Unless you’ve been living in a cave for the last week or two, you probably know that the first national tour of the stage adaptation of Disney‘s Beauty and the Beast is in St. Louis through October 22nd. Unless you’ve seen the show, however, you probably don’t know whether or not it lives up the media hype that has proceeded it.
On the whole, I think it does. It’s sold as a family show, a lavish musical spectacle, and a Disney product. It’s all of those things, and especially the latter. Beauty and the Beast is a big, brash, amusement park of a show. It’s fast, colorful, loud, opulent, shamelessly sentimental, cheerfully vulgar, technically flawless, and - there’s no getting around it - highly entertaining. The well-known story is simple enough to keep the kids’ attention, and polished enough to amuse all but the most jaded adults. If this isn’t a family show, I don’t know what is.
The book, by Linda Woolverton, follows her own original screenplay pretty closely, and Alan Menken composed seven additional musical numbers to flesh out a score that, while adequate for a feature-length cartoon, was too skimpy for a two-act musical. Some of the additional material seemed less memorable to me than the originals; maybe working with lyricist Tim Rice instead of Menken’s long-time collaborator, the late Howard Ashman, didn’t produce the same creative sparks. In any case, the new songs worked well enough and some of them - like Gaston’s hilariously egocentric "Me" - are real gems.
As usual, the publicity for Beauty and the Beast has concentrated on the spectacular sets, costumes, and clever bits of stage magic in the show, probably because these are the easiest things to show on television. They’re every bit as impressive as you’ve heard. Ann Hould-Ward’s costumes vividly recreate the human servants transformed into household objects, and her bold, brightly-colored outfits for the protagonists are appropriately cartoonish without being silly. Stan Meyer’s sets are elaborate and yet mobile enough to make the many scene changes magically swift and the illusions of Jim Steinmeyer and John Gaughan are quite convincing, including a very nice levitation effect for the Beast’s transformation.
All of this could dwarf the actors, reducing them to the status of the costumed cartoon characters that populate the Disney theme parks. I’m happy to say that it doesn’t. Danyelle Bossadaret is in fine voice as an endearing and convincing Belle. She’s nicely matched by Grant Norman as the Beast. Norman has a good, strong voice, but takes some chances with it in his portrayal, deciding to reflect the Beat’s change in character by changing his singing style. His first rendition of the Beast’s lament "How Long Must This Go On?" is growled as much as sung, but as the story progresses and the character learns to unbend a bit and even to love, he gives us less growling and more singing. When the Beast is at last transformed back into a Prince he finally bursts into full voice. It’s very effective, but risky, since the earlier moments could simply come across as poor singing.
Edward Staudenmayer shows nice comic flair as the self-absorbed Gaston. As written, the character combines the intelligence of Li’l Abner with the ethics of Snidley Whiplash, and Staudenmayer’s performance does equal justice to the characters cluelessness and cunning. The role calls for broad but accurate physical comedy, and Staudenmayer has it down pat. Ditto Brad Aspel as Lefou, who plays the Abbot to Gaston’s Costello.
Jay Russell makes the most of the scene-stealing role of Lumiere, the human candelabra who’s something of a cross between Maurice Chevalier and Liberace, and Ron Bagden is appropriately stuffy as his friendly enemy Cogsworth, slowly being turned into a clock by the fairy spell. There are also fine performances by Janet Macwewn as Mrs. Potts, Jeff Brooks Louisa Kendrick as the flirtatious Babette.
If you’re the sort of theatre-goer who doesn’t necessarily see the Disney organization as a leading contender for the title of Great Satan of American Musical Theatre and you’re willing to accept Beauty and the Beast on its own terms, I think you’ll find it a diverting but not particularly deep evening’s entertainment. Its creators have set out to produce a live version of a musical cartoon, and in this they’ve succeeded admirably. Whether or not this really needed to be done is another question, of course, but if we only saw plays that needed to be done our theatrical seasons would be cut rather short.
Beauty and the Beast continues at the Fox Theatre through October 22nd. Call Metrotix at 314-534-1111 for ticket information