Houston’s Ultimate Beauty and the Beast Party: This Royal Lunch Transforms a Bayou City Club Into a Gilded Palace

This was a Beauty and the Beast party like no other for not only were Belle and her Prince on hand but moms, dads and kiddos sat down to a royal lunch in the Hobby Center Founder’s Club which had been magnificently transformed into Belle’s gilded palace. All was in advance of  Theatre Under the Stars‘ presentation of the beloved Disney musical.

TUTS, PaperCity magazine and Children’s Memorial Hermann Hospital teamed up for the magical midday affair that saw youngsters testing their strength at the Strong Like Gaston station, lining up for air brush tattoos, and participating in the Child Life & Expressive Therapies station where they worked on Get Well cards and letters to Santa. Young ladies in the group had their locks transformed at the Belle Braid Station. Between lunch and the performance, the youths sat down for story time with the enchanting Belle.

The fun for all had its underlying message — CMHH and TUTS announced an expansion of their partnership in launching a new Arts & Medicine program geared to pediatric patients. The collaboration between the CMHH Child Life & Expressive Therapies and TUTS staff will be directed toward helping patients cope with their hospitalization.

The festive fête was chaired by Christine Falgout, Melissa Juneau and Rachel Regan, each with youngsters in tow. They were joined by CMHH CEO Susie Distefano and TUTS executive director Hillary Hart in the pre-show presentation.

After the performance, the throng visited backstage and secured autographs from the Beauty and the Beast stars.

PC Seen: Executive vice president and CFO of the Memorial Hermann Health System Brian Dean with his wife, Michelle, and daughters Amelia and Elyn; plus Beth and Nick Zdeblick, Mary Hoang, Kim Moody, Lauren Gow, Anne Carl, Tracy and Andy Hull, Anat and Jay Zeidman, Stephanie and Ryan Fleck, Lori Sarofim, Megan Hotze and Dr. Jannika Dodge-Khatami.