Today we drove down into San Diego to see the new touring version of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast stage musical. The simpler staging & costumes work (though the castle set from the 1995 Los Angeles production really added a lot to the mood), but the big numbers like “Be Our Guest” do suffer from the smaller cast. And while I don’t really miss the two songs they cut (“No Matter What” and “Maison Des Lunes” were the weakest of the score), I did miss the battle between the townspeople and the enchanted objects…and the new song (OK, not that new, but it wasn’t in the original production) they added, about how happy Belle is to have given up her dreams, is actually creepy. Seriously, did no one think that one through?
The stage musical of Xanadu is a silly, self-aware parody of the movie, pared down to the bare minimum plot to hold the songs together, then expanded with more songs by the Electric Light Orchestra. It revels in its camp and never misses an opportunity for a pun or a cheap shot at its own genre (or story, or characters). And of course there’s roller-skating disco.
Most of the time when someone puts on a play that’s been done before, they take the script and do their own thing with the sets, costumes, and performances. This is generally true with older musicals as well; people generally aren’t worried about seeing the original staging of, say, The Sound of Music. But these days, when a big show goes on tour, audiences expect the same experience they’d get on Broadway or in the West End.
