Creating a cursed prince
Makeup artist’s wizardy prepares actor for CLO’s ‘Beauty and the Beast’
It takes two to make a Beast.
In the Pittsburgh CLO stage production of the Disney musical “Beauty and the Beast,” the two are actor James Snyder and wig master and makeup artist Jeff Knaggs.
The pair worked together last season, when Mr. Snyder needed some dye and a haircut to play a young Elvis Presley for “Million Dollar Quartet.” There’s a lot more to becoming the Beast, a role Mr. Snyder has played before — last year in Sacramento, with his CLO Belle, Jessica Grove, as his co-star. In that previous incarnation, he wore a mouthpiece with fangs and recalled a moment onstage when he had opened wide to hit a big note and then closed his mouth on the tooth.
There will be no false teeth here — makeup will do the trick instead. The actor is thankful for that, particularly when it comes to singing the Beast’s big actone finale, “If I Can’t Love Her.” In his previous makeup, the Beast was “a little drooly.” For CLO, the worry is mostly sweating under a big wig and bright lights.
The prosthetics applied by Mr. Knaggs include a glued-on browand-nose piece that has air holes for breathing, a beard that would be the envy of ZZ Top and a headpiece with flowing locks and curled horns that Mr. Snyder declared more comfortable than his previous wig.
His two microphones — there’s always a second one in case of a malfunction — will be inside his beard.
Mr. Knaggs has done this before, including Broadway and touring productions of “Disney’s Beauty and the Beast,” and the actor has played the role previously, so they chatted away easily during the process.
Mr. Snyder arrived in his dressing room with facial hair and the two men discussed whether he could keep it, but that idea was nixed, having less to do with the gluedon prosthetics and more because of (spoiler alert) the transformation from Beast to a prince.
“Has there ever been a Disney prince with facial hair?” Mr. Snyder wondered aloud. He settled on Flynn Rider, the animated character who has chin hair when he meets Rapunzel in “Tangled.” Then, it was recalled that Rider wasn’t a prince.
Mr. Snyder grabbed an electric razor and shaved on the spot.
It took about a halfhour for the complete neck-up application of prosthetics and makeup — and all of it has to come off in about five minutes, when the curse is broken and the Beast looks a lot more like James Snyder.
The pair would not reveal how that magical moment takes shape on stage, half joking about signing an NDA to not give up the tricks of the stage.
When the Beast returns to his human form, there’s another wig for Mr. Snyder to wear. It’s got a bit of a mullet going on, which inspired Mr. Snyder to launch into a Hall and Oates song for an Instagram post.
When the transformation from actor to Beast was completed Wednesday afternoon, Mr. Snyder began to grit his teeth and act beastly for the mirror in his dressing room, getting ready for sending some scary and sexy vibes to the back row of the Benedum Center.
Pittsburgh CLO last performed “Disney’s Beauty and the Beast” as its summer season family show in 2006.