Beauty and the Beast is the stage adaptation of the animated Walt Disney 1991 film that tells the story of a strong-willed young woman, Belle, who breaks the spell that turned a handsome prince into a monstrous beast. Trying to save her beloved (but eccentric) father from the Beast's clutches, Belle agrees to become his prisoner forever. But once she is inside the Beast's enchanted castle, the members of his court -- who have been transformed into household objects like clocks and candlesticks -- decide to play matchmakers. As the Beast begins to fall in love with Belle, he becomes progressively less beastly. But the spell can be broken only if the Beast can get her to love him in return. And time is running out since the jealous Gaston, Belle's would-be suitor, leads a mob of villagers to attack the Beast's castle. Happily, the spell is broken and Belle and the Prince are united by play's end.

Advance reserved tickets are priced at $10 for adults, $9 for seniors and non-NSU students, and special children’s tickets for those 12 and under at $6. Ticket prices will increase $2 at the door. Group rates are available for groups of ten or more. Tickets go on sale Tuesday, October 11th in the NSU Bookstore in the Student Union.

Alan Menken (L) and Howard Ashman (R)

Howard Ashman

Howard Ashman (lyrics) was one of the major creative forces behind Beauty and the Beast and played an important role in generating renewed interest in animated and live-action musicals. He won Academy Awards in 1990 for his song "Under the Sea" from The Little Mermaid (1989) and in 1992 for "Beauty and the Beast" from that film. He had begun writing lyrics for Aladdin (1992) when he died of complications from AIDs in March of 1991 at the age of 40.

A native of Baltimore, he studied at Goddard College and Boston University before receiving an MFA from Indiana University. Moving to New York in 1974, he became an editor at Grosset and Dunlap, and began writing plays. It was during this time that he began his association with the off-off-Broadway WPA Theater, where he served as artistic director from the theatre's re-opening in 1977 up until 1982.

Looking for a musical collaborator in 1978 for his adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut's God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater, he was introduced by conductor Lehman Engel (who was teaching a musical theatre workshop at BMI) to Alan Menken. Their chemistry was immediate, and by the following spring, Rosewater was staged at the WPA.

Their follow-up project was a musical version of Roger Corman's cult film Little Shop of Horrors (1960), which received the New York Critics Circle award for Best Musical of 1982-83. The play became the third longest running musical in off-Broadway history as well as the highest grossing play to ever play off-Broadway. It's London production won the Evening Standard Award for Best Musical and productions of Little Shop are seen all over the world and along with Our Town is the most produced play in high schools throughout America. The 1986 film version also featured a new song "Mean Green Mother from Outer Space" and received an Academy Award nomination.

As a librettist, lyricist and playwright, Ashman's work has been performed at Washington's Arena Stage, Pittsburgh Light Opera and Philadelphia's Annenburg Center. He directed shows for Arena Stage, Manhattan Theatre Club, the O'Neill Center's Composer/Librettist Conference, the WPA, as well as the off-Broadway, London, Los Angeles and national touring versions of Little Shop. In 1987, he made his Broadway directing debut with Smile, for which he wrote the lyrics and book. Marvin Hamlisch composed the score. For his book, he also received a Tony nomination.

Alan Menken (music) grew up in New Rochelle, New York and developed an interest in music at an early age. He studied piano and violin through his high school years, but it wasn't until after his graduation from New York University with a liberal art degree that he decided to focus on a career in music. While attending the Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop at BMI, he found that music was his true passion.

At this time, Menken had worked primarily as a songwriter who performed in local clubs and had an active career writing and singing commercial jingles. Several of his musicals had been showcased, but none had as of yet received a production. His first collaboration with Ashman, God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater, was well received in its off-Broadway debut. Menken composed the music for Michael Bennett's new wave rock musical, Battle of the Giants, and provided music and lyrics for the Manhattan Theatre Club's Real Life Funnies.

Menken reteamed with Ashman for Little Shop of Horrors and again on three musical projects for Disney- The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin. Besides receiving the New York Critics Circle Award, the Drama Desk Award, Outer Critics Circle Award and the London Evening Standard Award, Menken received two Academy Awards each for the three Disney projects, as well as two Golden Globes and two Grammys.

Menken's other musical stage credits include a collaboration with Tom Eyen on Kicks: The Showgirl Musical, The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz with David Spencer, and many reviews including Patch, Patch, Patch, Diamonds, Personals and Let Freedom Sing. He also returned to the WPA with Weird Romance with David Spencer and Alan Bennett. In 1983 he was the recipient of the BMI Career Achievement Award for his body of work in the theatre. In 1994, he teamed with lyricist Lynn Ahrens and book writer Mike Okrent for a new production of A Christmas Carol. The film version premiered on television in fall of 2004.

His other film and television work includes Life With Mikey, the ABC mini-series Lincoln, "The Christmas Tree" from Home Alone 2, "The Measure of a Man" from Rocky V, as well as the Disney features Newsies (1992), Pocahontas (1995) (Academy Award for "Colors of the Wind"), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996) and Hercules (1997).

Tim Rice (additional lyrics) was born in Amersham, England in 1944, and has written the entire book and lyrics for four musicals that have played on Broadway: Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (1982), Jesus Christ Superstar (1971), Evita (1979) and Chess (1988) (all following hit London runs). His musical Blondel also enjoyed a successful London run. He first joined forces with Alan Menken to write three additional songs for Aladdin, including the Academy Award winning "A Whole New World." In partnership with Elton John, he wrote lyrics for the film (1994) and stage (1997) production of The Lion King, including the Academy Award winning "Can You Feel the Love Tonight?," and Aida (2000) for which he won a Tony Award. He reteamed with Andrew Lloyd Webber to write a new song for the 1994 film adaptation of Evita, and the two won an Academy Award for their new composition. He is chairman of the UK's Foundation for Sports and the Arts, which distributes around $90 million per year to artistic and sporting ventures. He was honored to step once again into the late Howard Ashman's shoes in order to expand Beauty and the Beast for the stage.

Linda Woolverton (book) a native of Long Beach, California, holds a degree in Theatre for Children from Cal State Fullerton. Following graduation, she started her own children's theatre, for which she performed, wrote and directed productions that traveled to schools, parks, churches and local theatres. In 1980, she moved into film and TV by beginning a four-year stint as an executive with CBS-TV. In her spare time, she wrote two young adult novels- Starwind and Running Before the Wind. When one of her novels came to the attention of a Disney executive, she was hired to work on Beauty and the Beast, the multi-Golden Globe winner and Best Picture Academy Award nominee. Woolverton followed up that project with a screenplay for the live-action feature Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey (1993). Woolverton co-wrote the screenplay for Disney's Academy Award and Tony Award winning The Lion King.

Beauty and the Beast is only the fifth classic fairy tale to be adapted as a Disney animated feature that began in 1937 with Snow White and the Seven Dwarves (based on a tale by the Brothers Grimm). Disney animators adapted two classic fairy tales by French author Charles Perault- Cinderella (1950) and Sleeping Beauty (1959). Hans Christian Andersen provided the story for the fourth animated film The Little Mermaid (1989).

The process of turning this fairy tale into a film took over 3 1/2 years and required the talents of nearly 600 animators, artists and technicians, not to mention over a million drawings and 236,000 individually painted cels. Producer Don Hahn supervised two talented young directors, Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise. Animators at Disney's satellite facility at Disney-MGM Studios at lake Buena Vista, Florida also contributed to the process.

Writer Linda Woolverton created a fresh and stylish screenplay, which became the structural and emotional blueprint for the visual development and storyboarding phases that accompanied it. Executive producer Howard Ashman also contributed greatly to the development and structure of the story from the beginning.

Woven into the story were six new songs by Howard Ashman and Alan Menken, the same writers responsible for Disney's The Little Mermaid. Ashman's sophisticated lyrics combined with Menken's memorable melodies to provide song that were not merely musical interludes but also serve as important story elements that advance the plot and contribute to the development of the characters.

The story is indeed a "tale as old as time" with variations going back as far as Greek mythology. In 1850 Italian author Giovan Straparalo wrote the first account of the story, as it is generally known. The tale grew in popularity during the 18th century with books by Madame Le Prince de Beaumont and Madame Gabrielle di Villeneuve. In 1946, acclaimed French director Jean Cocteau used cinematic imagery and lyrical expression to bring the story imaginatively to the big screen (La Belle et La Bete).

"Doing your own version of [the story] is as much a tradition as is the story itself," says producer Hahn. "Part of the fun is that each generation and culture adapts the story to be its own. The themes, you can't judge a book by its cover and beauty is only skin deep, are as relevant today as ever." Woolverton adds, "The lessons of this story are truly timeless... it tells [us] to look beyond the surface and beyond materialism and that what is in their hearts and souls are the things that really matter."

The Disney studios first thought of adapting the tale some 40 years before they actually did, but the project was sidelined because they couldn't find a solution for the story's claustrophobic second half- when Belle is imprisoned in the castle. Says Hahn,

"in the original tale, Beauty's father goes to the castle and picks a rose. The beast is enraged, throws him in a dungeon but agrees to let him go if he sends his daughter back in his place. She very passively follows her father's instructions and the rest of the story is essentially about two people having dinner together every night with the beast repeatedly asking her to marry him.

We felt we needed to energize the story... by making our heroine move things forward by valiantly going to the castle on her own to fight for her father's release. Howard Ashman came up with the idea of turning the enchanted objects into living creatures with unique personalities, which was a big breakthrough. He was also the driving force in terms of musicalizing the piece."

A further change was to place the beast at the heart of the story. "It's [now] about a guy with a very serious problem and he has to redeem himself through a series of events... The rose in our story becomes the ticking clock," notes Hahn. Because there was no clear-cut villain in the story, the character of Gaston (Belle's would-be suitor) became a definite threat, but "the beast's real foe is himself and the real struggle is an internal one with his own nature," observed supervising animator Glen Keane.

It was decided by the filmmakers, that a rich and colorful look suggestive of the film's European setting would be perfect- and give the film a connection to the visual quality of the early classic Disney animated films. Art director Brian McEntee used the French greats Fragonard (1732-1806) and Boucher (1703-1770) for his inspiration, as well as the stylistic images of Bambi. Since "color plays an important part in telling the story... we used color to visually set Belle apart from the rest of the village by making her the only one dressed in blue. This supports the idea that she doesn't fit in with others, " explains McEntee. "The seasons become a metaphor for our story, "adds Hahn, "and they change along with the moods and action of the film." The story begins in autumn, when Belle arrives at the castle a cold winter climate is evident, the attack on the castle is in a spring thunderstorm, and the reuniting of Belle and the Prince finds spring in full bloom and "there is a full release of color," Hahn notes.

Since most of the scenes in the castle take place at night, this provided a real challenge for the Disney artists, who had to find ways to avoid the dark and gloomy qualities that that might suggest. The song "Be Our Guest" allowed them a chance to create more colorful backgrounds, as well as the ballroom scene, which added a vibrant blue background.

"There had never been a character like [the beast] before, so there was nothing to fall back on," explained Keane. Since the beast was caught between two worlds, the design "had to show the human side- the heart, warmth and the ability to love. The ferocious, hideous animal side had to reflect his incredible power and agility." Research trips to zoos and studies of animals brought Keane to his solution- a hybrid character with the mane of a lion, the beard and head structure of a buffalo, the tusks and nose bridge of a wild boar, the heavily muscled brow of a gorilla, the legs and tail of a wolf and the big and bulky body of a bear. The eyes became a focal point- to show the beast's sincerity. For the voice, actor Robby Benson was hired and his interpretation further inspired the artists in getting the right emotional edge for the beast.

Belle (voiced by Paige O'Hara) would be drawn to look darker and more European than other Disney heroines. In order to get the ballroom scene right, animator James Baxter took a few waltz lessons to get a better understanding of the intricate movements. Belle needed to be "a strong, smart, courageous woman," adds Woolverton. Gaston (voiced by Richard White) needed to be handsome yet interesting enough to avoid the tendency towards blandness that plagues some Disney characters in past films. In order to research Gaston, animator Andreas Deja noted "that Los Angeles is full of good-looking guys who just adore themselves... it was fun to bring some of that attitude to Gaston."

It was easier in some ways to create the enchanted objects- since no one had ever seen talking teapots and mantle clocks before. "Basically you can get away with anything as long as it has weight and volume," says animator Nik Ramieri. Challenges included a candlestick that had to kick and a clock that had to walk on four feet. For Mrs. Potts, animator Dave Pruiksma studied the movement of voice artist Angela Lansbury. "She has a very distinctive way of acting and is very subtle. She's also contained in her movements and accentuates her dialogue with a lot of head tilts [and] I tried to incorporate those mannerisms into Mrs. Potts," said Pruiksma.

Songwriters Howard Ashman and Alan Menken became involved at the most fundamental stage of the writing process and they influenced the final structure of the story. "Howard taught me that there are moments when characters just have to burst into song," said Woolverton. "He had a real genius for knowing when and where to place songs and he knew that a song can leap you much further into the plot than any dialogue could."

"One of the first things Howard and I did when we began working on this project was to sit down and toss around some musical ideas. He usually had a basic idea of the style of song he wanted to write and sometimes even a title or some completed lyrics. Then he would ask what the music might sound like if we were going to write a certain kind of song and I would sit at the piano and let fly. We had a kind of shorthand between us and we shared a background of loving musicals and growing up with many of the same influences," shared Menken.

When they finished, they had six songs, including everything from an opening number that combined classical, baroque and French influences to a cheery French Music Hall song to be performed by a chorus of dancing plates, silverware and other objects.

Due to be released in late 1991, Beauty and the Beast was arguably the most heralded animated feature of all time. In fact, Disney was so certain that they had a critical and popular hit on their hands that they previewed the movie to a New York City press audience when it was only 70% complete.

This "Work in Progress" version was shown at the New York Film Festival prior to its official November release, and the audience responded with a wild standing ovation. It was only partially completed and many scenes were still in the rough or even storyboard only. The enthusiastic response of these film buffs to the uncompleted film was a precursor to the overwhelming critical kudos the film would go on to receive, with virtually unanimous rave reviews across the country. At the time Beauty and the Beast was released Jeffrey Katzenberg, now an executive and owner with Disney rival DreamWorks, was Disney Studios Chairman. He was happy with the concept behind Beauty and the Beast because "it's about making ourselves better. Through these classic fables and fairy tales, we can learn important things about ourselves and the world we live in. They usually contain very noble ideas and morals about good and evil, which can be inspirational on many levels to audiences of ages."

"Inspirational" was only the beginning for Beauty and the Beast which played in theaters for 42 weeks, bringing in $144.8 million, and garnishing a Best Picture Oscar Academy Award nomination. To this day it remains the only animated movie to ever achieve such a nomination. Also, the film achieved a second distinction, as a record three of the songs from the score were nominated for the year's Best Song ("Belle," "Be Our Guest" and "Beauty and the Beast," which would win). Critics and audiences alike were nearly unanimous in their praise for the overall strength of the visuals, story telling, character development, and music. Disney released an IMAX version of the film in 2002, with the song "Human Again" (now in the stage play) animated and added to this special version.

A sad moment accompanied the release of Beauty and the Beast - Howard Ashman, one of the key figures in the new animation era, died of AIDS-related complications shortly before the film opened. Disney honored him in the closing credits by noting that he "gave a mermaid her voice and a beast his heart."

In 1998, Alan Menken and Tim Rice added a new song, "A Change in Me," to the second act of the Broadway production in honor of Toni Braxton who took on the role of Belle.