Myself, my mother and my daughter attended the Saturday February 14 matinee show of Beauty and the Beast. We were in the third balcony and could see the stage just fine. The only problem was, that during the first 1/2 of the show, we could hardly hear any of the character monologues. When they sang, we could make out the words and the voices carried, but when they were speaking, it was a strain, at best, to make out what they were saying. It may have been due to the pit orchestra being too loud, or, and most likely, that the actors should have been miced or the auditorium speaker volume turned up so the voices could be heard over all of the restless people, the coughing, the crying and talking children. This should be taken into account when there is a kid-friendly show, as they are not a silent and sitting still captive audience. By the second half, it seemed better. Or, maybe I was used to straining to hear the dialogue? The costumes and dance numbers were wonderful and the characters sounded surprisingly like the original characters. I wondered how they would get Chip involved and the tea cart was a great idea. Overall, we enjoyed the show.