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The truly luminous Isabelle Bushue as Belle, who captures Scrooge’s heart and captivates audiences in each of her scenes.
Bushue’s teenage Juliet is in full bloom. She catches the light and draws the eye. No wonder Romeo climbs gates and scales walls for her.
Isabelle Bushue matches Castille’s energy as Juliet, elegantly making the heroine’s lines her own, even though they are some of the most familiar sentences in dramatic literature. The actress also brings a carefree, even silly youthfulness to the role that embraces Juliet’s naivete. With that innocence is real joy, most clearly on display in a gorgeous moment that marks the end of the first half of the performance. Bushue’s initial exuberance as Juliet makes her quieter romantic moments and her final desperation stand out even more
Yet there are bright spots, namely Isabelle Bushue as littlest sister Margaret, a budding naturalist who steals nearly every scene she’s in. Believably childlike without condescending to her character, she makes Margaret a smart kid with a curiosity bigger than the world will allow.
Even precocious young Margaret (played by the scene-stealing Isabelle Bushue) can tell when her much older siblings need a hug, although most of her attention seems to focus on the bugs, fish, and feathers she collects and studies as an aspiring naturalist.
Bushue’s interjections and great comic timing punctuate many of the scenes, along with one-liners and sight gags performed by most of the minor characters.
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A Christmas Carol at Children’s Theater of Madison
as Belle
December 6th-22nd, 2024
Where: Overture Center for the Arts
Directed by Brian Cowing
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A two-person musical
Written and performed by Isabelle Bushue and Jackson Pelz
Plant: The Musical is a tale of a young boy who has lost contact with his mystic mother and is forced to live underground, abandoning the academic regime of his intellectual father, a man too smart for his own enlightenment. The boy undergoes training and experimentation of his mind, body, and soul in order to try and solve every single problem in the world.
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