“I was blown away,” Woolverton said. “I thought: Oh yeah. ‘Beauty’ needs to be a musical.”
Fast forward, and 1991’s “Beauty and the Beast,” with a screenplay by Woolverton, music by Alan Menken, and lyrics by Howard Ashman, would go down in history. It was Disney’s first animated feature written by a woman, and the first animated film ever to be nominated for best picture at the Academy Awards.
“Beauty and the Beast” would go on to become a massive commercial success of a Broadway musical in 1994, and Woolverton would earn a Tony nomination for adapting her own screenplay to create the musical’s book. The show, which ran for 13 years, marked Disney’s first foray into Broadway, and there has been at least one Disney production on Broadway ever since.
Now, nearly 20 years after the closure of the Broadway production, Woolverton and many of the other members of the original musical’s creative team have reunited for a new North American tour of “Beauty and the Beast,” which began in summer 2025 and will play in Boston from April 14 through May 2 at the Citizens Opera House.
The film version of “Beauty and the Beast” has earned a reputation as a — or even the — Disney masterpiece. That’s due to its vibrant, painterly animation, Menken’s unforgettable score, and Ashman’s razor-sharp lyrics. But before it was animated and before it was scored, “Beauty and the Beast” was a screenplay, a story about a smart, curious, brunette (!) heroine who was utterly unlike the princesses who came before her — and that part was Woolverton’s doing.
“I had a hidden agenda,” Woolverton joked. “‘Let’s drag Disney into the modern world.’”
Princesses were already well-trod territory at Disney — Snow White, Cinderella, and Aurora had all come decades earlier — but Woolverton was dead set on breaking that mold with her main character, Belle. Woolverton herself had grown up in a household she describes as “intellectually rigorous,” where there was no television, only books. Drawing on that experience, Woolverton created a scholarly protagonist who is curious about the world outside of her village and constantly brushing her not-quite-perfect hair out of her face. As Woolverton and Ashman faxed the pages of scripts and lyrics back and forth, Belle’s story — the tale of a young woman who sacrifices herself to save her father, becomes a prisoner in a castle full of enchanted objects, and teaches the Beast who trapped her how to love — came to life.
Kyra Belle Johnson as Belle in “Beauty and the Beast.”Matthew Murphy
“We conjured this Disney protagonist who wasn’t a passive victim,” Woolverton said. “Who was a proactive young woman with a brain, who you would believe would stand up to the Beast.”
When Susan Egan read the musical’s script for the first time in the early ’90s, that is exactly what struck her. Egan, a young rising musical theater star, had decided to audition for the role of Belle on the advice of her agent, but she had her sights set on other shows — she had never even seen the movie. But when she read Woolverton’s script at the audition, Egan started to change her mind. “The character just wasn’t what I expected,” she said. “She was an intellectual, a bit of an outcast, misunderstood.”
Egan, who describes herself as a voracious reader and a bit of a loner, found an instant kinship with Belle. She got the part, and premiering the role of Belle on Broadway changed her life: She would go on to voice the character of Meg in Disney’s “Hercules”; this year, she’ll be awarded Disney’s highest honor, the Disney Legend award.
Egan remembers the process of defining the musical’s version of Belle as highly collaborative. She asked a lot of questions and gave some suggestions, and Woolverton, she said, always listened and took her seriously.
“Linda, because she is Belle and is well-read and intelligent, allowed a young woman in the room to also be intelligent,” Egan said. “And that is a gift that I will always be grateful to her for.” That mentorship is something she has strived to pay forward: Over the years since her turn as Belle, Egan has coached actors starring in the show. Kyra Belle Johnson, who plays Belle in the new touring production, says Egan’s advice has been invaluable. “She has such a wealth of knowledge and has been such a great steward of this character over all these years,” Johnson said.
Fergie L. Philippe in “Beauty and the Beast.”Matthew Murphy
But while Egan, Woolverton, and many of the original creative team members have stayed close to the production for decades, that hasn’t prevented “Beauty and the Beast” from evolving. The current team has revisited the characters and the story, adjusting them for today’s young audiences. There are subtle changes throughout the script to make it more sensitive to current social mores — the “Silly Girls” who fawn over the handsome villain Gaston are now simply known as the “Village Lasses,” for example, and Gaston’s physical bullying of his sidekick Lefou has been toned down.
But Belle hasn’t so much changed as become more herself. In a world where prim princesses like Cinderella and Snow White have taken a backseat to bold, adventurous heroines like Moana and Elsa, Belle has been updated to be even more independent, assertive, and real.
“Women aren’t in the same place that we were in the ’90s,” Woolverton said. “I didn’t want Belle to feel like she was stuck there.”
In rehearsals, Johnson said, the creative team asked her to let go of anything princessy, wistful, or unnatural. “They said, ‘We don’t want it,’” Johnson said. “‘We just want a girl who loves to read, sitting in her village.”
That’s exactly how Johnson wanted to play the character anyway. Born in 1997, years after the “Beauty and the Beast’ film and musical had debuted, she never knew a world where princesses could only look beautiful and wait for their princes to come rescue them. Belle was always there, providing a much more interesting alternative.
As the tour has unfolded, Johnson has been moved by how many fans come to the stage door after the show, often with tears in their eyes. “They say Belle is their princess,” she said. Over 30 years after the film first premiered, fans are still seeing themselves in Belle’s love of reading, her desire to leave her small town life behind, and her sense of adventure.
“My props to Linda,” Johnson said. “What a story she wrote.”
BEAUTY AND THE BEAST
Book by Linda Woolverton, music by Alan Menken, lyrics by Howard Ashman and Tim Rice. Directed by Matt West. Presented by Broadway in Boston at Citizens Opera House as part of a North American tour, 539 Washington St., Boston, April 14-May 2. Tickets: $62-$248.
