My dad surprised me with Beauty and the Beast tickets yesterday when we were in NYC. We saw Phantom of the Opera at 2pm and Beauty at 8pm.

Its not something I ordinarily would have thought to see live, but I've been a fan of the cartoon since I'm way little.

It was better than I could have imagined... I really loved it. Saw Steve Blanchard as The Beast, Sarah Litzsinger as Belle, Grant Norman as Gaston, and Jacob Young as Lumiere (apparently he's some soap star here in the 'States, I was skeptical but he was a great performer and a total hunk!). I liked the staging and sets, the pit was phenomenal, and the added songs "If I Can't Love Her" and "A Change in Me" were so awesome. The whole crowd was clapping and cheering during the transformation.

Anyone one else seen this show that would like to share what they thought?

I'm going to see the National Tour here in England later this year (hopefully...!) so will have to share my thoughts on it with you then.

I love classic Disney, Beauty & The Beast is one of my favourites :D

I saw the original Broadway opening with Terry Mann (Beast) Susan Egan ( Belle) Gary Beach ( Lumiere) Burk Moses (Gaston) and Tom Bosley from Happy days as crazy old Maurice. It was an incredible cast...and after seeing Terry in Cats ( see my avatar), I was very excited to get to meet him backstage.

The audience just loved this "brand new" show. It was the talk of Broadway as Disney's first show and sold out like the Lion King for a long, long time.

I covered the touring company in Philly about 3 years ago and while it was a bit changed, it was still in good shape. It's one of my most recommended family shows on Broadway....still. Enjoy ...if it comes your way.

I've seen Beauty and the Beast four times, and I loved it. I'm actually auditioning for it tomorrow. But, yes, it immediately became one of my favorite shows. I've loved the cartoon since I was tiny, and the show was just that, only better for me because once I finally saw it, I was much more grown up then I was when I just loved the cartoon. I love that show, one of my all time favorites, and I reccomend it to everyone.

Oh, hey, everyone, by the way, I got into Beauty and the Beast. I was so happy. I am having the time of my life. I have a three hour dance reahearsal tomorrow, and it's going to be so much fun. I'll have someone take pictures, or something, and I'll be sure to post them when I can! Granted, it'll be like a month and a half, but I'm still really excited! Yay!

Congratulations!! :D What part did you get?

Just a chorus member, but it is so much fun! The only problem is, I happen to fancy the two guys who play the Beast and Gaston, and I think the Beast likes the girl who plays Belle, and I think she likes the guy playing Gaston. Bizarre love triangle, isn't it? Plus it's really annoying because I'm good friends with her, yet she is one of the "elite," much higher than myself on the theatre status scale. Someday I'll be up there. In the mean time, I'll enjoy myself!

So, opening night is the day after tomorrow! YAY! I'm sooooo freaking excited. I was totally freaking out tonight, talking to my cousin on the phone, and I was dancing, and my dad got mad at me, haha. He was all, "Amber, be quiet! Stop tap dancing all over the place!" It was really funny. My cousin's in Beauty and the Beast too, at her school, and so is my sister, at a community theatre. And then I think my other cousin's school is doing it later. It's going to be awesome to see.

In other news, Donnie Osmand, the current Gaston on Broadway, his son is in the show with me, and he's coming to film our show and he's going to take it back to Broadway to show the cast. I'm scared! lol

Congratulations! That sounds really exciting. It depresses me that I can't come. :(

I'll be sure to get pictures for you!! We're getting a DVD of it, Disney gave us permission, and I'm going to see if I can make screencaps from it to show y'all. I hope so!

Yessssssssss!!! Awesome!!! :D Thanks a million!

And I can't believe you know Donnie Osmond's son :blink: That's really cool :)

Yeah. He's cool. But, yeah, I'll be sure to get pictures from my friend's mom, too. She's helping out, and she takes pictures.

Only two more shows, then we're done. *sniffle* I'll just have to find something else to do. Oh, and next summer I'm auditioning for Beauty and the Beast at a professional theatre. I'm already crossing my fingers for that one.

Cool. Well, I'll have my fingers crossed too.

Same here. :)

So, what were some of the most memorable moments of the production? Were there any goofs or was it all smooth sailing?

One night our feather duster nearly fainted. I was very worried about her, and I was sobbing. Luckily she was ill during intermission, and was semi-okay after that. Then my friend Karen started having flashbacks of a time her little sister had a panic attack at another theatre. So, she was sobbing too. We cried together, rubbed each other's back, then went downstairs and fixed our make up and all was well. Someone said, about that night, "The whole cast is falling apart!" and I said, "No it is not! This is bringing us closer, all of us worried about Milli like this, trying to help. It is bringing us closer." And it did.

Our beast fell and twisted his ankle on closing night.

Ohhhh, closing night....!!! We all hung out in the foyer dancing and singing to this guy who brought his accordian. he's an allumni of teh school. THen we went down to the dressing rooms and found everyone's lipstick and kissed each other's cheeks. Then we went to denny's covered in stage make up and kiss marks. That was probably the best thing. Plus, the guy I like gave me a ride home...!

Overall, it sounds like you had a wonderful and memorable experience. :) I'm glad that your Babette (feather duster) got better.

Me too, haha.

I'll have pictures soon. I don't know when we get the DVD, but it should be soon, and it will be very professional, and I'll see what I can do about posting pictures for you all to see!!

I can't wait. I love production pictures.

Have you seen the Beauty and the Beast film by Jean Cocteau?

The only version I consider, although the Disney movie *does* make me a shed a tear (or two)

IMO, the Beast in Cocteau's film was amazing. Needless to say, I was rather disappointed when he transformed back into a prince.

Do any of you know how to take screencaps/screenshots from a DVD? i'm trying to see if I can get some pictures of my production for you lot.

When I watch a DVD on my computer, I hit the "P" button and a box comes up with the picture inside. I always save them to a folder. Of course, I found this out by accident and it may be different for you.

Hope I helped! :)

Thanks, I'll give it a try!

Congrats! B&TB is an awesome musical. In my opinion though, POTO is THE best

Of course it is.

Sorry everyone, I can't get screen caps off my DVD. I have a mac, and that complicates things a bit, as most people I know don't have macs.

Sad news everyone Beauty and the beast is closeing this year in June or July that what they said

Really?? *anguished cry* That's horrible!!!

Yeah, that is sad...

Personally though, I don't like "The Phantom of the Opera" much. The score is good, but the script, on the other hand, is terrible, and the characters horrifically un-developed. The show's mostly just visual spectacle, with some good ideas, none of which are developed. It had the chance to be a great show, but just turned out kinda... well, bad. (LOL, people are gonna hate me for what I just said, :P but it's sadly quite true.)

"Beauty and the Beast" is probably better, overall.

BTW: To capture an image from your screen, try pushing the "Print Scrn" button... it's right above "Insert," on the right. That captures an image of your whole screen, so you may want to crop the image on Paint or some other such program.

Also, some DVD programs have an option for screen-capturing. Maybe try searching around the "help" section of yours to see if it does. If not, you could always search around the net for a free one that does have the option.

After seeing both Phantom and Beauty and the Beast on Broadway on the same day, I would have to say that I agree... Beauty and the Beast is the better show.

Currently starring as Gaston is Stephen R. Buntrock, who I saw as The Phantom, haha.

Beauty and the Beast will close on Broadway on July 29th, in order to "make way" for The Little Mermaid.

Excuse my French... but... bull. shit.

Glad to see someone that agrees with me. :)

I'm stumped as to how they're going to pull "The Little Mermaid" off... it could be scary... :blink: Though the movie does have a great score...

"Don Claude" is better than all of them, sorry

You speak the truth. :D

The Little Mermaid?? On Broadway?! :D, Yes!!

I'm all for Disney on Broadway, and I just love Ashman and Menken's partnership, The Little Mermaid has a gorgeous score.

I just hope they're imaginitive with the staging, like how the changed "The Lion King". It needs some big changes in order to work on stage.

This has been in development for yeeeears. I first heard about it in 2002 when David Ives - who was working with Jim Steinman on "Batman: The Musical" - was announced as the writer alongside Alan Menken on music & Glenn Slater completing 9 new songs.

Ives was attached to the project for a long time and there were several readings. I have the demos, with the new material, but these were not illegally distributed. Quite fantastically, Disney workers went out into the streets of New York and handed them out to people. They told them to circulate them as much as they could and et VOILA they are available online and I have heard them. The new stuff is nowhere near as good as the movie, but Ursula has a great potential B'way standard called "All Good Things Must End". Matthew Bourne was supposed to direct but he went on to do "Mary Poppins" instead.

Nothing was heard for quite a while until Disney announced, when "Tarzan" was under way, that it would feature a new book by Doug Wright (Grey Gardens) and direction by.. I'm sorry, I can't remember the name. There will be a try-out in Denver this year, you simply ALL MUST GO ALONG AND SEE IT, and then it'll open later this year on Broadway. As far as I know, they are casting a lot of unknowns. The pictures I've seen of the set designer's work are absolutely phenomenal, operatic and Wagnerian. I think this could POTENTIALLY be the most compelling Disney stage production YET

I really hope it succeeds. I've been following it for so long!

EDIT: I have to also add that "The Little Mermaid" is one of my favourite movies, PERIOD, as it is to a lot of people who grew up on the Disney 90s Renaissance. Our friend owned a video store and had a copy of it which she refused to put on the shelves. It was the only store that had it. The video had gone out of print, despite great demand, and she said: "look, if you can find a copy, you'll be paying $400". We FOUND a copy of the actual SAME VIDEO for $2 LOL

I didn't enjoy the DVD re-release at all. It could have been so much better and UGGGGG they're actually doing a LITTLE MERMAID 3. Yuck

LITTLE MERMAID THREE???? gag me. Why do they need to do that, isn't one enough? The one was great, two was one to many. Three's just disgusting. I hope someone from Disney is reading this. None of us who grew up during the "Disney 90's Renaissance," as you say, appreciate all the "two" movies that are coming out. I only like Lion King 2. Well, Toy Story wasn't bad either. But no three's. Ever. Good bye, the end.

Oh, great. ANOTHER crappy Disney direct-to-video sequel. <_<

I wish this musical though, the best of luck as well. I'm actually quite looking forward to seeing what it will turn out like.

Well, I remain a "closet" Disney fan :D LOL

"Beauty and the Beast" and "The Lion King" are very opulent theatrical productions, I'm still bummed that TLK won over "Ragtime" in 1997. That was SUCH a pity, if it opened in any other season it would have won. Alas.

The Disney Animation department HAD been reduced to these poor sequels / impersonations while the main department continued with CGI animated pictures. This was the fault of Michael Eisner, the then president, who would have had Walt rolling in his grave. When he was sacked, the department working on the sequels was closed LOL - YAAAAY!!! - and they are going back to traditional 2D animation with "Rapunzel" and "The Frog Princess". ABOUT TIME!!!!

Also, Disney just released "Cinderella III" and the plot of that alone had me in a laughing fit for an hour

What's the plot? What's plot???

Hope I'll survive it...

LOL courtesy wiki:

"Plot
Lady Tremaine, Cinderella's wicked stepmother, one day finds her daughter Anastasia in the garden holding what she thinks is a stick, but is really the Fairy Godmother's wand. Anastasia, trying to prove the wand is magic, turns the godmother into a stone statue.

Tremaine steals the Fairy Godmother's magic wand and reverses time, changing everything back to the way it was before - Cinderella still lives with Lady Tremaine. It is right when the Duke has come with the slipper, and the mice have almost got Cinderella out of her room. Lady Tremaine rushes the process along, and then uses the wand to make her daughter Anastasia's foot fit the slipper before Cinderella can make it downstairs. The duke then announces she will wed the prince, and leaves. She breaks Cinderella's other slipper as she comes down the stairs, and tells her to forget the dance ever happened.

Cinderella is convinced though that the prince will remember who she is. Lady Tremaine then, when the prince says Anastasia wasn't the one he danced with, uses the wand to make him forget about Cinderella and marry Anastasia that night; the family then moves into the palace, leaving Cinderella at home. The mice, Jaq and Gus, who witnessed the event, tell Cinderella about her plot.

Cinderella then sneaks into the palace, posing as a housekeeper. While she distracts her family, Gus and Jaq steal the wand. When Tremaine points out the maid is Cinderella, she orders the guards to capture her. The mice toss the wand to her, but if she catches it is still unknown."


I've called 911 in case ;)

EDIT: I was one of a million people who stopped Disney from doing SNOW WHITE II lol. I think our petition worked hahah

LOL, you're so right. But what about 1 1/2? ;) On that note, I must say the "The Lion King 1/12" is the stupidest title for a movie ever...

BTW, thanks for the synopsis, Ryan... I should've just looked it up myself... but that is hysterically stupid, just as you said.

Yes! Thank God that didn't happen... to make a sequel to that would be EVIL.