Preview by Kyle Poluyko, Photo by Amy Boyle
Adapted from the hugely successful 1991 animated film, Disney’s blockbuster musical Beauty and the Beast returns to the Community Auditorium for a two-performance engagement February 24 and 25. Currently on a North American tour, this production reunites many of the original Broadway production’s creative team including director Rob Roth and choreographer Matt West to re-create this sensational stage spectacle.
Beauty and the Beast originally opened at Broadway’s Palace Theatre in 1999 and later transferred to the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre where it closed in 2007 after 5,461 performances. It is the story of a vain prince who is unable to see that true beauty lies within. He is turned into a beast by an old beggar woman who also transforms the Beast’s servants into household objects. She leaves him a rose in an hourglass and warns he will remain a beast unless he finds true love before the last petal falls. Ten years on, the Beast encounters Belle for whom he begins to develop feelings. He has competition, though, in Gaston the muscular and vain town hero.
Featuring a score by Alan Menken, lyrics by Howard Ashman and Tim Rice, with a book by Linda Woolverton, Beauty and the Beast has grossed more than $1.4 billion dollars, playing in over 115 cities in 13 countries around the world. The characters are charming and enchanted, including the warm-hearted teapot Mrs. Potts, her son/teacup Chip, the debonair French candelabra Lumiere, and the tightly-wound mantel clock Cogsworth, Beauty and the Beast promises to delight audiences just as the film and original Broadway production did.
Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, presented by NETworks Presentations, is onstage at the Community Auditorium February 24 and 25 at 7:30 pm. For more information call 684-444 or visit tbca.com.
