Did You Hear About Beauty & The Beast On Broadway?

Archie and his wife had enjoyed the Disney animated film "Beauty and the Beast". It had become sort of a running joke that it was descriptive of us, she is a beauty and he---. When Disney decided to create a Broadway musical out of the story, they were excited to learn that they would open the show in Houston before taking it to Broadway. They bought tickets to the first ever performance and were blown away by it. It was a wonderful evening.


They were in D.C. the day of the 9/11 attacks, on a family vacation. On their way home they saw an appeal by the shows on Broadway not to let the terrorist win. They determined that the shows must go on and plead for folks to attend. Our 35th anniversary was coming up the next March, and Arch determined he would surprise his bride with a weekend in New York and a night at the play.


In October of 01 Archie Brown had already made travel arrangements, hotel arrangements and bought tickets on the 5th row center to see Beauty & the Beast on Broadway. But he kept it a secret through the Christmas season.


In January of 02, Disney released the film in IMAX form and it had a run in Houston. They made plans to see it, his wife and Arch and thier kids, their kids, his wife's mom and one of his wife's friends from work. They did not make reservations, and when they got to the theater, it was sold out. They left, and as they were leaving the parking lot, Archie's wife was telling everyone how she had really hoped to see it, and how fun it had been to see the Broadway version. Archie asked her if she would like to see again, and she said yes. So Arch reached in his coat pocket and pulled out our tickets for March in New York. She squealed like a little girl.

Archie had pulled off the surprise and become a prince!

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