It was grand. Bigger and grander than you can ever imagine. There are perhaps very few words that a person, who has never seen a Broadway show before, can use to describe one. And we are at a loss of words.
Anticipation had been building the day Disney announced that they would bring the much loved tale of Beauty and the Beast on the stage, that too in the form of a musical. But the endless preparation ended up as something truly magical.
The set, for example, did not look like a set. It was more like a quaint hamlet with real wind clocks and chimneys. There were 3D construction of a church, a tree and also a well. Being familiar with the story, we immediately identified Belle’s house with the telescope piercing out of the attic window and the kettles on the roof.
Everything in this Disney production came to life and trust us when we say everything. Each scene has been kept so real and in accordance with the movie including the dresses and the characters.
There are ways in which an audience is requested to switch off their phones or put them on silent mode. But the creative behind the show used lumiere and Cogsworth (characters of the story) to convey that in a comical manner. They appeared on stage, dressed as a candle stand and a clock, respectively, and discussed with each other. Cogsworth asks lumiere to asked everyone to put away, “that box like thing which rings and sings and makes people want to talk in them.” When lumiere enquired what that is, Cogsworth quite confidently replied, “Well, it hasn’t been invented yet.” That had us all putting away our phones for a while.
The musical started with the pre story about how a prince was cursed into becoming the beast with superstar Amitabh Bachchan’s voiceover.
Beauty and the Beast opened with Belle singing and dancing across town to return a book. Tim Rice, who scored the amazing music for the animation movie, also happens to be the composer for this magical play so the music was the same.
One after the other, all the characters were introduced, Belle’s father Maurice and Gaston, the village’s self-claimed hero who wants to marry Belle. For every scene, there was a different set. It was all layered, one behind the other. The stage, too, apart from the realistic houses and the village tavern was extended across the middle, giving actors a bigger area to perform.
You would think that turning human actors into household objects, like in the story, would be difficult but the musical proved otherwise. Right from lumiere and Cogsworth, as we mentioned, it had Mrs Pots, Chip, lefou and Babette, too. The scene where everyone treats Belle to a lovely dinner was spectacular. Actors dressed up as knives, forks, spoons, plates, cheese graters and egg beaters also added to the grandeur of the show.
like the movie, the show moved on with the Beast keeping Belle’s father captive and Belle switching places with him. And the rest of the story flowed. Belle’s love finally turned the Beast into the prince and they lived happily ever after, just to say.
The shows are lined up this weekend and the next at Thyagaraj Stadium