Beauty and the Beast (Broadway Musical)

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Beauty and the Beast
Beauty-and-the-Beast-Logo.svg
Musical dates
Title: Beauty and the Beast
Original title: Beauty and the Beast
Music: Alan Menken
Book: Linda Woolverton
Lyrics: Howard Ashman , Tim Rice
Literary source: Beauty and the Beast
Premiere: April 18, 1994

Beauty and the Beast (original title: Beauty and the Beast ) is a musical written by the author Linda Woolverton , the copywriters Howard Ashman and Tim Rice and the composer Alan Menken based on the Walt Disney cartoon of the same name . It celebrated its world premiere on April 18, 1994 under the direction of Robert Jess Roth at the Palace Theater on Broadway in New York and to date has reached around 25 million people in 13 countries. The musical was nominated for nine Tony Awards and won the Laurence Olivier Award in 1998 .

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Summary

The musical is about the fairytale love story between the beautiful Belle and an enchanted prince , whom a sorceress once turned into a beast because of his unkindness. Only when the beast gives love to other people and receives it from others can the curse be broken. When Belle looks for shelter in his castle , he tries to conquer Belle's heart with the help of his enchanted castle servants.

first act

On a cold winter night an ugly old woman seeks refuge in a prince's castle, although she has nothing but a rose with her in return . The prince rejects her arrogantly and heartlessly because she is ugly. The old woman warns him that true beauty comes from the heart, but the prince will not be deterred. The woman then turns into a beautiful sorceress and the prince asks for forgiveness. But the sorceress places a terrible curse on the entire castle. The prince transforms into a terrible beast and his entourage into household items such as teacups , brooms , forks and furniture . Only when the beast learns to love before the last petal of the enchanted rose falls and also receives love can the curse be broken. When the rose has lost all flowers, the castle occupants are forever devoted to their fate. The only window he has to the outside world is a magic mirror that shows him everything he wants to see. As the years go by, the beast falls into a depression and wonders who could love such a hideous monster like him.

Meanwhile, Belle lives with her father Maurice in a small French village. The villagers eyed her suspiciously because of her fondness for books, but they know that she is the most beautiful in the village. Eventually Gaston, a hunter and the owner of the tavern, also notices this. He urges her to marry him, but Belle finds him indecent and cocky.

Meanwhile, Maurice tests his crazy invention, but shortly afterwards she gives up her ghost. He tells himself that he will never do anything and that people will never accept him for who he is. But Belle encourages him again and together they sing of their mutual affection ( What also happens , No Matter What ). After Maurice has repaired his mobile invention, he wants to demonstrate it at a competition. Belle gives him a hand-knitted scarf as a goodbye. Maurice gets lost in the forest with his invention and is picked up by wolves. Panicked with fear, he runs blind through the forest and happens to end up at the castle of the beast.

Lumière, the castle's head waiter , who has turned into a candlestick , lets him into the castle amid the protests of Herr von Unruh, the caretaker , who is now a clock. The servants of the house, all in the form of household items, take care of him. Babette, a feather duster by trade, warms him up and Madame Pottine, a friendly teapot, pours a little tea into her son, who is a teacup. When the beast finally comes into the room, it is beside itself. Maurice has committed trespassing and he locks him as a prisoner in the castle dungeon .

In the meantime, Gaston prepares to marry Belle in the village. When he sees her, he sings about her with a self-portraying marriage proposal ( Ich , Engl. Me ). She rejects him again and leaves him confused. When she has made sure that he is out of reach, she asserts her desire to travel and discover and that she wants to escape provincial life ( Belle Reprise ). Shortly afterwards she meets Lefou, Gaston's henchman, who is wearing Maurice's scarf. Belle realizes that something must have happened to her father and she asks Lefou to take her to where he found the scarf. But he doesn't want to and Belle sets off on her own. She too leads to the castle, where Lumière and Herr von Unruh comfort each other. There is not much time left until the last rose blossom falls.

When Belle enters the castle, the castle servants realize that as a young woman, she is the one who could break the curse. Belle arrives in the dungeon and finds her father there, but the beast is not ready to let him go easily. Fearing that her father might die in dungeon, Belle sacrifices herself and offers herself as a prisoner instead of her father. The beast agrees and Maurice is allowed to go. Belle has to stay in the castle forever from now on. Lumière persuades the beast to at least give Belle a decent place to stay if she'll stay forever. She is brought to her room and instructed to dine with the beast that evening. She's trying to accept their new situation ( home , Eng. Home ). She makes the acquaintance of Madame de la Grande Bouche, an opera diva who has turned into a wardrobe . The servants try to get Belle ready to go, but she doesn't want to dine with the beast.

In the village tavern, Gaston is depressed because Belle has turned him down. The people cheer him up again by singing praises to him ( Gaston ). Maurice storms in and tries to explain to those present what happened to Belle. But the villagers think he's crazy, and Maurice decides to save Belle on his own. At this moment Gaston has an idea that he shares with Lefou ( Gaston reprise ).

In the meantime, Mr. Unruh has grown a winding crank in the castle, which makes him very sad. This makes it clear to the servants of the house that they must remain in the shape of the objects forever if the curse is not broken soon. Then the beast appears and wants to know where Belle is. When he learns that she will not be coming to dinner, he storms into her room and orders her to attend dinner. But she continues to refuse, even after the beast has brought itself to say "please." The beast then becomes very angry and threatens her that she will not get anything to eat if she does not dine with him. The house servants see their chances of being normal again one day dwindling, but Madame Pottine encourages them not to give up. The beast looks in the mirror and sees Belle, as she continues to deny him ( As long nor will that work? , Eng. How Long Must This Go On? ).

When Belle finally gets hungry, she ventures into the castle, where she meets the servants. Your question about supper is immediately rejected by Mr. Unruh, but the others finally persuade him to give in. While Lumiére solemnly served the menu entertain he and all the other servants of the castle Belle with a brilliant cabaret show ( Be our guest , Eng. Be Our Guest ).

After dinner, Belle is shown through the palace under the guidance of Mr. Unruh. During the tour, Belle secretly sits down by the west wing, the only part of the castle that the beast had forbidden her to enter. There she finally sees the enchanted rose. When she tries to touch her, the beast storms up and yells at her to go away. When she tries to leave the wing, he grabs her roughly. Frightened that he has touched her so roughly, she leaves the castle in a hurry. The Beast realizes that he has done something wrong, but it's too late to apologize ( How I love them , Eng. If I Can not Love Her ).

Second act

On her escape, Belle ends up in a pack of wolves , but the beast comes to her aid. She has the opportunity to escape, but realizes that the beast is injured and takes him back to the castle. There she takes care of it and the beast offers her the castle library to rummage through. The castle servants notice the new friendship between the two ( Wer would have thought , Something There ).

Belle comes up with the idea of reading a book with the beast ; but she notices that it cannot read. She offers to teach him; but only when she promises to dine with him can she persuade him to do so. The castle servants are looking forward to be back soon real people ( man be back , Eng. Human Again ).

Meanwhile, Gaston and Lefou meet with the head of the madhouse, Monsieur d'Arque. Gaston asks him to declare Maurice crazy and lock him up to force Belle to marry him ( Maison des Lunes , Le Maison de Lunes ).

As the beast is getting ready for dinner, he tells Lumière and Herr Unruh that he is concerned that Belle will laugh at him if he confesses his love to her. They boost his self-esteem by telling him how well he has dressed up. Belle appears and you have a wonderful dinner . They dance together ( Beauty and the Beast , Eng. Beauty And The Beast ). The moment the beast tries to confess its love to Belle, she complains about not being able to see her father. The beast then allows her to look in the magic mirror. She sees that her father got lost in the woods. Torn to and fro what it actually wants, the beast lets her go and gives her the mirror. Mr Unruh, Madame Pottine and Lumiére appear to congratulate him on the fantastic dinner and are dejected to find out that Belle is gone. Madame Pottine realizes that he loves her and that love only needs to be returned.

When Maurice and Belle return home, Maurice asks Belle how she escaped the beast. She tells her father as the Beast she let go and have as their expectations changed from life ( change , Eng. A Change in Me ). Then a group from the village appears who want to take Maurice to the madhouse. Gaston offers Belle to save her father if she marries him, but she refuses. Belle wants to prove that her father is not crazy and shows the villagers the beast in the mirror. You face fear . Gaston covers up his fear and convinces the people that the beast is a threat to the village community and must be killed ( Death to the Beast , English Mob Song ).

The people from the village move to the castle and engage the castle servants in a fight . Gaston fights the beast, but the beast, dejected in the belief that Belle will never return, does not fight back. He only defends himself when Gaston speaks of marrying Belle. When the beast finally tries to kill Gaston, he realizes that he can't bring himself to do it. Gaston seizes the moment and rams a dagger into the back of the beast . At that moment Gaston loses his balance and falls from the roof . Meanwhile, Belle is with the beast. He lays his head in her lap and is about to die. Belle begins to cry and says that she loves him just before the last petal of the rose falls to the ground. That breaks the spell and the beast turns into a handsome prince. The castle servants are also becoming people again. The beast and Belle kiss. In the end, Belle is also reunited with her father and sings with all the figures, the final song ( Beauty and the Beast Reprise , Eng. Beauty And The Beast Reprise ).

Awards

The piece in Austria and Germany

The Disney musical was premiered in German in Europe on September 28, 1995 at the Raimund Theater in Vienna, where Ethan Freeman played the main role of the beast. Steve Barton then took over the leading role of the enchanted prince on December 1, 1996 and for this reason came back to the United Theaters in Vienna after more than 12 years of absence . Caroline Vasicek played the leading role as the beautiful at the side of both men. On June 30, 1997, after a total of 22 months and over 600,000 visitors, the last performance of the musical took place in Vienna.

In Germany, Beauty and the Beast have been performed in the Palladium Theater in Stuttgart and in the Metronom Theater in Oberhausen as well as in the Berlin Theater on Potsdamer Platz . Uwe Kröger played the main role as Beast (Original Cast) from December 1997 to December 2000 in Stuttgart . Leah Delos Santos played the main role of the beautiful.

On December 18, 2005, the Disney musical premiered in the Metronom Theater Oberhausen (former TheatrO CentrO, which was converted from a modern theater with several bridges and satellite stages into a traditional peep-box theater for this purpose ). The show is produced by Stage Entertainment . The Oberhausen staging is, compared to the Broadway (or Stuttgart) version, a very slimmed-down version in terms of stage, costumes and effects. The bombastic transformation of the beast is reduced in this version to a simple "change of clothes", which is concealed by a little smoke. The significantly reduced orchestra cannot possibly reproduce the full sound of the refined score that friends of the original love so much. Instead, the new version now contains Belle's additional solo song "Change In Me" which was previously only seen in the extended English version.

In the summer of 2011, the open-air premiere took place at Magdeburg's DomplatzOpenAir in a specially developed production. As in Berlin and Oberhausen, the title roles were taken by Leah Delos Santos and Yngve Gasoy-Romdal .

From July 26, 2013 to August 17, 2013, the musical was staged for the first time in an open-air performance in Austria by Werner Auer on the Staatz rock stage . The first German-speaking amateur performance took place on June 11, 2016 at the Goldberg-Gymnasium in Sindelfingen .

Premiere casts

role in New York in London in Vienna in Stuttgart in Oberhausen in Berlin in Magdeburg in Staatz
The beast Terrence man Alasdair Harvey Ethan Freeman Kevin Tarte / Uwe Kroeger Yngve Gasoy-Romdal Yngve Gasoy-Romdal / Jan Ammann Yngve Gasoy-Romdal Werner Auer
Belle Susan Egan Julie-Alanah Brighten Caroline Vasicek Leah Delos Santos Tanja Petrasek
Lumière Gary Beach Derek Griffiths Viktor Gernot Viktor Gernot / Thierry Gondet Ingolf Lück Uli Scherbel Thomas Wissmann Florian Stanek
Madame Pottine (Mrs. Potts) Beth Fowler Mary Millar Rosita Mewis Cristina Grimandi Barbara Raunegger Undine thirty Eveline Schloffer
Lord of Unruh (Cogsworth) Heath Lamberts Barry James Heinz Zuber Peter Faerber Claus Dam Markus Liske Ludwig Flessl
Gaston Burke Moses Kevin Tart Marc G. Dalio Kevin Kraus Alexander di Capri Reinhard Reiskopf
Lefou Kenny Raskin Richard Gauntlett Eric Minsk Werner Bauer Bernd Julius Arends Raphael Nicholas Nicholas Harras
Babette Stacey Logan Rebecca Thornhill Ann Mandrella Natacza Soozie Boon Jenny Stark Elisabeth Sikora
Madame de la Grande Bouche Eleanor Glockner Di botcher Marika lights Tersia Potgieter Gabriele Stoppel-Bachmann Marja Hennicke
Maurice Tom Bosley Norman Rossington Rudolf Wasserlof Horst Kruger Tamas Ferkay / Daniel Coninx Daniel Coninx Peter Wittig CA Fath

Venues

Each with the premiere dates or the game period.

German-language performances

Ensuite productions

Tour production (since 2010)

The tour production is a German-language production by the Budapest Operetta Theater.

OpenAir productions

The Magdeburg Theater had received the performance rights for the Disney version of “Beauty and the Beast” and in the summer of 2011 brought an open-air version to Magdeburg's Domplatz. The piece with songs by Alan Menken was directed by Helga Wolf. Leah Delos Santos and Yngve Gasoy-Romdal took on the title roles - as most recently in the stage entertainment production of the musical in Oberhausen and Berlin.

International venues

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.goldberg-gymnasium.de/ggs/aktuelles/Nachrichten/160612_schoene_biest.php. Retrieved August 28, 2017 .