Disney’s Beauty and the Beast
— the story
The Tony Award-winning musical stays remarkably faithful to the Disney cartoon version of the much loved fairytale.
In transferring to the stage, another seven songs were created for the Broadway show by composer Alan Menken (who also wrote Little Shop of Horrors and Disney’s Little Mermaid, Aladdin and Pocahontas) and lyricist Tim Rice to add to the award winning Be Our Guest and the title song Beauty and the Beast (Tale as Old as Time).
Disney's Beauty and the Beast opened on Broadway in 1994 where it ran for 13 years and has since become an international sensation, playing to a worldwide audience of many millions, including 3 years at London’s Dominion Theatre.
The show opens with a Prologue in which an off-stage Narrator sets the scene which is acted out in mime by the onstage characters. It is a winter night, and an old woman comes to a castle seeking shelter from the cold. But the young Prince, repulsed by her appearance, turns her away. She warns him not to be fooled by appearances, as true beauty lies within. But he ignores her warning and she is transformed into a beautiful enchantress who turns the Prince into a hideous Beast and all who live there into household objects. She gives him an enchanted rose and tells him that the only way he can break the spell is to learn to love another and earn her love in return before the last petal falls.
Scene 1 is set in a small French town some years later. The beautiful Belle is on her way to the local book seller’s shop. In the opening chorus (Belle) she sings about the boredom of her life and wishes for adventures like those in the books she reads. The Villagers acknowledge her beauty, but think her love of books makes her very strange.
As the song continues, Gaston, the local huntsman and bully, enters. He is the ultimate egotist, totally absorbed in his exaggerated opinion of himself.
He is preceded by Lefou, his half-witted sidekick, and followed by the 3 “Silly Girls” who are simpering and fawning over Gaston, as always! They are dismayed as Gaston explains his intention to marry Belle.
Belle dodges Gaston’s advances, which are interrupted by the arrival of her father, Maurice, an eccentric inventor. He assures her that she is anything but strange and he will always love her (No Matter What).
They make final adjustments to his invention and Maurice heads off to an invention fair wearing a scarf knitted for him by Belle (No Matter What, Reprise). On the way he is attacked by Wolves in the forest and, getting lost as he tries to escape, stumbles upon a mysterious castle, which he enters.
The servants (Lumière, a maître d' turned into a candelabra, Cogsworth, a clock and head of the household, Babette, a maid turned feather duster and Mrs. Potts, the cook now a tea pot) welcome him, but the Beast enters and angrily attacks Maurice.
Back in town, after dismissing the Silly Girls, Gaston proposes to Belle (Me), which she again dodges. Her thoughts on being married to Gaston (Belle Reprise) are interrupted when LeFou returns from the forest wearing her father’s scarf. Belle rushes off to find him.
Sometime later there is excitement in the castle as Chip, Mrs Potts’ son, a tea cup who spends all his time being pushed around on a tea trolley, announces that he has seen a girl in the castle.
Belle arrives at the castle and finds that her father has been locked in a dungeon. She makes a deal with the Beast, allowing Maurice to go free, but she must remain in his place. Maurice is sent back to town whilst Belle is given a guest room and ordered by the Beast to join him for dinner. Alone, she mourns her situation (Home), but Mrs. Potts and Madame de la Grande Bouche, an operatic wardrobe, attempt to cheer her up (Home Reprise).
At a tavern in the village, Gaston is sulking over Belle’s rejection of him, so Lefou leads the villagers in an attempt to cheer him up (Gaston). Maurice rushes in claiming that a huge Beast has captured Belle. Everyone laughs at him, but Gaston and LeFou hatch a plot to change Belle’s mind. (Gaston Reprise).
Back at the castle, the Beast grows impatient waiting for Belle to join him for dinner. Cogsworth informs him she refuses to come, so he goes to her room and in a row with Belle he tells her if she cannot eat with him then she will not eat at all. In his quarters, he laments his fate (How Long Must This Go On?)
Belle admits that she is hungry and ventures out in search of food. Cogsworth, mindful of his master’s orders, says no, but Lumiere over-rides him and leads the company into the show’s big production number as he announces that “the Dining Room proudly presents your dinner!” Be Our Guest features the ensemble dressed as various appropriate household objects as they treat her to an amazing cabaret.
Cogsworth and Lumiere take Belle on a tour of the castle and her curiosity leads her to enter the West Wing, which the Beast had told her was forbidden. Fascinated by a strange rose floating in a bell jar, she reaches out to touch it but before she can, the Beast stops her and angrily orders her to get out, ripping her sleeve in the process. Appalled, she flees the castle fearing for her life. Realizing his deadly mistake he knows that he will be a monster forever if he cannot learn to love her (If I Can’t Love Her) as the curtain falls on Act 1.
Act 2
Lost in the woods, Belle is attacked by wolves. She is rescued by the Beast, but he is injured during the fight and collapses. Belle helps him back to the castle instead of taking the chance to run home. She cleans his injuries and thanks him for saving her life, a gesture the Beast graciously accepts, marking a change in their relationship.
The servants note this change as they serve Belle and Beast (Something There). Wanting to give her a gift, the Beast takes Belle to his huge library. When he confesses that he cannot read, she starts to read a story to him. He is entranced and his whole attitude changes. News of this spreads and all of servants express their hope of being human once more (Human Again) while Belle asks the Beast to have dinner with her that night.
Back at the tavern Gaston and LeFou tell the asylum owner Monsieur D’Arque of his plan to take Maurice away to blackmail Belle into marrying him (Maison des Lunes).
Meanwhile, the Beast and Belle enjoy an elegant dinner and dance together as Mrs. Potts sings the haunting title song Beauty and the Beast.
The Beast asks Belle if she is happy, she says that she is but she misses her father. He offers her a Magic Mirror in which she sees her father is lost in the woods. The Beast tells Belle to go to him and she departs after a tearful goodbye (If I Can’t Love Her Reprise).
Belle finds her father and takes him back to their house where she explains her changed attitude to the Beast (A Change In Me).
Monsieur D’Arque arrives with a mob to take Maurice to the asylum. Belle tries to prove her father’s sanity, by showing the people the Beast is real by using the Magic Mirror, but the people immediately fear the Beast. Belle insists that he is gentle and kind. Hearing this, Gaston realises that the Beast is his rival for Belle’s affections and sets about stirring the villagers up to join him to kill the Beast (The Mob Song).
Arriving at the castle, a battle ensues between the villagers and the enchanted objects. The servants are able to keep the lynch mob back, but Gaston breaks through and finds the Beast in his tower. He attacks the Beast, mercilessly beating him and taunting him. The Beast has lost the will to live following Belle’s departure. Gaston moves in for the killing blow when Belle arrives. The Beast immediately turns on Gaston and gets the upper hand, but spares his life. Just as The Beast and Belle are reunited, Gaston plunges his dagger into the Beast’s back but loses his footing and falls to his death.
On the balcony Belle assures the Beast he will live, but they both know she is helpless to save him. She begs him not to leave her because she has found home in his company (Home, Reprise), but despite this, he dies. Belle sobs on his body and says she loves him just before the last petal falls.
A transformation occurs as the Beast rises up, alive and returned to human form as the Prince once more. Though Belle does not recognize him at first, she looks into his eyes and sees the Beast within and they kiss. In a final reprise of Beauty and the Beast, they sing of how their lives have changed because of love as the company enter, now also changed back to their human form (Transformation/Finale).
Ian Stretch