Even tales as old as time need to get told a different way every once in a while. The tour of “Disney’s Beauty and the Beast,” coming to The Bushnell April 7-12, is not a replica of the tour that visited Connecticut numerous times in the 1990s, 2000s and 2010s. The script is different than the ones used in the countless school, community theater and other productions of the musical. And as was always the case, the stage version of “Beauty and the Beast” has songs and scenes that were not in the 1991 Disney animated feature film it was based on.
Matt West, the director and choreographer of this carefully rethought production, was not only the original choreographer of “Beauty and the Beast” in 1994, he was part of the team that convinced the Disney company to create a Broadway division and produce the show live in the first place.
West had created shows for Disney theme parks, including an acclaimed live version of “Dick Tracy” that he had to conceive on his own when Warren Beatty wouldn’t let him see the then-in-progress film that West’s live show was ostensibly based on. He had danced in Disney shows since he was 13 years old, and it was Disney that gave him his first professional choreography jobs.
The musical’s original Broadway run was from 1994 through 2007, first at the Palace Theatre then moving to the Lunt-Fontanne. The show was the centerpiece of the revitalization of New York City’s Times Square in the 1990s. There were five separate national tours that brought “Beauty and the Beast” around the country from 1995 through 2003, then a later tour that lasted from 2010-16. Performance rights for regional and amateur theaters to do the show became available in 2004, and the “Disney’s Beauty and the Beast Jr.” variation for school theater programs was created in 2008. Disney has also adapted the story and songs for its theme parks, ice shows and other projects.
Matthew Murphy
Voracious reader Belle (Kyra Belle Johnson) and the townsfolk ensemble of “Disney’s Beauty and the Beast.” The show’s national tour is at The Bushnell April 7-12. (Matthew Murphy)
This new tour, West said, is the result of reuniting most of the original creative team and closely examining the original production — not so that work could be replicated but so it could be the foundation of a fresh vision for the material.
Some familiar aspects of “Beauty and the Beast” fall outside the story or the design. Stephen Mark Lucas, who plays the self-obsessed scoundrel Gaston in the musical, played a different musical theater bad guy, Fanny Brice’s heel of a husband Nicky Arnstein, in the national tour of “Funny Girl” which played The Bushnell in 2024. Lucas also played the morally compromised Lancelot in “Camelot” at Westport Country Playhouse in 2016 and starred as Joe Hardy, the guy who sells his soul to the devil so he can be a ballplayer, in “Damn Yankees” at the Goodspeed Opera House in 2014. West happily said Lucas is not like Gaston at all in real life, apart from the handsomeness. “Stephen is the nicest person in the room,” the director said. “He’s generous with his work. He’s truly acting here.”
The tour stars Kyra Belle Johnson, who has played Sophie on tour in “Mamma Mia,” as Belle and Fergie L. Philippe, who was Hercules Mulligan/James Madison for three years in “Hamilton” on Broadway, as Beast. Kathy Voytko, who was in the musical “The Flamingo Kid” at Hartford Stage and in national tours of “The Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder” and “Evita,” is Mrs. Potts. Javier Ignacio, who was in both the Broadway and touring companies of “Company,” is Cogsworth, Harry Francis in Lefou and Kevin Ligon is Maurice.
West said he hasn’t worked with anyone in this cast before and is captivated by the enthusiasm they all bring to their roles. “They are all really talented and they all love what they’re doing. On holidays, they all decorate their dressing rooms to amuse each other. They’re just great people. These actors have a connection to each other that I don’t remember happening quite this way before. I’m just giddy playing with this show again,” he said.
Matthew Murphy
Kyra Belle Johnson and Fergie L. Philippe in the title roles of the national tour of “Disney’s Beauty and the Beast.” (Matthew Murphy)
West is full of stories about the musical’s triumphant 1994 premiere. When the “Beauty and the Beast” animated film had been completed but not yet released, West, Robert Jess Roth and some of their colleagues from the live Disney theme park shows approached Disney’s then-president Michael Eisner. “We said we wanted to take Disney to Broadway, and he said no. But he said ‘You can ask me again.’” Once the film opened to universal acclaim with its Alan Menken/Howard Ashman songs being favorably compared to the best Broadway musicals, the next pitch to make it a stage show was accepted, with Roth as the director and West as the choreographer. It was a big learning curve for the Disney organization, though.
“They had to open a new theatrical branch of the company,” West said. “They didn’t know how to do Broadway. They were trusting us. There were all of these baby steps. But Michael Eisner was very smart. He had been to Broadway as a kid many times.”
West said Eisner was particularly delighted with the stage trickery that allowed a child actor to be seen as Chip, a teacup.
To adapt the show for the stage, many new songs had to be added. Ashman, the show’s lyricist, had died in 1991, so Tim Rice was brought in to work with Menken.
As satisfying as that experience was, West didn’t rest on his laurels when brought back to the show decades later. “When Disney approached me to direct and choreograph this production, I jumped at it but part of the deal was that I could reinvent it. Disney said ‘Absolutely.’
“I started with Linda Wolverton,” West said, referring to the playwright who penned the screenplay for the original “Beauty and the Beast” movie as well as book for the musical and later worked on the screenplays for the Disney’s “The Lion King” and the “Malificent” and Tim Burton’s “Alice in Wonderland” films. “We went through every page word by word. We updated specific words. We also wrote two entirely new scenes. I threw out my original dances and started over. We got new orchestrations done. We worked on this for a couple of years.”
The result, West said, is a “Beauty and the Beast” which has “even more heart than the original. It’s more sincere in many ways. I’m very proud of the original show but it needed a facelift.” The main guideline he set for the creative upgrade was “to make it tourable. I didn’t want them to have to up the ticket price.”
Matthew Murphy
The enchanted objects from “Disney’s Beauty and the Beast,” at The Bushnell April 7-12. (Matthew Murphy)
West described the new scenic design by Stanley A. Meyer, who also designed the original 1994 production, as “a ballet in the air. There are these giant scrolls that make up the castle, then twist and turn and fly through the air.” West’s direction and choreography added to that fantastical fluidity by devising what he calls “a complete homage to Busby Berkley,” the legendary 1930s Hollywood filmmaker, “with an overhead camera shot” for one of the ensemble dances.
Original costume designer Ann Hould-Ward reworked her designs “to make a better fit for the movement,” West said. The color palette changed so that the attire of the Cogsworth character — the Beast’s loyal majordomo who has been transformed into a clock — is now green rather than brown. “We wanted more color,” West said, “so we made him so he looks like green marble.”
One practical note on creating costumes for this show, West said, is that “we have live flame onstage. You have to really care about what fabrics you use. They’re all fireproof. There’s a lot of testing.”
One relatively subtle change that has gotten a tremendous response is having Belle wear glasses when she’s engaged in her favorite pursuit: reading. “I saw a lot of kids in the audience with glasses, so I decided to put glass on Belle while she’s reading. Those kids really notice that. It creates a connection.”
Overall, West said, “this is more of a show for adults now. In my view, children are smart. Theater has to compete with video games, for goodness’ sake. We wanted to show the seriousness of the curse that was placed on this castle. We took out 330 sound effects, slapping and falling sound effects, because I didn’t think they were funny.
Being both a director and a choreographer, West said, “you see the whole picture. From being a choreographer I’m especially aware of who goes where, how the actors leave and enter the stage. It’s a big job, but you can build the whole show and be in one room while every part of it is happening. I love that part of the job. It’s like working on a puzzle. Like, for one song, “Be My Guest,” the actors change clothes four times. You can’t run upstairs to a dressing room, or the theaters might be different.
“I’ve worked for other companies. I run my own company and have for about 35 years. I’m a consultant. But Disney’s always been about going home. This was my first Broadway experience.” West is currently working on developing “Beauty and the Beast” companies in Vienna and elsewhere. He’s also got a brand new Disney project to work on … “but I can’t talk about it,” he said.
“Disney’s Beauty and the Beast” runs April 7-12 at The Bushnell, 166 Capitol Ave., Hartford. Performances are Tuesday through Friday at 7:30 p.m., Saturday at 2 and 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 1 and 6:30 p.m. $50.50-$215.50. bushnell.org.
