Is The Beast Really A Beast In Disney's Beauty and The Beast On Broadway?
Written: Jun 09 '02
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Entertaining, Costumes, Songs, Actors
Cons: The Beast was too gentle
The Bottom Line: If you LOVE Disney and LOVE Broadway, check this one out!
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| bekkabunny's Full Review: Beauty and the Beast |
My boyfriend's favorite Disney movie is Beauty and the Beast. It was my turn to pick the broadway play and since I had heard good reviews on this one, I paid the $200.00 and got ready to go to NYC for the day. Both of us were very excited, being Disney freaks. We got all dressed up and took the earliest train into Grand Central Station. As we sat down in the Lunt-Fontanne Theater, we were restless as we waited for the show to start.
The basic plot of the play followed Disney's version of the story, but some twists and turns were added in here and there. There were things that I LOVED, liked, and just didn't like about the show.
LOVED!
The Costumes: With characters like Mrs. Potts, Lumiere, Cogsworth, and the Beast, the costumes needed to be good! The Beast himself looked like a beast and nothing like a human! With horns, fangs, claws, and a lot of fur, Steve Blanchard was able to be transformed into an animal! All of the other costumes were great too. In Be Our Guest, actors/actresses came out dressed as plates, forks, knives, spoons, and more!
Gaston: Played by Christopher Sieber when I saw the show, this character was the best! I always hated Gaston in the movie, but on broadway, his character was hilarious! Gaston was always cracking jokes and making the audience laugh. At other times, however, he was serious or playful or just cruel. Gaston was a bad guy, but not so much of one.
The Songs: Though some of the songs differed from the movie, all were performed perfectly! The traditional songs like Belle, Be Our Guest and Beauty and the Beast were in the line-up as well as new songs like If I Can't Love Her, performed by Beast, and Home, performed by Belle. These two new songs were a great addition to the musical score. My favorite performance was during Gaston and Lefou's version of Gaston where the cast took beer mugs and did this spectacular dance where they hit the mugs together on certain beats. It was AWESOME!
The Special Effects: Whether it be the tale of how the Beast came to be with lighting and thunder or when the Beast turned human again, the special effects used in this play were amazing. I especially liked the last scene where the Beast was transformed back into a prince. He was lifted up into the air and all of a sudden, he was a person again!
Liked
The theater: The Lunt-Fontanne was very easy to find and it was bigger than most broadway theaters. However, every seat in the house had a great view of the show.
The Cast: I thought a lot of the actors/actresses were chosen perfectly for their parts, yet some, I think were not. I felt that Sarah Litzsinger (Belle) and Barbara Marineau (Mrs. Potts) did not fit their parts very well. But maybe that is because I loved Angela Lansbury and Paige O'Hara as the voices in the movie....
Just Didn't Like...
The Beast: I always knew of the Beast as being scary. He is supposed to be ferocious, have a bad temper, and people are normally afraid of him. But in the play, he was more gentle and showed his feelings for Belle rather than his stubborness for letting her stay in the castle. He didn't roar very much nor get very angry. The Beast just didn't act like a beast.
The performance of Beauty and the Beast on stage was great. I really enjoyed the show and I am very glad that I got a chance to see it. It is a great show for anyone to see and a lot of fun too!
Opening date: April 18, 1994
Musical Numbers
Act One
Overture
Prologue
"Belle"-Belle, Gaston, Lefou, Silly Girls, Townspeople
"No Matter What"-Maurice, Belle
"No Matter What"(Reprise)-Maurice
"Me"-Gaston, Belle
"Belle" (Reprise)-Belle
"Home"-Belle
"Home" (Reprise)-Mrs. Potts
"Gaston"-Lefou, Gaston, Silly Girls, Tavern Patrons
"Gaston" (Reprise)-Gaston, Lefou
"How Long Must This Go On"-Beast
"Be Our Guest"-Lumiere, Mrs. Potts, Cogsworth, Madame de
la Grande Bouche, Chip, Babette, Objects
"If I Can't Love Her"-Beast
Act Two
Entr'act/Wolf Chase
"Something There"-Belle, Beast, Lumiere, Mrs. Potts,
Cogsworth
"Human Again"-Lumiere, Madame de la Grande Bouche,
Cogsworth, Mrs. Potts, Babetter, Chip, objects
"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, Townspeople
"The Battle"-The Company
"Transformation"-Beast, Belle
"Beauty and The Beast" (Reprise)-The Company
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
bekkabunny
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Location: Connecticut
Reviews written: 72
Trusted by: 12 members
About Me:
If you can DREAM it, you can DO it - Walt Disney
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