so I went to see beauty and the beast (the musical) last week and I just want to share with you all some highlights because this was possibly the most UNHINGED production I've ever witnessed
The beast started out with a russian fur hat on as the 'prince'. They're in france. Why was it russian
This was for the special effects transformation but given that they accomplished the rest of it with lights and a very sneaky stagehand idk why they had to make him wear a russian hat
Belle was not white but all of the villagers were
This in no way took away from the show actually it made it better but i felt like i should mention it
Gaston and Lefou were clearly casted for their looks
And by that I mean: both of them were singing/speaking out of their normal ranges because they both looked like the opposite character but had different voices
Like Lefou was kind of lanky and had curly hair, well styled as Lefou, but it was clear he had a deeper voice than he was playing
That man had the voice of a twink and he was really bad at hiding it
actually none of them could keep up their character voices. Lumiere's french accent kept dropping in and out
Mrs. Potts ended up sounding like a new zealander
Belle's dad, the entire time, looked like he would be more at home at the lakeside with a cap that says 'fish fear me women want me' than anywhere near this production
Madame de garderobe had working drawers in her costume
I've seen a few versions of this musical. First one with proper working drawers
I'm pretty sure everyone has heard 'be our guest' at least once in their life. It's a very famous song.
Be our guest went for TWELVE MINUTES
Three of those minutes went to a dedicated TAP BREAK in the middle where all of the dancers AND Lumiere AND Belle tap danced
Cogsworth also tapped and absolutely slayed that tap dance
They somehow managed to recreate the cabaret-esque synchronised swimming scene with the cutlery chorus from the live-action movie
To top it all off, that bit when Lumiere has his depressing little monologue? During that bit Cogsworth pulled out a comically huge electronic plug which cued the light changes, and Belle helped Lumiere get it all working again because idk. Electricity somehow existed in 1790s France
(Yes Beauty and the Beast - the movies and musicals, at least- is set in 1790s/1800s France. I have evidence to support this)
So remember when I said that Gaston was somewhat of a twink?
The beast himself was dressed in red, and given that he was VERY built and VERY largely costumed (and also looked uncannily like a guy from my high school who harassed people) he ended up looking more like Gaston than Gaston did
So act ii begins with Belle nursing the beast after he saved her from the wolves, yada yada yada, etc., and instead of using his voice to make weird screams and growls and yelping sounds like a NORMAL PERSON, they used sound effects
smh. just let actors make weird sounds what are you afraid of
Those of you who may not have seen the musical might not know this, but Belle has a costume change. And not the classic costume change we all know into the magical yellow princess dress, but just into another gown after she and the beast are 'drenched' from the wolf attack and being outside
And, like I've said. I've seen a few versions of this musical. This dress is the dress that the costume designers can have a bit of fun with because they don't have to stick to what is known and marketed. There's been a few versions of this dress. But this dress?
This dress was somehow PINK and 1950S despite it being in 1790S FRANCE
Also forgot to mention. They had eiffel tower motifs everywhere, despite the eiffel tower not being built until the 1880s
Anyway the rest of the musical proceeded somewhat normally. Belle and the beast had their dance. He let her go. blah blah blah
Then we get to the mob song (the song where Gaston leads a mob)
See a thing that they did with this production is for the attacks and rain and special effects they had this sheer screen that they would project things onto that would come down at the front of the stage. A lot of people don't like it, I think it worked very well, I think there's a lot of untapped potential for further special effects with it
The thing about this screen is because of the hazy effect they were going for with the rain and the villager choreography being a bit lost because of the colour of their costumes, it was very obvious when Gaston spent most of this song just doing an NPC dance holding a pitchfork
Also speaking of special effects
They way they built the set meant that Gaston could actually fall off a cliff a la Beauty and the Beast 1990 (using wires)
Those wires were also used to flip the beast around in the air as he resurrected into a normal person again
