Now be our guests, say Beauty and her Beast
EVER a surprise, Beauty And The Beast The Musical, based on the muchloved animated film which won two Oscars for its soaring score and title number, will tour the UK and Ireland, with stars new and old.
The Disney hierarchy in New York and London have cast Courtney Stapleton, 27, as Belle, the independent young woman (and bookworm) who discovers, in a tale as old as time, that she and the enchanted Beast can be more than just friends. Stapleton has previously appeared in Six, Dear Evan Hansen, Les Miserables, Mamma Mia! and Bat Out Of Hell.
Emmanuel Kojo, a 29-year-old actor with an impressive bass baritone voice, will play the surly Beast, who must be guided by his bric-a-brac household staff — also languishing under the spell of a witch — before he can learn from Belle.
Kojo has been nominated twice in the Olivier Awards: for his performances as Joe in Showboat, and Jud Fry in Oklahoma!. And he was also in Twelfth Night at the National, and The Scottsboro Boys at the Young Vic.
Stage legend Angela Lansbury has been associated with Beauty And The Beast ever since composer Alan
Menken and Howard Ashman (lyricist and executive producer of the original 1991 film) sent her a demo of the theme song, which went on to become a Broadway and Hollywood classic. Perhaps as a symbol of how vital Disney considers this production to be, the theatrical dame, who is now 95, has been persuaded by Disney theatre president Thomas Schumacher to record a prologue for the show.
In a joint Zoom call with the show’s two young leads (she speaking from Surrey, he from Chiswick), Courtney told me that as the first lockdown wound on, she considered leaving acting.
She and her partner, actress Eloise Davies, bought a Transit van to convert into an RV but it never got on the road, due to lack of funds.
‘I thought I was going to be one of those people it’s not going to happen for,’ Courtney admitted. ‘I don’t think it will feel real until I’m out there, in that ballgown.’
She was grateful to her mum for taking her and her sister Bethany to ballroom and Latin dancing competitions around the country when they were growing up. ‘They’ve been so supportive of this crazy choice I made,’ she said of her parents. ‘And now I’m going to be waltzing around with this guy!’
They laughed and pointed out that Belle and the Beast’s romantic dance will be naturally socially distanced ... because her dress is 5ft wide. Kojo told me he thought the events of the past year had ‘made us all take a step back and just breathe’. While out of work, he started training and lost 4st — which allowed him to take up photographic modelling to help pay the bills.
The tour starts at the Bristol Hippodrome on August 25. It’s a trimmer production: sensitively overhauled with new sets, costumes and orchestrations; its lyrics given a ‘polish’.
Schumacher said the Be My Guest number will have an even bigger Busby Berkeley-style tap dance led by tap supremo Gavin Lee as Lumiere, the candelabra.
Folks will also notice a difference in Belle’s costume. ‘The apron has gone. It’s to signify that she’s not waiting on anybody. She’s her own person,’ said Courtney.