Be our guest! Disney’s classic Beauty and the Beast lavish Broadway production arrives at Baltimore’s glorious France-Merrick Hippodrome theater for one week only – May 10 – 15. This production is a shining example of all the things that make Disney great and the one glaring thing that always annoys me.
Let’s start with the annoying thing. What does Disney have against mothers? Throughout the entire evening I kept thinking to myself why are we going through this exercise? The minute Belle has the Prince’s kid she’s going to die anyway. Because in the Disney universe, I suppose only males can be parents. It’s an irritation that I’ll never get over.
This production is quite beautiful and at times the music truly soars leaving the audience transfixed. It helps that the original creators of the Broadway production have reunited for this new touring production.
The play is directed by Rob Roth and choreographed by Matt West, with Costume Design by Ann Hould-Ward (Tony Award® winner for her work on Disney’s Beauty and the Beast), Lighting Design by Natasha Katz (five-time Tony Award® winner), Scenic Design by Stanley A. Meyer, Sound Design by John Petrafesa Jr. and Music Supervision by Michael Kosarin.
Christiaan Smith Kotlarek as Gaston and the silly girls of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast. Photo by Matthew Murphy
The set and costume design work is lovely and colorful. Some of the special effects work quite well, especially the staging of both of Beast’s big transformations. The humor from the film translates well to the screen and since I never saw the animated film I can’t comment too much on how well the various animated characters translated. The Lion King didn’t work as a stage production for me because the puppets never worked. But here they just go with “humans,” and don’t try as hard to maintain the illusion.
Brooke Quintana (Belle) heads up a pretty strong cast, that includes Sam Hartley (Beast), Christiaan Smith-Kotlarek (Gaston), Ryan N. Phillips (Lumiere), Matt Disilva (LeFou), Stephanie Harter Gilmore (Madame de la Grand Bouche) and Stephanie Gray (Miss Potts). The large cast do an amazing job on all of the great Alan Menken classics. The audience of course goes nuts at the exuberance of Be Our Guest and enthralled during the beautiful title track – Beauty and the Beast. Both songs are flawless in this production.
Beauty and the Beast Cast. Photo by Matthew Murhy
Even though I haven’t seen the movie, I’m going to go on the assumption that everyone reading this review probably has, so I’m not going to bore you all with the tedious plot summary (TPS). Although I have to ask I didn’t understand why the witch would curse everyone inside the house as well as the Prince. It isn’t like the staff had anything to do with the Prince being a selfish jagoff. That bugged me. It’s really a pretty depressing tale of woe when you think about it.
If you get a chance, this is a solid production for the entire family. This review is for the performance held in Baltimore, MD, May 10, 2016. Please visit Beauty and the Beast on Tour, the official tour website for more information.
Final Grade A
Performances run from May 10 – May 15:
- May 10, 2016 (Tue) 7:30 PM
- May 11, 2016 (Wed) 7:30 PM
- May 12, 2016 (Thu) 10:30 AM & 7:30 PM
- May 13, 2016 (Fri) 7:30 PM
- May 14, 2016 (Sat) 2:00 PM & 7:30 PM
- May 15, 2016 (Sun) 1:00 PM & 6:30 PM