"Beauty & The Beast" 10/5--review and bad audience behavior

I took my out-of-town guest to see this on 10/5--she is a huge Donny Osmond fan, so she really just went to see Donny.
The show was cute--not really my cup of tea (no pun intended), but Donny was funny as Gaston, and Sarah Uriarte Berry was very good (although she did get a bit strident during a couple of numbers.) I was disappointed with Steve Blanchard as the Beast, who seemed to be only half-there (he didn't really seem to be engaged in the performance until the very end, when he "transformed"), and with Jamie Ross (Maurice)--he seemed to be literally walking through the performance at some points. I thought the wolf chase scene was just embarrassing--there was no sense of danger there at all (I mean the one where he was being chased--the one with Belle and the Beast and the wolves was quite good.)
I saw the animated film about a million times when my kids were younger, and I kept thinking that overall, I liked the film better. It seemed to me that the magic of people being turned into objects, for example, came across better in animation than onstage. Also, some things, like the way Gaston keeps beating up Lefou, which seemed funny in the cartoon (at least to me), came across as just mean onstage.
I did really enjoy Jeanne Lehman as Mrs. Potts and Stuart Marland as Lumiere; they were excellent.
The only substitution the night we were there was for Babette--Alisa Klein played the role. She was cute.
One really annoying thing--we were sitting in the front row of the mezzanine. Off to our left was a large group in the "box". This group had not only a restless toddler who couldn't sit still, but a BABY who started to fuss and cry about halfway through the first act. It was incredibly distracting. The ushers did nothing about it. It was especially bad during the Beast's big, emotional number at the end of Act I, and I felt sorry for him as he tried to get through the song. I'm sure he could hear the crying as it was right above him. I kept thinking that if this were "Sweeney," the ushers would have been on that group in a flash, but maybe because it's Disney, they are more tolerant of fussy kids? But still, to me, bringing a baby to ANY Broadway show is just wrong.
Karen

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I'm pretty sure the house staff isn't thrilled Disney shows don't have any limitations on age. However, people see logic in buying tickets for their newborns and bringing them to a show that they will have no memory of. Isn't that what all the oversized American Girl bags are for? You know the ones people drag into the "kid" shows. The toddlers need something to pay attention too.

That's so interesting, because I know I've read that no child under the age of 3 will be admitted to Lion King in London- who knew you could bring babies to Disney on Broadway. Or maybe the question is who would think to bring a baby?

Interesting. I'd heard that Beauty & the Beast has no age restriction any more, but was sure I'd seen the "No Children Under 4" sign at the New Amsterdam when I purchased tickets for Mary Poppins. (The Lion King was still playing there at the time.) So I went to Ticketmaster to see if it said anything, and I found this on the purchase page for both Beauty and Poppins:

"Additional Information:
Age Recommendation: Disney on Broadway performances are recommended for a general audience. As an advisory to adults who might bring young people, Disney recommends its productions for ages 6 and up. All persons entering the theatre, regardless of age, must have a ticket. Disney's shows run approximately two and a half hours, including intermission."

Maybe Disney is trying to discourage people from bringing very young children, without having an actual age limit? I don't see why they don't just bring back the 'no children under age 4' rule that all other Broadway theaters seem to have. It's definitely not unreasonable.

if i were a professional actor i would stay away from disney shows. bless their souls.

Beauty and the Beast is the only show on broadway with no age limits really in place...The Lion King and Mary Poppins, however, do have age limits because they are performed for mature audiecnes mroe so than Beauty is.

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I'm sorry there might be an easier way to find this answer, but has Beauty and the Beast played in London? Did it not do well?

Many hotels do have babysitting services.

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Well, it's possible if the baby were young enough that the family could have been bringing the baby to visit relatives and they decided to make a vacation out of it.

Regardless, the family shouldn't have brought the baby to the theatre. It's like bringing a baby to a movie and SO much worse when the baby gets fussy and cries.

I was at the show recently and these two girls, maybe 8 years old, would not stop talking after Be Our Guest. They were sitting right behind me. I mean it was constant. I came to the show for If I Can't Love Her, the Act 1 Finale. So I was more than pissed that they wouldn't shut up especially at that point. Finally I turned around and told them to "shut it, other people are here!" And at intermission their mother her mother told me to have some manners. I was like "are you kidding me? If you can't keep your d*%n loud kids at home at least teach them something about theatre etiquette!" then she went and bought them a bunch of candy which they munched loudly on all through the second act. Good lord!

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I suppose it wasn't that big of a hit since it has closed.