BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (MUSICAL)

'''Beauty and the Beast''' is a musical with music by Alan Menken, lyrics by Howard Ashman and Tim Rice and a book by Linda Woolverton, based on the 1991 Disney film of the same name. The musical ran on Broadway for 5,464 performances between 1994 and 2007, becoming Broadway's sixth-longest running production.^[1] The production holds the record of being the longest running production at both the Palace Theatre, where it opened, and the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, where it closed its Broadway run. The musical has enjoyed numerous productions throughout the world.
Produced by Disney Theatrical, a fully owned subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company, the show debuted on Broadway three years after the release of the movie.

Contents

Background

Production history

Plot summary

Musical numbers

Act I

Act II

Broadway Cast

Design elements

Critical response

Recording

Awards and nominations

Links to performances

References

External links

Background

The idea for the show evolved from a popular 25 minute-long Broadway-style performance of the film at Disneyland which opened in 1992 and a similar show at the Disney-MGM Studios theme park which opened concurrently with the film in 1991.
Ron Logan, former head of Disney Theatricals and Disney Entertainment worldwide, told Jeffrey Katzenberg that ''Beauty and the Beast'' should be made into a Broadway musical. Intially disagreeing, Katzenberg relented after a Frank Rich ''New York Times'' article noting that ''Beauty'' would have won a Tony if it had been on Broadway. Contacted by then-head of Disney Michael Eisner, Logan presented his ideas, and the project was set.^[2]
According to an article in ''The Houston Chronicle'', written by Everett Evans, "TUTS executive director Frank Young had been trying to get Disney interested in a stage version of Beauty about the same time Eisner and Katzenberg were mulling over [Frank] Rich's column. But Young couldn't seem to get in touch with the right person in the Disney empire. Nothing happened till the Disney execs started to pursue the project from their end.
When they asked George Ives, the head of Actors Equity on the West Coast, which Los Angeles theater would be the best venue for launching a new musical, Ives said the best theater for that purpose would be TUTS. Not long after that, Disney's Don Frantz and Bettina Buckley contacted Young, and the partnership was under way."^[3]

Production history

The world premiere was at Houston's Theatre Under The Stars in November 1993. Directed by Robert Jess Roth with choreography by Matt West assisted by Dan Mojica, the original Broadway cast included Susan Egan as Belle, Terrence Mann as the Beast, and Burke Moses as Gaston.
The show opened on Broadway at the Palace Theatre on April 18 1994 and ran there until September 5 1999. The production moved to the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre on November 11 1999, with an official opening date of November 16 1999, and ran at that theatre until its final performance on July 29 2007. The show ran a total of 46 previews and 5,464 regular performances bringing the total number of performances to 5,510. The Broadway production closed to make way for Disney's next musical venture, ''The Little Mermaid'', which is scheduled to play at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre.^[4]
The West End production opened at London's Dominion Theatre on April 29 1997 and closed on December 11 1999. Featured were Julie Alanah Brighton as "Belle", Alasdair Harvey as the "Beast", and Burke Moses as "Gaston". ^[5] The show won the Olivier Award as Best New Musical for 1998. ^[6]
The musical is being performed, as of August 2007, in Helsinki, Finland, Madrid, Spain, Port of Spain, Trinidad, and Berlin, Germany. It has also been performed in Melbourne, Sydney, Wellington, Tokyo, Mexico City, Buenos Aires, Madrid, Antwerp, Seoul, Port of Spain, Milan, Paris, São Paulo, Beijing, Manila, Tel Aviv (Israeli model Yael Bar Zohar made her stage debut as Belle in this production), Toronto, Stuttgart, Berlin, and Vienna, among other cities. The show is currently touring in the UK and the Netherlands. In recent years, Disney has begun to lease the performing rights to traveling theatrical companies, and the show has been performed throughout North America and Europe (although Disney has not allowed the show to be produced within 50 miles of New York City).
''Beauty and the Beast'' has been performed in 13 different languages: English, Finnish, Japanese, Mandarin, Spanish, Italian, Korean, French, Portuguese, German, Dutch, Hebrew and Danish.

Plot summary

;Act I
One cold winter's night, an ugly old woman stumbles up to a prince's castle. She begs the prince for shelter from the bitter cold, though she has only a single rose to give him as payment. Being selfish and heartless, the prince refuses her gift, simply because she is ugly. The old woman warns him that true beauty is within one's heart, not one's appearance. The prince refuses again and the woman reveals herself to be a powerful and beautiful enchantress. She sees there is no love in his heart and, as punishment to the cruel and selfish prince, transforms him into a beast. The servants in the castle are also transformed; they will slowly become tea cups, candles, items of furniture, and other household items. This spell can only be broken if the beast learns to love another and receives her love in return. However, this must happen before the last petal of the enchantress's rose withers and falls, or he will remain a beast forever. His only outlook on the outside world is a magic mirror that shows him anything he wants to see. As the years go by, the Beast falls into a depression, quickly becoming angry, as he wonders who could ever love a hideous monster. The rose wilts and the servants become more like objects, and the Beast becomes more hopeless.
The "beauty" of the title, a girl called Belle, lives with her father Maurice in a small provincial French village. The townspeople note Belle's beauty, but consider her odd because of her passion for books (''Belle''). Her beauty has attracted the attentions of the owner of the local tavern lout and hunter, Gaston. He tries to woo her, but Belle considers him 'rude and conceited', and ignores him as her father enters with his latest invention. Gaston, oblivious to Belle's indifference sends his sidekick, Lefou, out into the woods to kill a deer for his wedding feast.
Maurice is trying to make his seemingly crazy invention to work, when Belle asks him if he thinks she is odd. He tells her no and they sing of their devotion and love of each other ("No Matter What"'). After getting his invention to work, Maurice leaves and takes it with him to a fair outside the village. Belle gives him a scarf as a parting gift. As he is walking through the forest, he gets lost and wolves chase him. Maurice runs blindly through the woods and eventually comes to the Beast's castle. Lumiere, who is slowly turning into a candelabra, lets him into the castle, to the protestations of Cogsworth, the steward of the castle who is slowly turning into a clock. The servants of the castle, still in the process of becoming various household objects, look after him. Babette, who is turning into a feather duster, warms him up as Mrs. Potts, a kindly mother-figure slowly becoming a teapot, pours him some tea (her son, Chip, is the teacup.) The Beast enters angrily and has Maurice locked up as a prisoner for what he considers "trespassing".
Back in the village, Gaston gets ready to marry Belle. As she enters, she sees him and tries to run away, but he sees her and launches into his demeaning marriage proposal, ("Me"). She rejects him, leaving Gaston mystified. Belle re-enters, makes sure that Gaston is gone, and reaffirms her desire to travel and explore; to escape "this provincial life." ("Belle (Reprise)") Lefou appears, wearing Maurice's scarf. Belle, realizing her father must be in danger, asks Lefou for help, but after he refuses she sets out on her own to find him. She makes her way to the castle, where Cogsworth and Lumiere have been comforting each other about how many of the others are now lifeless, realizing they will be the next to go. When Belle enters the castle, all the servants see her and recognize their chance for the spell to be broken. Belle finds her father, and when the Beast will not let him go, she offers to take the place of her father as the Beast's prisoner forever. The Beast agrees and throws Maurice out, denying Belle the chance to say goodbye. Lumiere convinces the Beast to give Belle a nice room to stay in. He takes her there and demands that she joins him for dinner. She tries to accept her new situation ("Home"). Mrs. Potts enters with Chip and tries to cheer her up ("Home" Reprise). Belle also discovers Madame de la Grande Bouche, an opera diva who is slowley turning into a wardrobe. They try to prepare her for dinner, but she says she is not going.
In the village tavern, Gaston is feeling depressed because Belle turned him down. Lefou and the townspeople cheer him up, ("Gaston"). Maurice rushes in and tries to tell people in the town what has happened to Belle. The villagers, including Gaston, think him insane and rebuff him, so he decides to set off to get her back on his own. Gaston gets an idea and whispers it to Lefou ("Gaston" Reprise).
In the castle, Cogsworth has grown a winding handle over night which upsets him very much. This causes the objects to realize that they will all eventually become objects if the spell is never broken, adding to their desperation. The Beast arrives and demands to know where Belle is. When he discovers that she is not coming, he storms to her room demanding that she come to dinner. She continues to refuse, even after he says "please". He becomes extremely angry and decrees that if she does not eat with him, she does not eat at all. The servants mourn their diminishing chances at returning to normal, but refuse to give up after Mrs. Pott's encouragement. The Beast looks into his mirror in order to see Belle, and he sees her refusing to socialize with him. The rose then loses its first petal ("How Long Must This Go On?").
When Belle gets hungry, she ventures out into the castle, where she encounters the servants. She asks for dinner and is initially denied by Cogsworth, but the other servants eventually convince him to let her have dinner. During dinner they, and all the other inhabitants of the castle, entertain Belle with an elaborate cabaret show, ("Be Our Guest").
After dinner, she asks for a tour of the castle, led by Cogsworth. During the tour she slips away into the West Wing, the only part of the castle where the Beast said she could not go. In the West Wing, she sees the enchanted rose. As she moves to touch it, the Beast emerges furious and yells at her to get out. She tries to leave, but he grabs her hurting her in the process. Terrified, she runs out of the castle. The Beast, realizing his mistake, tries to apologize, but it is too late. Then a petal falls off the rose. This gives the Beast a smaller chance of ever breaking the horible spell. He now sees that the girl (Belle) will never see him as anything but a monster ("If I Can't Love Her").
;Act II
As Belle flees, she encounters wolves in the forest. The Beast then comes to her rescue fighting the wolves. Belle has a chance to escape, but she sees the Beast is seriously injured and returns him to the castle. The objects are now being increasingly affected by the curse. Lumiere's hair has become a wax candle, Cogsworth's hair is now wood, Babette's feathers have grown longer and her head has grown a pole, Mrs. Potts is now stiffer than ever. In the castle Belle nurses the Beast to health, and he in turn gives her full reign of the castle library. The servants remark about the newfound friendship between the Beast and Belle, ("Something There"). As Belle reads Beast a book, she discovers that he cannot read and offers to teach him. She meekly asks for a second chance, if he will have dinner with her. He eagerly agrees. The inhabitants of the castle rejoice about soon turning back to their normal selves, ("Human Again").
Meanwhile, Gaston and Lefou are meeting with the head of the local insane asylum, Mounsier D'arque. Gaston asks D'arque to declare Maurice mad and lock him up, in order to blackmail Belle into marrying him, (''Le Maison de Lunes''). The three gentlemen drink upon their plan.
As the Beast is dressing up for dinner, he admits his fears that Belle may laugh at him when he tells her he loves her to Lumiere and Cogsworth. They bolster his courage by showing him how well he looks in his fine clothing. They also show him that only two petals remain on the rose. Belle arrives and they have a lovely dinner, and they dance afterwards, ("Beauty and the Beast"). After dinner, as the Beast is about to tell Belle he loves her, she mourns over not being able to see her father. Beast allows her to use the magic mirror to see him, and she sees that he is lost in the woods. Despite what he wants, the Beast lets her go to find him and gives her the magic mirror. Cogsworth, Mrs. Potts and Lumiere arrive to congratulate him on a wonderful evening, but are crestfallen when they find that he has let her go. Mrs. Potts remarks that he loves her, but the spell will not be broken until she loves him in return. Another petal falls, so that only one petal remains.
As Maurice and Belle arrive back home, Maurice questions Belle on how she escaped from the Beast. She tells him how the Beast let her go, and how her outlook on life has changed, (''A Change in Me''). As she finishes, a mob arrives to take Maurice away. As he is being dragged away, Gaston offers Belle the chance to free her father, if she marries him. She refuses. He grabs her and roughly kisses her on the lips. She pushes him away and slaps him. Belle, eager to prove her father sane, uses the mirror to show the villagers the Beast. This only frightens the villagers. Playing off their fear, Gaston convinces the mob that the Beast is a threat and menace to the community and leads the mob to the castle to pillage it and to kill the Beast ("Mob Song").
A battle ensues in which Lefou and most of the mob are fought and driven off by the enchanted artifacts of the castle. However Gaston reaches the West Wing, finds the Beast and begins to taunt and fight with him. By this point, the Beast is weakened and distraught by the belief that he will never see Belle again. Gaston provokes the Beast by exclaiming that Belle never cared for him, and that he plans on marrying Belle. A fight ensues, and the castle spins around while Beast and Gaston begin their confrontation on the roof.
Gaston beats the Beast, however the Beast strikes back in self defense leaving Gaston to dangle over the side of the castle. Gaston pleads for his life when suddenly Belle appears on the castle balcony and calls to the Beast. When the Beast sees Belle has come back, he realizes he can no longer harm someone. He tells Gaston to "Get out" and runs to Belle's open arms.
But suddenly, the cowardly Gaston stabs the Beast in the back with a dagger. The Beast, terribly hurt, stumbles backwards causing Gaston to lose his footing on the roof. With a loud "No, NO, NOOOOOOOOO!" Gaston plunges to his death.
The mortally wounded Beast falls into the arms of Belle who helps him back into the castle. While she assures him the everything will be alright, the Beast exclaims to Belle that that he can die happy because he was able to see her "one last time." With that the Beast lays his head on Belle's lap and passes away. A sobbing Belle, begs him not to leave her. She says "I love you" just as the final petal falls from the nearby encased enchanted rose.
Suddenly, sparks fall from the sky, and the Beast begins to levitate. With flashes of light and mysterious fog surrounding the Beast, he spins mid-air. As he twists and turns, his fur disappears, his horns and fangs shrink, and all the Beastly qualities melt away to reveal the dashing prince... who is now alive. Because Belle truly loved him, and he truly loved her, the spell was broken and the prince is human again.
At first Belle does not recognize him. However the prince asks her to "Look into my eyes" at which point Belle knows that her beloved lives. They fall into each others arms with one passionate kiss. All of the enchanted objects turn back to humans and the castle is restored to its beautiful glory.
Belle and the prince run off to her father, and are married. A "tale as old as time, song as old as rhyme", the Beauty and the Beast kiss again and live happily ever after.

Musical numbers

Act I

★ Overture - Orchestra

★ Prologue(The Enchantress)- Orchestra/(Pre-Recording)

★ Belle - Belle, Gaston, Lefou, Silly Girls and Townspeople (Ensemble)

★ No Matter What
★ - Mauruce And Belle

★ No Matter What (Reprise)/Wolf Chase
★ - Maurice

★ Me
★ - Gaston and Belle

★ Belle (Reprise) - Belle

★ Home
★ - Belle

★ Home (Reprise)
★ - Mrs. Potts

★ Gaston - Lefou, Gaston, Silly Girls and Tavern Patrons (Ensemble)

★ Gaston (Reprise) - Gaston and Lefou

★ How Long Must This Go On?
★ - Beast

★ Be Our Guest - Lumiere, Mrs. Potts, Cogsworth, Wardrobe, Chip, Babette and Enchanted Objects (Ensemble)

★ If I Can't Love Her
★ - Beast

Act II

★ Entr'acte/Wolf Chase - Orchestra

★ Something There - Belle, Beast, Lumiere, Mrs. Potts and Cogsworth

★ Human Again
★
★ - Lumiere, Wardrobe, Cogsworth, Mrs. Potts, Babette, Chip and Enchanted Objects (Ensemble)

★ Maison des Lunes
★ - Gaston, Lefou and Monsieur D'Arque

★ Beauty and the Beast - Mrs. Potts

★ If I Can't Love Her (Reprise)
★ - Beast

★ A Change in Me‡ - Belle

★ The Mob Song - Gaston, Lefou, Monsieur D'Arque and Townspeople (Ensemble)

★ The Battle - Belle, Beast, Gaston, Lefou, Monsieur D'Arque, Maurice, Lumiere, Cogsworth, Mrs. Potts, Chip, Wardrobe, Babette, Ensemble

★ Transformation - Beast and Belle

★ Beauty and the Beast (Reprise) - Belle, Beast, Gaston, Lefou, Monsieur D'Arque, Maurice, Lumiere, Cogsworth, Mrs. Potts, Chip, Wardrobe, Babette, Ensemble

★ Curtain Call- The Company and Orchestra



Notes: Alan Menken wrote the music for the original film and added new songs for the musical. Howard Ashman provided the lyrics for the film, and Tim Rice took over as lyricist for the new songs in the Broadway production after Ashman's death of AIDS in 1991. Portions of some of the show's most popular numbers – "Belle," "Something There," "Beauty and the Beast," "A Change in Me," and "Be Our Guest" – were included in Disney's 2004 touring musical revue ''On the Record''.

★ These songs written for the musical.

★
★ "Human Again" was originally written for, but eventually cut from the film. It was later animated and edited into the film for its 2002 IMAX and special edition DVD releases.
†The narration of the dialogue in the Prologue, instead of a live performance, is a recording played at the beginning of every production of the voice of David Ogden Stiers, who provided the voices of the Narrator and Cogsworth in the film.
‡"A Change in Me" was added in 1998 for Grammy Award-winning R&B singer Toni Braxton when she entered the role of Belle. The song has been included in all performances since. Broadway's original Belle Susan Egan covered the song on her 2002 album ''So Far...'' Ashley Brown, another former Belle, sang the song for the cast album of ''Disney's On the Record''.

Broadway Cast

;Original Broadway Cast

★ Beast - Terrence Mann

★ Belle - Susan Egan

★ Gaston - Burke Moses

★ Lumiere - Gary Beach

★ Cogsworth - Heath Lamberts

★ Maurice - Tom Bosley

★ Mrs. Potts - Beth Fowler (Fowler played the role for a total of seven years)

★ Babette - Stacey Logan

★ Madame de la Grande Bouche - Eleanor Glockner

★ Lefou - Kenny Raskin

★ Chip - Brian Press

★ Monsieur D'Arque - Gordon Stanley
'Notable Broadway cast replacements' (''approximate dates given where available'')^[7]4

★ Beast: Chuck Wagner (1997), James Barbour (1998), Jeff McCarthy (2004), Steve Blanchard (who played the "Beast" for the last eight years of the Broadway run)

★ Belle: Deborah Gibson (1997), Kerry Butler (1997), Toni Braxton (1998; the first African American to play Belle on Broadway), Andrea McArdle (1999-01), Jamie-Lynn Sigler (2002-03; Sigler's Broadway debut), Christy Carlson Romano (2004), Ashley Brown (2005-06), Anneliese van der Pol (2007). A total of seventeen actresses playing the part of Belle in the Broadway production, with Sarah Litzsinger playing it the longest.^[8]

★ Gaston: Marc Kudisch (1995), Christopher Sieber (2001), Donny Osmond (2006),

★ Lumiere: Lee Roy Reams (1995), Bryan Batt (2001-02), Patrick Page (2003), John Tartaglia (2006), Jacob Young (2006, Broadway debut)

Design elements

To make the characters of the Enchanted Objects believable on stage, their transformation story lines were changed. Instead of changing them immediately into objects, they are slowly but surely losing their humanity. If the spell is not broken before the last petal falls, they will fully become whatever object they are supposed to be.
The feather duster and wardrobe characters of the film were given names and more fully developed characterizations. Linda Woolverton, who wrote the book of the musical as well as the film's screenplay, named the feather duster maid "Babette", although the feather duster was named Fifi in the third Beauty and the Beast movie, and the wardrobe "Madame de la Grande Bouche". It was the first time these supporting characters were ever named (with the exception of a few collectable statues released before the musical).

Critical response

Steve Winn, in ''The San Francisco Chronicle'' (April 22, 1994), wrote "In the first two days after the mixed-to-negative reviews hit, the show, the costliest Broadway musical ever, did more than $1 million worth of business. Tuesday's sale of $603,494 established a new single-day Broadway benchmark." He reported that the production cost $12 million. His comments on the show: "What Broadway's ''Beauty'' lacks, most tellingly, is a divining theatrical imagination."
Frank Scheck of ''The Christian Science Monitor'' (April 20, 1994) wrote: "...[''Beauty and the Beast''] is going to be a huge hit... they have done a spectacular job of recreating the cinematic experience onstage. What they haven't done, and what was probably impossible to do, is recreate the magic."
David Richards (''New York Times'', April 19, 1994) in his review wrote: "It is hardly a triumph of art, but it'll probably be a whale of a tourist attraction.... The scenery... is almost always on the move.... There is no room for dreaming... the production... is reluctant to let a song be a song in its own way and time. Two kinds of delivery are recognized: the hard sell and the harder sell. Linda Woolverton's book expands her screenplay without noticeably deepening it. The miracle of Mr. [Terrence] Mann's performance is not its epic monstrousness or the fury of his amplified roars. It's miraculous because somehow, despite the masses of matted fur... he actually manages to convey the delicacy of awakening love."

Recording

The Original Broadway Cast Recording was released on April 26, 1994. The CD included Susan Egan as Belle, Terrence Mann as Beast, Burke Moses as Gaston, and Gary Beach as Lumiere.
The song "A Change In Me" is not on the cast recording because the song was added to the shows when Toni Braxton joined the production and has been kept in the production ever since, but it has never been added to the cast recording. However, the song was performed on Disney's national touring jukebox musical, ''Disney's On the Record'' (2004).

Awards and nominations

★ Tony Awards

★ Best Musical--Produced by Walt Disney Productions; President, Walt Disney Theatrical Productions: Ron Logan; Vice President and Producer, Walt Disney Theatrical Productions: Robert McTyre (nominee)

★ Best Book of a Musical --Book by Linda Woolverton (nominee)

★ Best Original Score --Music by Alan Menken; Lyrics by Howard Ashman, Tim Rice (nominee)

★ Best Actor in a Musical -- Terrence Mann (nominee)

★ Best Actress in a Musical-- Susan Egan (nominee)

★ Best Featured Actor in a Musical-- Gary Beach (nominee)

★ Best Costume Design--Ann Hould-Ward ('Winner')

★ Best Lighting Design--Natasha Katz (nominee)

★ Best Direction of a Musical--Robert Jess Roth (nominee)

★ Drama Desk Awards

★ Outstanding Musical: Produced by Walt Disney Productions; President, Walt Disney Theatrical Productions: Ron Logan; Vice President and Producer, Walt Disney Theatrical Productions: Robert McTyre (nominee)

★ Outstanding Actor in a Musical--Terrence Mann (nominee)

★ Outstanding Actress in a Musical-- Susan Egan (nominee)

★ Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Musical-- Burke Moses (nominee)

★ Outstanding Choreography-- Matt West (nominee)

★ Outstanding Orchestrations-- Danny Troob (nominee)

★ Outstanding Lyrics-- Howard Ashman, Tim Rice (nominee)

★ Outstanding Music-- Alan Menken (nominee)

★ Outstanding Sound Design-- T. Richard Fitzgerald (nominee)

★ Outstanding Special Effects-- Jim Steinmeyer, John Gaughan (nominee)

★ Theatre World Award- Burke Moses ('Winner')

Links to performances

★ Indianapolis Civic Theatre (Production Photos)

★ Theatre Cedar Rapids Beauty and the Beast (Production Photos) Cedar Rapids, IA

★ Chattanooga Theatre Centre (Production Photos) Chattanooga, TN

★ Music Theatre Louisville (Archive Page) Louisville, KY

★ Actor's Playhouse (Review) Coral Gables, FL

★ ''Finnish version,2007, Helsinki City Theatre'' Helsinki, Finland

★ Upcoming Mexican Production Mexico (tour)

References

1. Long Runs on Broadway
2. Playbill on Closing Night: Beauty and the Beast — A Roaring Success
3.
DISNEY DEBUT;
First stage musical, 'Beauty,' will test waters in Houston Everett Evans

4. Bye Bye Beauty
5.

6. Past Laurence Olivier Awards winners
7. Beauty and the Beast at IBDB.com
8. One "Soprano" Exits, Another Returns

External links

★ Beauty & The Beast - Disney On Broadway Official Homepage

★ Beauty and the Beast info page on StageAgent.com - Beauty and the Beast plot summary & character descriptions

★ Beauty & The Beast Audition Advice & Show Information from MusicalTheatreAudition.com

★ Internet Broadway Database Entry