Briefly in datebook

Cast of ‘Beauty and the Beast’ announced

Casting has been completed for the Costa Mesa premiere of Disney’s

musical “Beauty and the Beast,” which will run from July 11 to 23 at the

Orange County Performing Arts Center.

The Tony Award-winning Broadway musical--about a young woman who

transforms a beast back to a prince by teaching him how to love and be

loved by others--features the Academy Award-winning score from the

animated Disney film.

Susan Owen will star as Belle, the courageous and strong-willed beauty

who makes a new life for herself in the Beast’s castle. Owen is

well-known for her portrayal as Christine in the Broadway and national

tour of “The Phantom of Opera.”

Grant Norman, who starred in the title role in “The Phantom” on its

national tour and in London, will portray the Beast.

Chris Hoch, who recently appeared in New York’s City Center in “Babes in

Arms” and “Ziegfeld Follies of 1936,” will have the role of Gaston, the

man determined to make Belle his wife.

Tickets are $21 to $61 and are on sale at the center box office, 600 Town

Center Drive, Costa Mesa, and at TicketMaster. Call (714) 740-7878 or

(213) 365-3500.

Tickets may also be purchased online at o7 www.ocpac.orgf7 .

‘Little Prince’ to be staged at OCC

Antoine de Saint-Exupery’s “The Little Prince” will be performed by

Orange Coast College’s Children’s Theatre Company.

The show, which was adapted by Rick Cummins and John Scoullar and will be

directed by OCC theater professor Rick Golson, is about an aviator who

meets a little boy while stranded in the Sahara Desert and a magical

world reveals itself.

The production will run July 12 to 22 in the Robert B. Moore Theatre.

Performances will be at 10 a.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays, 10 a.m. and 7

p.m. Fridays, and 2 and 7 p.m. Saturdays.

Admission is $7; advanced tickets are $5 and may be purchased through

OCC’s Community Education Office. OCC is at 2701 Fairview Road, Costa

Mesa.

Information: (714) 432-5880.

Burnett, von Stade and Argyros to perform

Actress and comedienne Carol Burnett and world-renowned opera singer

Frederica von Stade will perform “Broadway Meets the Met,” a special

concert with the William Hall Master Chorale, at 8 p.m. Saturday.

It will be presented in the Orange County Performing Arts Center’s

Segerstrom Hall.

Burnett and Stade will perform selections from “Carmen,” “Indomeneo,”

“Porgy and Bess,” “Prince Igor” and other classics. Newport Beach’s Judie

Argyros will also contribute to the evening’s entertainment by performing

a Broadway melody.

Tickets are $25 to $65 and may be purchased at the center box office, 600

Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa, or by calling the William Hall Master

Chorale office at (714) 556-6262.