Steppin' Out

Story

Belle (Kari Yancy) isn't impressed by the boorish behavior of the boastful Gaston (Frank Mulcahy).

Childhood memories abound in new show

By Heather Zimmerman

Usually when the characters of a musical are cartoonish, it's not a good thing. However, when the whole production is based on a beloved animated feature, that's a different story--which exactly sums up Disney's Beauty and the Beast, a Broadway stage version of the favorite Disney film.

Children's Musical Theater of San Jose opens its Mainstage season on a grand note when it brings this fairy tale to life Dec. 1-10 at the Montgomery Theatre, Market and San Carlos streets, San Jose.

The 1991 Disney animated film Beauty and the Beast added a lot of twists to the 200-year-old tale of a pretty young woman whose love saves a prince from a curse that transformed him into a beast.

The film renamed the heroine "Belle" and embellished the story with everything from colorful villagers to a palace full of housewares prone to bursting into song. The Broadway musical version retains all these quirky characters, including boastful village oaf, Gaston, and the friendly singing candelabra, Lumiere.

Also transferred straight to the stage version are the film's award-winning songs by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman. The show features such favorites from the film as "Be Our Guest," "Gaston" and the romantic title ballad "Beauty and the Beast." Seven new songs were added for the stage. These were composed by Menken, with lyrics by Tim Rice, who stepped in to replace the late Ashman.

The stage version, called Disney's Beauty and the Beast, opened on Broadway in 1994 and has been running ever since.

CMT's production will be on a grand scale, featuring a cast of young performers ages 9-20, in addition to 45 alumni of the theater company, as is CMT's tradition for the first Mainstage show of each season. The show is directed and choreographed by CMT's artistic director Kevin R. Hauge.

Tickets are $15-$20 (all seats $9.50 on Dec. 2). For more information, call 408.288.5437 or visit www.cmtsj.org.