Beauty and the Beast tour montage.

[beautywickedlover]

The official website of the national tour of "Beauty and the Beast" has been posted. I think it looks good, but I was expecting more since the original creative team did this tour. What do you think of it?

http://www.beautyandthebeastontour.com/video-gallery

[broadwayboy101]

That actually made me far less excited to see it. The production looks extremely scaled back, and whoever sang 'Beauty and the Beast' sounded way too young.

[BwayTday]

It's non-eq. so it won't be as big as Broadway, naturally. I have never seen it, so I'm excited.

[CATSNYrevival]

Lumiere doesn't even get real flames. That's what irks me the most. Everything else looks okay.

[AndAllThatJazz22]

I agree with CATSNY. I think it looks okay, but nothing great. Regardless, I'll still go in with an open mind when I see it in May.

[Candleshoe2]

Can anyone explain how the Chip contraption works?

[StephanietheStar]

Saw the tour last night in Chicago....while it has it's good moments it was very obviously non-equity to me. In terms of performances and sloppiness. If I had seen this at a regional theatre I might have been more impressed but in the cadillac palace where they still charge $40-$100 a seat!?? ridiculous.

Chip (spoiler?!? maybe***)

Chip was a child actor in a 'cart' for most of the show...but there is one creepy, wrong, bad idea that nobody fixed, where Mrs. Potts carries a child's HEAD with a tea cup on it on a tray and the head talks. It's obvious its a puppet head that she is controlling while holding the tray, but still, a talking child's head on a tray? who thought that was a good idea!? and it probably didn't help that Mrs. Potts sounded like Mrs. Lovett (Cockney, all the way...)

[TheatreFan4]

Chip was a child actor in a 'cart' for most of the show...but there is one creepy, wrong, bad idea that nobody fixed, where Mrs. Potts carries a child's HEAD with a tea cup on it on a tray and the head talks. It's obvious its a puppet head that she is controlling while holding the tray, but still, a talking child's head on a tray? who thought that was a good idea!? and it probably didn't help that Mrs. Potts sounded like Mrs. Lovett (Cockney, all the way...)

That has been in the show since it opened on Broadway.

[jonartdesigns]

The showdeck is distracting as hell.

and Belle sounds like she's in High School

[StephanietheStar]

TheatreFan4- it's funny because right after I posted that I read that information somewhere else...I stand by that comment though...WHO thought that was a good idea? I don't even remember the scene because I was freaked out by the decapitated child!

[BadIdeaBear]

This looks so scaled down in every aspect, seeing this i can't understand why they didn't use use the current European tour sets whom the Disney creatives praised so much.

I think this looks a lot better
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ccs-Ck3793A

[truk777]

I saw the tour in Chicago last week. Overall it was just OK. It seemed more like a Regional or Community Theatre with a bigger budget.
I did, however, think the set was interesting in a good way. The costumes were very hit or miss...mostly miss. The lack of a lush sounding orchestra was disappointing as well.

Mrs. Potts = worst thing in the show. At one point her costume looked like it was pushed in on one side. Someone backstage should have popped it back out for her. Her accent was distracting.

[beautywickedlover]

Three sections of new videos are posted. Justin (the Beast) and Liz (Belle) sound amazing.

http://www.beautyandthebeastontour.com/video-gallery/page-1.html#gallery

http://www.beautyandthebeastontour.com/video-gallery/page-2.html#gallery

http://www.beautyandthebeastontour.com/video-gallery/page-3.html#gallery

[CATSNYrevival]

I'm still on the fence about it. The set looks elaborate and cheap all at the same time. Like, what's there is very beautiful, but there's so little of it. It's hard to describe.

[jimmycurry01]

I saw this in Chicago a week ago today. It was just OK. I thought Belle and Gaston were good, the rest of the cast did well enough. The set had a very cheap feeling about it and was definitely the most disappointing aspect of the show.

[broadwayboy101]

For those who have seen it, how do they accomplish the prologue and the transformation at the end?

[gypsy4]

Why they did make the great move of bringing back the original creative team I know this show would probly hugely in better shape if actualy produced by disney in the first place it doesn't live up to the broadway or first national touring production.

[broadwayboy101]

I'm seeing this next week; for anyone that's seen it, can you explain how they stage the prologue in this production? I'm somewhat curious.

[TheatreFan4]

I'm seeing it in June. :)

[My Oh My]

Saw the full scale original L.A. production at the Shubert and thought it was the most garish-looking thing I had ever seen. Offensively colorful and sparkly, VERY cartoonish, like they tried to transfer the animated film-look to the stage instead of thinking up a concept that would compliment its transition to live theatre. Too bad they didn't think of doing better functioning, more tasteful set designs for this tour.

I remember the talking severed child head of Chip. Completely creepy.

[bwayphreak234]

I am curious as to how the prologue and transformation work as well. What is the pre-show curtain for the show?