Upon release, The Little Mermaid was a massive critical and commercial success, garnering two Academy Awards, both of them for Ashman and Menken's original music. Eager to redeem himself, Ashman agreed to work on Disney's animated film The Little Mermaid (1989), which he and Menken would famously decide to approach as though they were scoring a Broadway musical. Ashman and Menken had previously amassed great live musical success with their Off-Broadway production Little Shop of Horrors, but the performance of Ashman's first Broadway venture Smile had been disappointing. Eisner's first hire as Disney's CEO was theatrical producer Peter Schneider, who subsequently became responsible for hiring more artists who shared similar theatrical backgrounds to contribute to the studio's next animated releases, among them lyricist Howard Ashman and his long-time collaborator, composer Alan Menken. Eisner himself had been a theater major in college. The Walt Disney Company CEO Michael Eisner was hired to ensure the performance of the studio's next animated projects, despite having virtually no animation experience. Still recovering from Walt Disney's demise, Disney's animated films continued to experience a noticeable decline in quality while struggling to attain critical and commercial success during the 1970s and 1980s. It has also become a popular choice for junior, amateur and high school productions. The musical has grossed more than $1.7 billion worldwide and played in thirteen countries and 115 cities. Beauty ran on Broadway for 5,461 performances for thirteen years (1994 - 2007), becoming Broadway's tenth longest-running production in history. The musical opened to mixed reviews from theater critics, but was a massive commercial success and well received by audiences. Costumes were designed by Ann Hould-Ward, who based her creations on both the animators' original designs as well as the Rococo art movement after researching how clothing and household objects looked during the 18th century.Īfter completing tryouts in Houston, Beauty and the Beast premiered on Broadway on April 18, 1994, starring Susan Egan and Terrence Mann as the eponymous Belle and Beast, respectively. To have humans slowly turning into inanimate objects. Woolverton expanded the storylines of the castle staff from servants who would already have been transformed into household objects referring to the 1991 animation. Woolverton, who was writing the film's screenplay, adapted her own work into the musical's libretto, and specifically expanded upon the characterization of the Beast. Original songwriter Menken composed six new songs for the production alongside lyricist Rice, replacing Ashman, who died during the production of the film. All eight songs from the animated film were reused in the musical, including a resurrected musical number which had been cut from the motion picture. To revert into his true human form, the Beast must learn to love a bright, beautiful young lady who he has imprisoned in his enchanted castle before it is too late.Ĭritics, who hailed the film as one of the year's finest musicals, instantly noted its Broadway musical potential when it was first released in 1991, encouraging Disney CEO Michael Eisner to venture into Broadway. Adapted from Walt Disney Pictures' Academy Award-winning 1991 animated musical film of the same name – which in turn had been based on the classic French fairy tale by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont – Beauty and the Beast tells the story of an unkind prince who has been magically transformed into an unsightly creature as punishment for his selfish ways. LeFou is a canon Disney character, so making him queer is a distinctly LGBTQ-friendly modification to the studio's canon.Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Musicalīeauty and the Beast is a Disney stage musical with music by Alan Menken, lyrics by Howard Ashman and Tim Rice, and a book by Linda Woolverton. On the one hand, progress is progress, and this "exclusively gay moment" - whatever that means - will likely lead to more and more inclusive stories moving forward. But it is a nice, exclusively gay moment in a Disney movie." And that's what has its payoff at the end, which I don't want to give away. And Josh makes something really subtle and delicious out of it. It's somebody who's just realizing that he has these feelings. "LeFou is somebody who on one day wants to be Gaston and on another day wants to kiss Gaston," said director Bill Condon. While LeFou, sycophantic sidekick to Beauty and the Beast antagonist Gaston, does seem to be queer, he hardly seems like an out gay character - and it looks like most of his story will be about fawning over a straight man. Then, reading the article, it seems Attitude has overstated a bit.
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