a cappella choral masterpiece, Sunday, March 6 at 2:30pm at the Trinity Episcopal Church, 501 S. Cincinati Ave. For tickets and information, call 918-728-8600 or visit toconline.org.

University of Tulsa Department of Theatre and Musical Theatre presents Hay Fever, entertaining home theatricals of the Bliss family escalates during a weekend of mistaken invitation, interludes and exposed secrets. The play stages Thursday-Saturday, March 3-5 at 8pm; Sunday, March 6 at 2pm at the Chapman Theatre, 800 S. Tucker Dr. For tickets and information, call 918-631-2567 or visit utulsa.edu.