In real time, a half-second isn’t all that long – roughly the amount of time it takes to swallow – but, on stage, it’s surprising how long it can feel.

As Belle, the heroine of the Quad City Music Guild’s Beauty & the Beast, Jenny Winn is a complete cartoon, and I mean that in the best way possible. It’s generally thrilling when performers deviate from the expectations associated with a well-known character, but playing a role exactly the way an audience expects it to be played has its own rewards, and in Beauty & the Beast, Winn gives such a flawless approximation of a living-and-breathing animated figure that you might find it impossible not to stare at her with a big, goofy grin plastered on your face.