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*Monsier D'Arque - [[Gordon Stanley]]
*Monsier D'Arque - [[Gordon Stanley]]


==[[Awards and nominations]]==
==Awards and nominations==
===1994 Tony Awards===
===1994 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 Musical''': Produced by Walt Disney Productions; President, Walt Disney Theatrical Productions: [[Ron Logan]]; Vice President and Producer, Walt Disney Theatrical Productions: [[Robert McTyre]] [nominee]

Revision as of 05:36, 25 November 2006

Beauty and the Beast
Cover art of vocal selections song book
MusicAlan Menken
LyricsHoward Ashman
Tim Rice
BookLinda Woolverton
For other uses, see Beauty and the Beast (disambiguation).

Premiering on April 18, 1994, Beauty and the Beast is currently Broadway's sixth-longest running production, devised and produced by Disney Theatrical, a fully owned subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company.

Plot summary

Template:Spoiler

Act One

One cold winter's night, an ugly old woman stumbles up to a prince's castle. She begs the prince for shelter from the cold, though she has only a single rose to give him as payment. Being selfish and heartless, the prince refuses her, 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 enchantress and, as punishment to the cruel and selfish prince, she 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 "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 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 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. On the way, he gets lost in the woods. 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. Lumeire, the maître d' who is turning into a candelabra, lets him into the castle, to the protestations of Cogsworth, the major domo of the castle who is turning into a clock. The servants of the castle, still in the form of various household objects, look after him. Babette, who is turning into a featherduster, warms him up and Mrs. Potts, a kindly mother turning into a teapot, pours him some tea into her son, Chip, who is turning into a teacup. That is, until the Beast arrives. The beast has Maurice locked up as a prisoner for what he considers as "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, then reaffirms her want to travel and explore; to escape "this provincial life." (Belle (Reprise)) Lefou rushes on, 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 traces her way to the castle, where Cogsworth and Lumiere have been comforting each other. 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; and 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. 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. Belle also discovers Madame de la Grande Bouche, an opera diva who is 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. The townspeople cheer him up, (Gaston). Maurice rushes in and tries to tell people back 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.

In the castle, Cogsworth has grown a winding handle, 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 her to 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 chances at returning to normal diminishing, 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, (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 the Beast said she could not go into. 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. Mortified that he has touched her, she runs out of the castle. The Beast realizing his mistake, tries to apologize, but it is too late, (If I Can't Love Her).

Act Two

As Belle flees, she comes across wolves in the forest. She is about to be hurt before the Beast arrives and saves her. She has a chance to escape, but she sees the Beast is seriously hurt and takes him back to the castle. There, she nurses him back to health, and he gives her full reign of the castle library. The servants remark about the new found 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 Lumerie and Cogsworth. They bolster his courage by showing him how well he cleaned up. Belle arrives and they have a lovely dinner, and they dance afterwards, (Beauty and the Beast). After dinner, right as the Beast is about to tell Belle he loves her, she mourns 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 wood. Despite what he wants, the Beast lets her go to find him and gives her the magic mirror. Cogsworth, Mrs. Potts and Lumerie 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. The beast is really ugly, Belle is really pretty.

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. 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 most of the mob is fought and driven off by the enchanted artifacts of the castle, but Gaston reaches the Beast and begins to fight with him, though the Beast, disheartened with a belief that Belle will never come back, doesn't fight back. He only defends himself when Gaston talks of marrying Belle. However, as the Beast is about to finish off Gaston, he realises he can no longer find it in himself to kill anyone. As the Beast and Belle are reunited, Gaston stabs the Beast in the back with a dagger, however, Gaston loses his footing on the roof and tumbles to from the castle. After Gaston has fallen, the Beast lays his head on Belle's lap and dies as the last petal of the rose falls. She sobs over his body, and says that she loves him. This breaks the spell and the Beast turns into a handsome prince again. All the servants come rushing on, rejoicing in their humanity. At the end , Belle is reunited with her father and she dances with the Beast as the entire ensemble sings a reprise of Beauty and the Beast.

Original Broadway Cast

Awards and nominations

1994 Tony Awards

1994 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]

Other

  • 1994 Theatre World Award: Burke Moses [winner]

Trivia

  • The show debuted on Broadway in 1994, three years after the release of the movie. It is currently the longest running American musical on Broadway, the sixth longest running show in Broadway history, and has played over 5,100 performances. The show's world premiere was at Houston's Theatre Under The Stars in November, 1993.
  • The idea for the show came about from a particularly 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 concurrent to the film.
  • The Broadway show features a new expanded script and brand new songs by Alan Menken and Tim Rice, who also wrote the lyrics for Disney's Aladdin.
  • The show has been performed on London's prestigious West End, as well as Sydney, Tokyo, Mexico City, Seoul, Paris, Toronto, Berlin and Weston, MA. The show is currently touring through the Netherlands and will soon premiere in Belgium, Germany and Israel.
  • To make the characters of the Enchanted Objects believable on stage, their transformation storylines 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 and the wardrobe Madame de la Grande Bouche. It was the first time these supporting characters were ever named.
  • In the past few years, Disney has begun to lease the rights for performing the show to traveling theatrical companies, and now the show is performed all over North America and Europe (although Disney will not allow the show to be performed within 50 miles of New York City).
  • The first non-professional theatre in the world to perform the show was Theatre Cedar Rapids, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Subsequently Beauty and the Beast has become the most commonly performed show performed by community theatrical groups, in part because it can accommodate a large company and actors of all ages.
  • Jenny Wiley Theatre in Prestonsburg, Kentucky, was home to the first outdoor performance of Beauty and the Beast in the world. Premiered June 10th, 2006 at 8:15 P.M. EST. In 2007 they will perform High School Musical.

Musical numbers

Academy Award-winning composer Alan Menken wrote the music for both the original film as well as new songs added to the production. Howard Ashman provided the lyrics for the film, and Tim Rice took over as lyricist of the Broadway production as a result of 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 the 2004 touring musical revue On the Record.

Act I

  • Overture
  • Prologue†
  • Belle
  • Belle Playoff
  • Maurice's Entrance
  • No Matter What *
  • No Matter What (Reprise) *
  • Wolf Chase
  • Maurice And The Beast
  • Gaston's Crossover
  • Me*
  • Belle (Reprise)*
  • Then I'll Find Him Myself
  • Belle In The Castle
  • Home*
  • Home (Tag)*
  • Gaston
  • Gaston (Reprise)
  • How Long Must This Go On?*
  • Be Our Guest
  • Belle In The West Wing
  • If I Can't Love Her*

Act II

  • Entr'acte/Wolf Chase
  • Something There
  • Human Again**
  • Maison des Lunes*
  • Beauty and the Beast
  • If I Can't Love Her (Reprise)*
  • A Change in Me‡
  • The Mob Song
  • The Battle
  • Transformation
  • Beauty and the Beast (Reprise)



*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 Broadway and touring production of David Ogden Stiers, who provided the voices of the Narrator and Cogsworth in the film.

‡"A Change in Me" was included in neither the film nor the original Broadway production. Menken and Rice wrote the song for Grammy Award-winning R&B singer Toni Braxton when she entered the role of Belle in 1998. The song has been included in all performances since. Broadway's original Belle Susan Egan covered the song on her 2002 album So Far...

Links to Performances

Links to Other Resources

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