Something There...: Behind the Scenes of Disney's Refreshed BEAUTY AND THE BEAST

For the first time in 25 years, Disney is sending Beauty and the Beast back out on the road. Based on the 1991 Academy Award-winning animated feature film, Beauty and the Beast premiered on Broadway in 1994 and still ranks as the 10th longest-running show in the industry’s history.

Throughout its legacy, Beauty & the Beast has become a formative musical for fans of all ages. Much of the cast of the new tour – led by Kyra Belle Johnson as Belle and Fergie L. Philippe as the Beast – has a personal connection to the original production.

"I wore out the cassette tape on my Walkman," Danny Gardner, who plays Lumiere, shares. "That song specifically, 'Be Our Guest,' because as a little song and dance man boy, I was just obsessed with it and and so to be that character now, it's kind of a dream come true. That little 10 year old Danny never knew he'd be playing Lumiere."

"Well Beauty and the Beast was the first film that I saw in the theater when I was a child," Stephen Mark Lukas, who plays Gaston, shared. "It was the first show I saw on Broadway when I was seven years old. We came to New York for the first time and I sat in the theater and I remember just like being in awe of it and thinking like wow if there's any way that I could do that with my life, to be a part of storytelling at that level, that's what I want to do and here we are so yeah it's it's it's a dream come true."

Kathy Voytko, who plays Mrs. Potts, also has a family connection to the beloved musical, sharing: "My husband and I have two daughters and we have probably seen the animated film roughly 7,942 times so the idea that we get to be these characters that we fell in love with, watching our daughters watch this story unfold makes me choked up on the daily. So it's really a pleasure."

Things will come full circle this fall for the production's Beast, Fergie L. Philippe, as he takes the musical back to his roots.

"The thing that really gets me is that the first national tour I ever saw was Beauty & the Beast and I saw it in my college town," he shared. "We're going to be playing there in November. So it's going to be kind of an emotional experience for me."

Stepping into the spotlight as Belle, Kyra Belle Johnson is looking back on her deep history with the musical, which was one of the first productions she appeared in.

"It was the third musical I was ever in and I loved it," she revealed. "I was a sugar cube in the castle, I really wanted to be Chip, but it's okay. I let that go, and maybe I'll get one performance as Chip this go around."

The musical has stuck with Johnson throughout her career, sharing that Alan Menken and Howard Ashman's tunes haven't left her head since she first heard them.

"It's so iconic. It's timeless. It's across many generations. The romance, the friendship, the magic. Some of my favorite characters are Cogsworth and Lumiere. There's humor and love and I'm just addicted to this story. I can't wait to do it every night."

Reuniting to create this new production are members of the original Tony Award-winning artistic team, including composer Alan Menken (who wrote the film’s beloved score with the late lyricist Howard Ashman), Tim Rice, who wrote lyrics for the stage adaptation, book writer Linda Woolverton, and director-choreographer Matt West.

"So much has changed in 31 years," West says. "Technology, fabrics, lighting. So we have taken advantage of all of those and we brought them into the show and we're using them and having a good time with it."

"We've also made some changes to the actual the writing a little bit just to make it feel not sort of stuck in amber, but as a living moving breathing entity that has been changing for 31 years . So that feels really great that it's constantly evolving and I think that the audience will feel that, the evolution of this show," Woolverton shares.

The new production features a slew of updated sequences, including new choreography and book scenes added to expand the musical. A regimagined "Be Our Guest" was also teased by multiple members of the company. Woolverton describes the experience of writing new material for the tour as "surreal."

"I have to sometimes pinch myself. Recently, I was writing a new scene, we put in a new scene. I couldn't believe I was writing a new scene. And yet these are my friends, these are my old friends. It was really fun to play with them again."

At the musical's core is the relationship between Belle and the Beast, which displays the show's emotional heart.

"I really think it's the fact that I genuinely adore [Fergie] and the whole show is a journey of these two characters learning about each other and changing each other and falling in love and forming a friendship. I think it's really directly correlated to such a level of admiration," Johnson shared, also confirming that the fact that they're both Leos also helps.

"We check in often, but we also are very good about knowing if the other person is off or if the other person is having a bit of stressful moment," Philippe continued. "I think we have a really natural chemistry which is why we understand each other."

"It's not only an incredible story but the spectacle of it all, the romance," Javier Ignacio, who plays Cogsworth, shares. "I think it's it's something that I think many of us can relate to as well as the message of  don't judge a book by its cover, which is so important right now. So I'm excited about that.

The cast all states that no matter how much they do it, the show never fails to touch them.

"It still moves me," Voytko says. "You know what's gonna happen, but it still moves me every time. When you hear Chip say, 'Mama, mama,' and then he runs into her arms. I think right now, we need that empathy, and we need to feel that and practice our emotions in the theater. So I'm really excited to do that."

"It's a timeless romance," Lukas describes. "There's so much magic in this production. And I think it's just entertainment at its best. I mean, I people are really just going to fall in love all over again with the story and the characters that we've known for so long and see a bit of a fresh take on it too, which I think will be exciting."

With the musical's timeless romance and nostalgia, the company hopes that this production will continue to inspire future generations of theatregoers.

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