Bamigboye: BEAUTY & THE BEAST UK tour taps Lansbury, Lee, and leads

https://twitter.com/bazbam/status/1387888276703490049?s=21



Ever just as sure ... happy to report @CourtneyJStapes and @EmmanuelKojo_ will play title roles in @BeautyMusical U.K. tour which now starts @BristolHipp on August 25 . Disney also cast #GavinLee as Lumiere with lots more tap in #BeOurGuest number.

Ever a surprise... #AngelaLansbury will record a prologue which will be played at every performance on the @BeautyMusical U.K. tour kicking off @BristolHipp August 25 starring @CourtneyJStapes & @EmmanuelKojo_ in title roles & #GavinLee as Lumiere.

Updated On: 4/29/21 at 05:59 PM

This sounds like they are putting a lot of thought and effort into this tour - is it possible that the plan is to have this production end up playing the West End or even be a Broadway revival?

ErmengardeStopSniveling said: "Hoping for the best but I REALLY wish they went back to Square A with a real director and new creative team, instead of having the original creators come back to it. (Rob Roth is gone from it now as we know, but he still laid all the groundwork. the choreographer has picked up where he left off)"

Same. I believe the recent non-equity tour used the same creative team as the original production as well, and that production was absolutely atrocious in every way.

bwayphreak234 said: "I believe the recent non-equity tour used the same creative team as the original production as well, and that production was absolutely atrocious in every way."

To be fair they were likely working with a fraction of the budget that was afforded to them on the original Broadway production. This tour will likely be scaled down but hopefully not as much as the NetWorks non equity tour.

FANtomFollies said: "This sounds like they are putting a lot of thought andeffort into this tour - is it possible that the plan is to have this productionend up playing the West End or even be a Broadway revival?"

The tour is ending next summer with the show at the Palladium for a while so I guess that's technically West End, isn't it? I'm sure if the desire is there at that point, they could find a home for it somewhere else.

ErmengardeStopSniveling said: "It needs a ground-up reinvention. Let a Tina Landau or Michael Arden or Lear DeBessonettype take a stab atit in a LORT theatre with Disney's blessing and maybe it can move. Of course she can wear a yellow dress but rethink the enchanted object designs (including the Beast) as though the original stage production never existed. It does not need to be theme park-adjacent; let it be its own thing like Lion King and Hunchback.

As for the non-equity tours in the past decade, the physical production was the least of its problems. Every performance was a caricature, and otherwise-talented actors were directed to be hammy in the most obnoxious way. It was insulting to the theatrical artform and to the actors involved, and that all falls on the Disney brass and this creative team."

It would be nice to see the Beast played for real instead of hammed up for laughs. I absolutely understand the team’s concern that a live and tangible beast character is going to be a lot more frightening than the cartoon and some of the wild harrowing roars in the movie might need to be rethought, however they went so far in the other direction (especially with take over and touring casts) and made the beast...for want of a better expression...a cartoon. Playing him as a spoilt child in the more ferocious moments is not an unintelligent idea and could be an interesting angle but it would be so much nicer if it was played for real and...again for want of a better word...human. The jumping up and down with ‘I want you to come down to dinner’ they started doing was nauseating.

I hope they don’t add in too many of the clumsy alterations they made for the live action movie. They took a perfect example of a musical opening and made wrongheaded changes and for that alone they should have been pushed off the castle roof like Gaston.

So Matt West (who?) is just taking over from where Rob Roth left off, and the timeline hasn't changed? Something really doesn't add up with the abrupt exit of Roth.

Updated On: 5/25/21 at 06:34 AM

jlindsey865 said: "I really enjoy what I’m seeing and reading about this production before. I’m hoping it transfers to New York."

Would be great if the Palace Theatre was ready to reopen when this production came to NY.

Images and design concept for the production

https://www.instagram.com/p/CSG5J8kIIWl/

Based on those drawings, it looks like we are getting a hybrid of the original production and the last national tour.

Updated On: 9/16/21 at 10:11 AM