THE BUSINESS OF NOSTALGIA:
BEAUTY AND THE BEAST ALL
DRESSED UP WITH NOWHERE TO GO

Last Thursday night, a rainy July 10th, ensconced in the stunningly beautiful Cadillac Palace Theatre, I finally took in a Disney stage musical. Fittingly, it was the very first one they’d produced in 1994, Beauty and the Beast. While a scaled-down non-Equity tour by NETworks (co-produced by Disney) trod the boards in 2010, Chicago is the kick-off of the first North American production presented by Disney in over 25 years.

It was spectacular.
It was bland.
It was boring.
It was safe.

It was, in summary, exactly what I expected it to be.

In 1991, Disney released Beauty and the Beast, a movie adaptation of an 18th-century fairy tale by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve, to rapturous reviews. The film was almost universally regarded as a masterpiece or near-masterpiece. It became the first animated movie to be nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards (it won two Oscars from its six nominations, for Song and Score) and three decades later, it is still considered by some (including this reviewer) to be the peak of the Disney Renaissance that began with The Little Mermaid (1989).

Even back then, it was clear to many theatregoers that in creating this film, Disney had followed the classic Broadway musical structure to a T. It was inevitable, given the monster success of the movie, that the stage would be its next destination; a short three years later, it opened on Broadway, ran for years, and made bucket loads of money for its producers.

Kyra Belle Johnson and Fergie L. Phillipe

The fifth U.S. tour—a Beauty and the Beast on autopilot frozen in time—opens with the maternal tones of Angela Lansbury’s wonderful narration from the 2022 UK touring production setting up the plot: a vain, selfish, young prince spurns an old beggar woman who turns out to be an enchantress. She curses him to turn him into a beast until he learns to look beyond external appearances and learn the meaning of true love. Then, for some reason, she also curses all the inhabitants of the castle, because I guess it’s the chambermaids, footmen, and cooks who are to blame for the boundless bad manners of royalty.

In the slight twist on the original, the servants don’t start out as objects, but are slowly turning into them as time goes by. It’s a change that makes no sense in the context of the plot. (One song cut from the film—in which the enchanted objects in the Beast’s castle express their desire to become “Human Again”—has been added for the stage version.) The book for this musical must have been one of the easiest paychecks in Broadway history; Linda Woolverton simply edits down her film screenplay. About 95% of the dialogue in the show is verbatim from the movie, with the exception of one scene where the above change is discussed. I certainly do not begrudge that paycheck (get that Disney money!) but it amuses me to think about it.

Kyra Belle Johnson and Fergie L. Phillipe

We shift from the castle to the village, where Belle (Kyra Belle Johnson) swans about the town square and a bookstore singing about her provincial life (“Belle”). Eventually the townsfolk and our villain Gaston (Stephen Mark Lucas) join in and eventually Belle runs off to say goodbye to her inventor father who’s off to win a contest. On his way, he’s waylaid by wolves and escapes them by finding his way to the enchanted castle, populated by people who are part human but look entirely like objects, and a beast who looks entirely like a beast. The plot machinations follow according to the road map of the film. Belle arrives. Swaps places with her imprisoned father. Much revelry with the human/objects. Much rom-com-ish pouting and fighting with the beast, until the inevitable falling in love followed by the climactic fight.

Kyra Belle Johnson and Fergie L. Phillipe

Director/Choreographer Matt West puts his cast through its paces with workman-like proficiency. Directorial vision is not encouraged here. The familiarity and comfort of the source material is the selling point.

Purportedly there are six new songs that weren’t in the movie. Since the film’s lyricist Howard Ashman had died of AIDS, the new lyrics were written by Tim Rice with original composer Alan Menken. At the time of writing, save one, I can’t even recall where they were in the show. They barely register and when they do it’s more because of their generic awfulness. I couldn’t name a single one of them the morning after without checking the playbill. The first act curtain (“If I Can’t Love Her”) drops on a howler of a frame that feels like it was directly lifted from the end of Satan’s solo (“Up There”) in the 1999 film South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (that “Up There” is a very unsubtle parody of Disney songs makes the moment even funnier).

Fergie L. Phillipe

As Belle, Kyra Belle Johnson doesn’t give a performance so much as an imitation. Even her inflections, both spoken and sung, seem to be lifted from the movie. She has a beautiful bell (sorry) of a voice when she sings, clear and crisp, but the absence of any kind of personality is deadly here. It’s worse than a bad performance. It’s a boring one.

As Beast, Fergie L. Phillipe fares a little better, trying, at least, to bring some freshness to the part, and he has a few nice moments with the castle staff, but even in the movie, Beast is the least sketched out character, and since the show is terrified of changing anything from the movie, that limitation is transferred to the stage. There’s not much Phillipe can do, and he’s also saddled with a shockingly inept Beast costume. Given that the rest of Ann Hould-Ward‘s costumes are replicas of those in the movies, I would have expected a little more effort here.

Kyra Belle Johnson

With Johnson and Phillipe bringing nothing significant to the show as leads, we have to depend on the supporting cast and thank heavens for Stephen Mark Lucas, who makes for a splendid Gaston. His every appearance buoys the production, and of the entire cast, he seems like the only one actually enjoying himself on stage. His energy is infectious and his big number (“Gaston”) came just in time to ward off my yawns.

As Lumière, Cogsworth, and Mrs. Potts, Danny Gardner, Javier Ignacio, and Kathy Voytko do fine supporting work, especially Gardner. There’s charming chemistry between Gardner and Ignacio, and while Voytko is saddled with the unfortunate legacy of Angela Lansbury’s flawless voice performance (using that voiceover narration does not help), she acquits herself well.

The technical elements are all over the place. There were a surprising number of audio issues in John Shivers‘ sound design, and an unfortunate tendency to dial up the volume during the newer numbers adding unnecessary bombast to songs that were already over the top.

When the technical elements do come together, the show comes to life. The forest chase sequences are superb, with lights (Natasha Katz), sets (Stanley Meyer), projections (Darrel Maloney), and sound working together to dazzling effect.

The technicals are also flawless in the two best moments of the show: The pub number “Gaston” is wonderful with Lucas and the company delivering crackling energy and loads of humor: everything one could want from a barnstormer of a song.

Australian cast in "Be Our Guest" (photo by Daniel Boud)

The other moment was the performance of “Be Our Guest” which was the highlight of the show. An exquisitely choreographed and performed song that invoked the magic of old Hollywood and Broadway musicals with casual aplomb. As witty as it was tuneful, it was both technically and artistically accomplished.

For ten-ish wonderful minutes, I was a wide-eyed child again.

2025 tour photos by Matthew Murphy

Beauty and the Beast
kick-off of the 2025 North American tour
ends at Chicago’s Cadillac Palace Theatre on August 2, 2025
for tickets, call 800.775.2000 or visit Broadway In Chicago

tour continues
for dates and cities, visit Beauty and the Beast

for more shows, visit Theatre in Chicago