Beauty and The Beast National Tour!

[defyinggravity42694]

Posted: 3/21/08 at 12:40pm

I read that Beauty and The Beast is going on tour. There are auditions on July 28, 2008. I'm personally very happy about it.

Any thoughts?

[uncageg]

Posted: 3/21/08 at 12:43pm

I am sure it will do well. I saw the 1st national tour and didn't care much for it. I was looking for the moving sidewalk to the next attraction when it was over! It is my least favorite of the Disney shows I have seen.

[sleepyguy1717]

Posted: 3/21/08 at 1:36pm

Could you post a link to where you found this info please? :) Thank you very much!

[puppetman2]

Posted: 3/21/08 at 5:36pm

If there is one, I hope they have a good transformation scene, the one I saw in the first national tour was really lame and not at all magical.
The one I saw in Toronto which was the same as the original Broadway version was wonderful.

[defyingravity07]

Posted: 3/21/08 at 5:39pm

What was the transformation on tour, and I hope this is produced by Disney, why was it that the UK got a disney tour before we did?

[uncageg]

Posted: 3/21/08 at 5:45pm

I saw it in Denver and the transformation scene was about the coolest thing in the show. I was actually impressed. Didn't David Copperfield work with them for that?

[defyinggravity42694]

Posted: 3/21/08 at 7:13pm

There is no link... it was published in the theatre magazine BACKSTAGE.

[puppetman2]

Posted: 3/21/08 at 9:04pm

In the Disney produced tour that I saw, the Beast was on the floor next to a wall and he was raised slowly by something obviously projecting from the wall. There was a flash and he threw off the Beast mask.

In the Toronto version he was raised in the middle of the stage with no obvious support and began to rotate with lazers shooting all around him. When he came down to stage level he was the prince.

No David Copperfield was not connected with B & B but there were two magic consultants.

In the companion book for the show, it is stated that everyone was sworn to secrecy as to how it was done.

[Ivan2]

Posted: 3/22/08 at 1:12am

You guys think that yours were lame? Mine was really stupid. This happened when I was 7 and I still remember it. It was at the Orpheum in Minneapolis. So after Gaston is thrown off of the roof, the Beast and Belle stumble back into the castle from the balcony. The set revolves and we see Belle crying at the Beast's "body", which was actually, I'm assuming, just a bundle of cape stuffed with something to look like a body. It was hoisted into the air, spun very fast (may have been sparks?) and when the set turned around again and the Beast walked back onto the balcony with Belle. So, even as a 7 year old I could tell he wasn't really transforming.

[outdamnwench]

Posted: 3/22/08 at 1:21am

I heard that it was written into all the cast/crews contracts that they were to not reveal the "secrets of the show" until a certain time after their run in the show was finished.

[Ivan2]

Posted: 3/22/08 at 1:25am

I've heard such wonderful things about the transformation scene that I was disappointed I wasn't able to catch in on Broadway.

[Chason]

Posted: 3/22/08 at 1:28am

We saw it locally about 2 months ago. The special effects were pretty good, actually. Even still - I think it's kind of a silly play. I LOVE the movie - but trying to make the animation into something realistic - kind of takes away the whole "reality" of the story. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the music, though.

[TheatreGal614]

Posted: 3/22/08 at 1:59am

.... yea, i was in a production of it and i must say, our transformation scene was better than some i've seen... but that doesn't matter bc if Beauty and the Beast went on tour, it would still be magical

[singtopher]

Posted: 3/22/08 at 9:34am

Aren't the secrets of the transformation common knowledge now?

Updated On: 3/22/08 at 09:34 AM

[winston89]

Posted: 3/22/08 at 12:15pm

Singtopher yes they are.

I was speaking very informally with an actress who I won't name who played Belle as an understudy. I had told her that there were rumors going on around the transformation scene. She asked me what I had heard.

I had heard that during the battle scene when Lumier is telling the best that the castle is under attack. The Beast's reply is a voice over. There is a cover there dressed like the beast. While the real actor is getting all the major parts of his costume off back stage. When the fight is over it is the regualr actor on the stage. When he is up in the air he is spinning around and taking off the last few bits of his costume that can easilly be tucked away or thrown to the side. The the transformation is complete.

After telling her that is what I had heard she had said that that was correct. She also claimed that Disney was a very sneaky group of people to work with.

[pianojohn]

Posted: 3/22/08 at 1:38pm

Why is this going on tour when every Equity and non Equity theatre in town has produced it? I think this would be a tough sell.

[gypsy4]

Posted: 3/22/08 at 2:53pm

when i saw the second National tour in 03 the during the transformation the beast rose up and then he was spun .and then was risen down.
Updated On: 3/22/08 at 02:53 PM

[winston89]

Posted: 3/23/08 at 1:21am

Gypsy, that is what they want it to look like. They don't want the audience thinking that there is a lot to it. That is where the magic part comes in.

PianoJohn,

I think that Disney would send this out on tour because they feel that they can make money from it. I guess as far as they are concerned they can make a fair amount of money if they have both amature and regional equity productions going on as well as a tour.

The regional equity productions aren't and won't hit the major cities that would be major stops on any tour. So, even if there is a tour it wouldn't get in the way of the regional equity productions going on.

[Radioactiveduck]

Posted: 3/26/08 at 4:37am

FRICK, the timing of this production sucks...I'm still in college. I was totally planning on them doing a 20th anniversary tour in a few years, which I was totally going to audition for and then get cast as a Lumiere/Beast understudy and start my theatre career.

FRICK!!! Updated On: 3/26/08 at 04:37 AM

[defyinggravity42694]

Posted: 3/26/08 at 8:36pm

does anyone think Steve Blanchard will play the Beast?

[winston89]

Posted: 3/26/08 at 8:48pm

At this point in his carrier I don't think he can do anything else other then play the Beast when offered the role.

In all truthfulness, I am not sure if he will play the role or if he wants to move onto other things. Considering the fact that he was the longest actor to play the role I think that because of his good relationship with Disney he can pretty much have it if he tells them that he wants to do it.