Theatre Central’s “Beauty and The Beast” sold out all tickets that were allotted on May 1 with consistent sales throughout the weekend, Theatre Central sponsor Susie Johnson said. 

Three performances were held from April 29 to May 1 after the cast rehearsed for three months. The show was Johnson’s third musical at Naperville Central and the first without mask restrictions since spring of 2020. 

“This my third musical but from what I hear, we’ve never actually sold out,” Johnson said. “We had big crowds for “Mamma Mia” and other shows in the past have had big crowds. But this was just certainly noticeably popular within the community in terms of the turnout.”

To capitalize on the popularity of the beloved Disney characters, this year the cast also held a meet-and-greet after Sunday’s final performance, which allowed audience to take pictures with cast members in costume. 

“It became a team effort and some mom volunteers got together to set it up in the black box theater,” Johnson said. “[Dean of Student Activities] Lynne Nolan helped us pull out backdrops from old school events so each pair of main characters had their own setting that fit who they were. The kids circulated through and were able to talk to the 10 different main characters and take a picture if they wanted.”

Quinn Hurley, who played Monsieur D’Arque said he was proud of the hard work put in by the rest of the cast members. 

“We were able to show off how we spent our time,” Johnson said. “You can see the best improvements from the people in the leads such as Natalie Brodnick, John Penny and Jake Howard who took time out of their days and made this thing not only for them but for the whole cast as well.”