Beauty and the Beast Revival

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Disney's Divinity
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Re: Beauty and the Beast Revival

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Well, that's really dumb.
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Re: Beauty and the Beast Revival

Post by rodrigo_ca »

I remain commited with my conclusion that this revival is being made to, among other reasons, be filmed for Disney+, which explains nicely why it wouldn't go to Broadway (at least not in the first place) as it would be too expensive to film it there.
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Re: Beauty and the Beast Revival

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rodrigo_ca wrote:I remain commited with my conclusion that this revival is being made to, among other reasons, be filmed for Disney+, which explains nicely why it wouldn't go to Broadway (at least not in the first place) as it would be too expensive to film it there.
I think you could be right, it might be filmed for Disney+. That would also make me a lot less bitter about the remake not carrying the songs over from Broadway.

Was Frozen filmed on Broadway before it closed? Even if not, it’s not much of a problem since there are other production projected to run again after the current crisis is over.
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Re: Beauty and the Beast Revival

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You're probably right, rodrigo_ca! My guess is they plan for either Tangled or more likely Moana to go to Broadway to fill the "princess" hole left by Frozen (and previously filled by TLM, and B&tB before that).
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Re: Beauty and the Beast Revival

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UmbrellaFish: Indeed. It will be funny, because the whole idea of the live action started with mounting a to-be-filmed production of the Broadway musical, so it will be very nice to see it go full circle. And yes, I'll also be much less bitter about the exclusion of the Broadway songs on the remake if we end up getting a filmed version of the musical.


And sadly, no. Frozen was recorded for the archives but that footage isn't meant to be consumed by the public (it's done 'live', no reshoots, fixed cams, very cheap) so I don't think it will happen. But then again, I also firmly believe the West End cast was chosen especifically to be filmed for Disney+

Disney's Divinity: I can't even begin to imagine how perfect a Tangled musical could turn out. It would really be a dream come true to see Disney's Rapunzel with MORE Alan Menken involvement
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Re: Beauty and the Beast Revival

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Tangled would definitely be my preference among the two.
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Re: Beauty and the Beast Revival

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Disney Duster wrote:Oh, this is wonderful news, and you are so right, Sotiris, it should never have left Broadway! It was not right for them to close this show just to make room for Tarzan which flopped. This classic should run as long as Phantom of the Opera! Hopefully this becomes a long-running revival like Chicago. I hope the costumes are different than the original's, just because I like things new and also because I would like to see more 18th century accurate costumes, but better than the live-action remake's. And none of that 19th century stuff. This story was set firmly in 18th century France!

My favorite Belle costume was from one of the international productions:
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This Pic is from the Spanish Production! She's Julia Moller and She have worked in lots of Shows
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Re: Beauty and the Beast Revival

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Sotiris wrote:No Broadway for Beauty and the Beast? Big mistake.
He outlined a number of newish projects for the company, none of them aimed at Broadway. A new production of “Beauty and the Beast,” with the same creative team that worked on the 1994 original, is slated to open overseas next spring and in the United States in 2022, and the company is working on a new, smaller, touring production of “Aladdin.”
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/14/thea ... virus.html
Oh, come on! :(
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Re: Beauty and the Beast Revival

Post by JeanGreyForever »

Thumper_93 wrote:
Disney Duster wrote:Oh, this is wonderful news, and you are so right, Sotiris, it should never have left Broadway! It was not right for them to close this show just to make room for Tarzan which flopped. This classic should run as long as Phantom of the Opera! Hopefully this becomes a long-running revival like Chicago. I hope the costumes are different than the original's, just because I like things new and also because I would like to see more 18th century accurate costumes, but better than the live-action remake's. And none of that 19th century stuff. This story was set firmly in 18th century France!

My favorite Belle costume was from one of the international productions:
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This Pic is from the Spanish Production! She's Julia Moller and She have worked in lots of Shows
That's very pretty especially with the pink.
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Re: Beauty and the Beast Revival

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I'm glad you think so!

Thanks for the info, Thumper_93.
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Re: Beauty and the Beast Revival

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I really like the costumes for that production! Those costumes were actually originally designed for the Dutch production and later used by other European productions. I remember seeing that production when I was younger and it was magical. I also really liked that show's version of the yellow dress, especially the sleeves.

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And yes, that's a blonde Belle. They decided that the actress who was playing Belle at the time looked too plain as a brunette so they made her version of Belle blonde. They did a Dutch revival a couple of years ago and that Belle was brunette, so it seems they just look at what works best for the actress.
He outlined a number of newish projects for the company, none of them aimed at Broadway. A new production of “Beauty and the Beast,” with the same creative team that worked on the 1994 original, is slated to open overseas next spring and in the United States in 2022, and the company is working on a new, smaller, touring production of “Aladdin.”
Interesting. A lot of productions seem to prefer a UK/West End debut to a US/Broadway debut (for example, the Back to the Future musical or Sister Act way back). They might want to see how the show does overseas before opening a Broadway production. I wonder if it has to do with costs maybe?

Also, one of my conspiracy theories (especially after the news that Hamilton is moving to Disney+) is that Disney is indeed planning on filming some of their productions for Disney+. Funny to see I'm not the only one haha. I don't think they'll film Frozen though. There are plans for productions in the UK, Germany and more countries (I believe the plan is for the show to eventually come to The Netherlands). However, BatB seems like a good one to start with, since it's an older show but will still be fresh and new since it's a new version of the show.
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Re: Beauty and the Beast Revival

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supertalies wrote:Interesting. A lot of productions seem to prefer a UK/West End debut to a US/Broadway debut (for example, the Back to the Future musical or Sister Act way back). They might want to see how the show does overseas before opening a Broadway production. I wonder if it has to do with costs maybe?
It’s costs. Producer Cameron Mackintosh has gone on the record about how much cheaper it was to produce his shows first on the West End before bringing the production to Broadway.

The West End is not really a great place for a try-out, though... at least when it comes to making an appealing show for New York audiences. I’m always a little surprised by the things that hit over on the West End but in the US are disappointments. There are many exceptions like Billy Elliot and Matilda (and most of what Cameron Mackintosh and Andrew Lloyd Webber produce) but sometimes New York and West End audiences seem to have vastly different tastes. There was a lot of hype for Elena Roger in Evita and Imelda Staunton in Gypsy in the UK, but when Americans saw their performances (Roger on stage, Staunton on video) they were pretty unsatisfied. It’s strange because in this age when so many of us are watching popular television shows and movies from all over the world, we might think we have similar tastes, but at least on stage that does not seem to be the case! Recently, a play by an American playwright debuted on the West End (again, cheaper to produce over there) and was hailed as the new “Angels in America” but when it premiered in the US it completely petered out. The production (“The Inheritance”) was set to close just a few days after Cuomo closed all the theatres in New York because of Covid-19.

Side note, but when I was looking at the picture of the European BATB you posted, I didn’t even notice she had blonde hair! Haha, very pretty costume and hair.
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Re: Beauty and the Beast Revival

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That blonde Belle is EXTREMELY jarring to me. I don't like it (the actress is beautiful, though). So I used Seventeen magazine's online beauty makeover tool, and (sorry about the hairstyle- it was the best I could find!)

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Re: Beauty and the Beast Revival

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^ Imagine how jarring it would be if Belle had dreadlocks. :lol:
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Re: Beauty and the Beast Revival

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^ Is that in reference to the live-action Ariel, or just in general? I think for me I don't care much about the live action films (I'm always interested in how a film is made, so I've been enjoying Niki Caro's posts that Sotiris has been posting in the LA Mulan thread), so if the LA characters don't look similar, meh, but I want my stage show (Broadway, West End, wherever, touring) to look like the characters, just like I do in the theme park (Do not hire a blue-eyed Snow White w/o giving her contacts!!!! So jarring as well for me!!!)...personal preference I suppose.
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Re: Beauty and the Beast Revival

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That's okay. :)
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Re: Beauty and the Beast Revival

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blackcauldron85 wrote:That blonde Belle is EXTREMELY jarring to me. I don't like it (the actress is beautiful, though). So I used Seventeen magazine's online beauty makeover tool, and (sorry about the hairstyle- it was the best I could find!)

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HAHAHAHA, love this. Funny enough they actually had made a brunette wig for the actress. Before the show had premiered they performed Be Our Guest on some TV show and she was wearing a a darker wig then. So they changed the hair colour pretty last minute I believe. The understudy did have a darker wig though.
blackcauldron85 wrote:^ Is that in reference to the live-action Ariel, or just in general? I think for me I don't care much about the live action films (I'm always interested in how a film is made, so I've been enjoying Niki Caro's posts that Sotiris has been posting in the LA Mulan thread), so if the LA characters don't look similar, meh, but I want my stage show (Broadway, West End, wherever, touring) to look like the characters, just like I do in the theme park (Do not hire a blue-eyed Snow White w/o giving her contacts!!!! So jarring as well for me!!!)...personal preference I suppose.
Funny, but with me it's actually the opposite. I don't really mind when they change a character for stage adaptations. With stage adaptations I tend to have an easier time looking past the way a character looks. I remember that before I went to see that Dutch production of BATB I really disliked that they had made Belle blonde, but during the show I really didn't mind. Another example: I saw Mean Girls the Musical a while back and the understudy for Regina George was on. She's an African-American girl with darker hair, so obviously she looks very different from the first cast Regina or the Regina from the movie. However, I totally didn't mind, even though Regina George is probably also a very iconic character with a certain look. There have also been several African-American Belles and based on the pictures I've seen they look great!

However, when it's a live action remake of an animated movie, weirdly enough I do want my characters to look like the animated versions. So when they had announced they had cast Halle Bailey as Ariel, that was a bit jarring for me. Now, I'm used to the idea by now and I'm certainly going try and keep an open mind when I watch the live action remake (I think Halle is an amazingly talented singer)... but like you said, it's personal preference. :)
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Re: Beauty and the Beast Revival

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I don't mind at all when they change the race...just keep the hair color, I guess. :lol: (And eye color @ the Parks!) I know that there have been African American Belles; they had brown hair, though! Funny enough, I don't care if the guys' hair color matches: Jelani Alladin was perfectly fine as Kristoff and Hercules...so don't mess with the princesses' hair, i guess. I'm weird.

I am a Mean Girls fan, but I'd be more okay if those characters look completely different, since they're not...I guess as iconic as Disney characters...? They're just "normal girls" vs playing Disney princesses? Again, I'm weird. :oops:
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Re: Beauty and the Beast Revival

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blackcauldron85 wrote:^ Is that in reference to the live-action Ariel, or just in general? I think for me I don't care much about the live action films (I'm always interested in how a film is made, so I've been enjoying Niki Caro's posts that Sotiris has been posting in the LA Mulan thread), so if the LA characters don't look similar, meh, but I want my stage show (Broadway, West End, wherever, touring) to look like the characters, just like I do in the theme park (Do not hire a blue-eyed Snow White w/o giving her contacts!!!! So jarring as well for me!!!)...personal preference I suppose.
Such an interesting perspective!!! I think I’m more willing to give a professionally staged production artistic license because there I’m expecting their own interpretation of a Disney movie... and theatre is by nature mostly ephemeral so one blonde Belle isn’t a big deal in the grand scheme of things.

As for the theme parks, I think because I’m in an immersive place and I’m being promised that I’m meeting “the Ariel” or “the Snow White” or whatever, I expect the characters to be 100% on model and reflective of the characters in the movie. But more often in this case, I’m let down by the personality the characters have— so many of the Princesses in the parks are nothing like the characters in their movies.

It’s actually interesting to think about race in the parks... because at first I thought I’d expect the face characters to be the same race as the characters in the movie, but actually I don’t think that’s always the case with face characters who are people of color!

As for the remakes, I come to it rather a bit like theatre, I do expect some creative license and a degree of wiggle room for the new actors to come with different interpretations. I don’t necessarily think they always change the right things, but again I’m more forgiving because I don’t feel like I’m seeing “the Maleficent” or “the Beast” or whatever. They were in the original animated films, and now they live in the theme parks, I guess...
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Re: Beauty and the Beast Revival

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^ Yes, I agree about the immersive theme park experience! I can't remember being let down by meeting a character...I think I've always been pleased! But I've gone so many times, I don't remember each meet 'n greet...

*edit* I forgot to write that if I were actually watching the show, I'm sure I'd not focus on the hair and be into the story...
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