Artist: Beauty
and the Beast Tour
Genre: Broadway
Background: The stirring music, brilliantly
colored costumes and lights, and a cast of young performers
ready to “cut loose” makes this show a very enjoyable
evening. Despite the grim story, Disney has managed to make
this an evening of almost uninterrupted sweetness and light.
The bewitched Beast dwells in a dark castle with a magic mirror,
awaiting true love - the beautiful daughter of a local inventor
knocks on the door, and the story begins.
The plot is taken off the Disney story. A price is changed
into a beast and told that before the last petal falls from
an enchanted rose he must find true love. Belle lives in a
little down where she is seen as odd by all but Gaston, a
handsome, egotistical man who wants to marry her. Her father,
an inventor, goes off into the woods with an invention and
gets lost, stumbling upon the Beast's castle. The clock and
candlestick welcome him, but when the beast finds him, he
is locked up. When Belle finds out, she rushes to his aid
and trades her freedom for her fathers. The beast is harsh
at first but eventually the two develop something more. When
it looks as if the beast has found true love, he lets Belle
go and Gaston leads a raid on the beast's castle. In a final
battle Gaston dies and the Beauty and the Beast live happily
ever after.
This lavish production (one of the longest-running shows on
Broadway) may be a bit "theme park" for theater
snobs, but it seems to work for audiences. The show includes
the well-loved "Be Our Guest" number (dancing plates,
talking tea kettles, and all), and a transformation moment
that always seems to deliver the appropriate oohs and aahs.
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