beauty and the beast opened on broadway on april 18, 1994.
when did beauty and the beast open on broadway?
april 18 , 1994
on april 18, 1994, "beauty and the beast" premiered on broadway at the palace theatre in new york city to mixed reviews. the show transferred to the lunt-fontanne theatre on november 11, 1999. the commercial (though not critical) success of the show led to productions in the west end, toronto, and all over the world. the broadway version, which ran for over a decade, received a tony award, and became the first of a whole line of disney stage productions. the original broadway cast included terrence mann as the beast, susan egan as belle, burke moses as gaston, gary beach as lumière, heath lamberts as cogsworth, tom bosley as maurice, beth fowler as mrs. potts, and stacey logan as babette the feather duster. many well-known actors and singers also starred in the broadway production during its thirteen-year run, including kerry butler, deborah gibson, toni braxton, andrea mcardle, jamie-lynn sigler, christy carlson romano, ashley brown, and anneliese van der pol as belle; chuck wagner, james barbour, and jeff mccarthy as the beast; meshach taylor, patrick page, bryan batt, jacob young, and john tartaglia as lumière; and marc kudisch, christopher sieber, and donny osmond as gaston. the show ended its broadway run on july 29, 2007 after 46 previews and 5,461 performances. , it is broadway's tenth-longest-running show in history.
beauty and the beast (1991 film)
largely due to audience reception, "beauty and the beast" remains one of broadway's biggest successes of the current era. "beauty and the beast" established itself as a musical that could survive on broadway despite its unenthusiastic reviews. several detractors had thought that musicals like "beauty and the beast" would be a one-time event, but the results ultimately turned out to be quite the opposite. according to theatrical producer stuart oken, disney's success with "beauty and the beast" is responsible for today's biggest broadway hits and making the medium "better than it has ever been". the groundbreaking performance of "beauty and the beast" inspired other major hollywood studios to produce broadway renditions of some of their own films. disney soon began to commission broadway adaptations of several of the studio's most popular musical films, namely "the lion king" (1997), "mary poppins" (2004), "tarzan" (2006), "the little mermaid" (2008), "newsies" (2012) and "aladdin" (2014), in addition to producing the musical "aida". after completing her run in "beauty and the beast", egan would famously go on to voice meg in disney's animated musical "hercules" (1997), establishing herself as a popular voice and film actress. following the success of "human again", the song was later incorporated into reissues of the animated film in the form of an animated musical sequence.
beauty and the beast (musical)