YEAR nine students from Catholic College Bendigo impressed the audience on Wednesday night with the opening night of Disney's Beauty and the Beast at The Capital theatre.
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In front of a full house of 400, students performed the whimsical Disney classic.
Director Lisa Darlow said her students "gave it everything".
"They really just blew everyone away," Ms Darlow said.
The show has been seven months in the making with rehearsals beginning at start of the school year.
"Beauty and Beast is a really challenging musical, it's a very professional musical. The songs are quite complex. That's been difficult for a group of students most of whom have never sung in public before," Ms Darlow said.
Over seven months the production has involved 198 year nine students with 156 on stage and others doing back stage duties, makeup, sewing costumes, front of house and set construction.
"We try to get as many year nine students involved as possible," Ms Darlow said.
She said one of the biggest challenges for performers was learning complex melodies and harmonies.
"The great thing about our kids is they take it in their stride, they’ve been really supportive of each other."
Ms Darlow said the students had a lot of fun creating their characters.
She mentioned one student in particular who was playing Lumiere, a talking candlestick with a French accent.
To master a convincing accent, Joseph Gallagher received help from a native French teacher at the school until his accent became second nature.
The show has sold out for all three performances this week.