Beauty and the Beast National Tour 2025/2026
There are different lenses through which I could review the anniversary tour of Disney's Beauty and the Beast: As family entertainment, as a Broadway revival (especially valid since there is talk of having this tour stop on Broadway in the same way The Wiz and Beetlejuice did (or, in this case, possibly longer than those offerings), or, simply from my personal point of view. As family entertainment it is fun and the kids will have a nice time. But I would feel remiss if that's all I focused on in this review, despite the fact that a family, and largely kid, audience is what the production is clearly aiming for. Compared with the wide array of family theater offerings it's obviously about as big a spectacle as you can get (though I sometimes prefer the more intimate pieces, as do many kids...), and it comes with an equivalent, if not outrageous, price tag. If you have kids who won't be scared by special effects and love the original animated film, it's a fun time, no harm, no foul. There will be a standing ovation at the end of "Be Our Guest" and at the end of the show. Though, I have to say, this is not the piece I would use to introduce my kids to theater and, frankly, I think they would have a more edifying experience sitting by the fire and watching the animated original.
I wanted to love this production. I really did. Beauty and the Beast has been one of my favs since the original came out. I was a huge fan of the Broadway production and I just simply love the material.
But, I have to be honest, this production feels like a cash grab that claims to give you more while actually giving you far less. The press materials talk a great game:" Special anniversary production!" "All new bigger and better 'Be Our Guest' choreography!" But it's just that. A big game. The production feels more like a really, really good high school production without any of the charm or elegance of the original Broadway outing. The highly touted new "Be Our Guest" choreography may be impressive from a technical standpoint (it's now a tap number!) but makes less than no dramaturgical sense. (Why on earth is Lumiere, a candlestick, a tap dancer? Other than it's impressive to an audience?) The whole point of that number is "the flatware's entertaining" - and yet we can barely tell they're flatware at all (they're chorus girls holding plates like giant feathers (then, later, actual feathers for no reason) and guys sometimes holding nothing...) Babette is now frequently the center of the number doing high kick and Italian fouetté after high kick and...well, you get the picture. This is a production number for the audience's benefit, not a celebration for Belle - which forces us to judge it as a production number for us and, frankly, as such, it's not really that impressive. Belle herself looks like a fourteen year old bobbysoxer (who designed these new costumes?) - complete with nerdy glasses whenever she reads lest we make anyone feel uncomfortable that Belle is TOO beautiful, or, worse, excluded because Belle doesn't have quirks like them.
The cast size is shockingly small for a grand Disney tour, and they make sure that every ethnicity and body type is well represented, once again in case, God forbid, anyone in the audience feels somehow "left out." I'm not saying it isn't great to cast diversely, but in this instance it feels pandering, not truly inclusive. The special effects feel low grade, the costume redesigns can be full on groan-worthy (why are they making such odd changes to classic, beloved designs?) And all in all it feels like it's trying way too hard to lean into the things about the live action remake that, frankly, everyone hated. There are odd anachronisms - like in a castle filled with candelabras as the primary light source (#lumiere) Cogsworth, for a cheap one off joke, pulls an electrical cord out of nowhere to "cut off the electricity" from "Be Our Guest". Belle is at once framed as deliberately, physically "nerdy", but the "most beautiful girl in town" to Gaston (while also being surrounded by women who have the same "generic ingenue" look as her...it would be difficult to pick her out in this crowd if she wasn't always front and center). In the final number, Maurice is standing two inches away from Belle who completely ignores him until another character draws her attention to him for no other reason than that's when the choreographer wanted her to notice him.
It's telling that much of the promo footage for this tour is actually from the Australian production - which opened a while ago. For all the talk about this tour being "bold and new" it's just a copy and paste of a paired down previous production. It also looks like the Singapore production will be another cookie cutter of the same Australian production. Really, this looks like a theme park show that's just touring around the world, and, frankly, I prefer the production playing at Disneyland (or, for that matter, on the cruise ship).
The cast is...fine. Kyra Belle Johnson is cute as Belle... she has a lovely, if a bit too "pop" voice (for this material) but suffers from, as mentioned, "generic musical theater ingenue syndrome"... like I said, she comes across as a fourteen year old kid, not the mature and elegant young woman the role demands (and which Paige O'Hara and Susan Egan embodied so beautifully...) Beauty and the Beast is meant to tell the story of two equals finding each other and changing each other for the better. Here it feels like a high schooler is getting her first boyfriend and it's...a little weird. Fergie L. Philippe (playing the Beast) also has a nice voice but feels more like a sullen high schooler pouting out on the field than a formidable, and, ultimately, deeply vulnerable beast. Stephen Mark Lukas looks perfect as Gaston (one musical theater role where looks are integral to the plot), and does a great job at personifying that guy that everyone loves but really shouldn't. Danny Gardner does a nice job as Lumiere, though he isn't given much to showcase other than his tap skills, Kathy Voytko sings beautifully as Mrs. Potts (though I must point out a big pet peeve of mine that Chip in no way shape or form looks like they could be Mrs. Potts's child...) the rest of the cast, again, is fine... but no one is spectacular - partially because of some of the performers, and partially because of the lackluster version of the material.
This production feels, to me, like another depressing example of Disney's cutting quality while trying to squeeze every last penny possible out of their fans. The original stage production of Beauty and the Beast had a top tier cast, smart dramaturgy (they kept the best of the animated film while expanding it for the stage - including adding back in some Ashman tunes that didn't make it onto the screen...) revolutionary stagecraft, and hiring top tier designers and creative team members. Now it feels like we're getting not second string, but third string junior varsity who are indulging in their own creative quirks whether or not they have anything to do with the story, and musical theater performers number 8-22 who showed up to the EPA (I don't want to do a disservice to the cast, I'm sure most of them are wonderful in better material but, again, this feels like a top tier high school production/performance.) The stagecraft is nothing we haven't seen a million times before and, frankly, I don't know why this production exists other than as a cash grab. It is interesting to note that Disney did bring back SOME of the original creative team members to "spice up" this production...but it's a little odd which ones they brought back (over others) and clearly they were given very specific edicts as this show doesn't hold together like other material we know these creatives are capable of...
Beauty and the Beast has long been available for licensing and I've seen regional (not to mention high school and college) productions better than this. If your kids are itching to go you'll have a fun time... but if you want to see better quality and a more affordable price, consider supporting your local Beauty and the Beast production instead, or, if you want that official "Disney magic" take a trip to Tokyo Disneyland where their Beauty and the Beast ride is SO extraordinary and literally magical it had me crying just watching a YouTube video of the ride through. Maybe get whoever created that ride to try their hand at crafting the musical.
Laura Sele
Beauty and the Beast is playing now through December 14th at the Bass Concert Hall in Austin, TX
Tickets: https://www.austin-theater.com/shows/bass-concert-hall/disneys-beauty-and-the-beast/tickets/calendar
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