Beauty and the Beast
I’ve never been too much drawn to this production, either the stage show or the film. It has always struck me as having a rather simple plot.
Watching The Beast in Montecasino’s Teatro, I found the story rather simple and the songs not overly memorable, though the production value, particularly shown in the quality of the costumes, was impressive.
The beast, played by Anton Luitingh, though one of the two main characters, struggles with his musical performances, only really performing well in his last outing. Luitingh played Pontius Pilate in Jesus Christ Superstar. It’s primarily Gaston, played by Jonathan Roxmouth and Mrs Potts, Anna Marie Clulow, who steal the show with their vocal powers. Talia Kodesh does an excellent performance as the hot chick Belle. She previously was Scaramouche on We Will Rock You.
The first published version of this classic fairy tale dates from 1740, but is likely to be much older. However, the original story, which can be found at Wikipedia differs significantly from the theatre show and is, in fact, more interesting.
The 1991 Disney version was actually nominated for Best Picture and it’s this version which was adapted for the theatre.