Illustration by Walter Crane (1874), public domain. Image reproduced from Disney’s Beauty and the Beast Study Guide.

Reprinted with permission from Disney’s Beauty and the Beast Study Guide

Beauty and the Beast (“La belle et la bête”) is a traditional fairy tale that was first published in French in the mid-18th century in a version by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve. The first English translation appeared in 1757. Since then, the story of a captive girl and the beast who becomes her friend has been adapted and translated into hundreds of versions worldwide.

Walt Disney’s animated film Beauty and the Beast 1991. Reprinted by permission of Disney Theatrical Group. (c) Disney

When Walt Disney Pictures released its animated feature film Beauty and the Beast on November 22, 1991, critics praised its songs as “worthy of a Broadway musical.” The film featured the voices of Angela Lansbury as Mrs. Potts, Jerry Orbach as Lumiere, Paige O’Hara as Belle, and Robby Benson as the Beast. Disney’s Beauty and the Beast made history as the first animated feature ever nominated for a Best Picture Academy Award® and went on to win Oscars® for Best Song and Best Original Score. A live 25-minute outdoor theme-park show, Beauty and the Beast: Live on Stage, premiered on the date of the film’s premiere in Walt Disney World, where it has been playing ever since.

Terrence Mann and Susan Egan in Beauty and the Beast 1994. Photo by Joan Marcus. Reprinted by permission of Disney Theatrical Group. (c) Disney

After an out-of-town tryout in Houston, Walt Disney Theatrical Productions opened Beauty and the Beast at the Palace Theatre in New York on April 18, 1994, marking Disney’s very first Broadway musical. The creative team, led by director Robert Jess Roth, combined the strengths of the beloved film with the possibilities that only live theatre can offer. Linda Woolverton expanded her Beauty and the Beast screenplay for the two-act stage musical, and the Oscar®-winning score by composer Alan Menken and the late lyricist Howard Ashman was complemented by several new songs by Menken and veteran lyricist Tim Rice. Scenic designer Stanley A. Meyer and lighting designer Natasha Katz created a unique fairy-tale atmosphere for the stage. Choreographer Matt West worked with Ann Hould-Ward – who would win the 1994 Tony Award® for Costume Design – to create a special look for the enchanted objects that would also support big production numbers.

Beauty and the Beast ran on Broadway for over 13 years (5,461 performances, finishing its run at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre as the sixth longest-running Broadway musical). As of its 25th Anniversary in 2019, between Disney and licensed productions, Beauty and the Beast had been translated into 17 languages, produced in 37 countries, and seen by more than 38 million people at over 28,000 performances. Even after remarkable success, Disney’s creative journey with Beauty and the Beast is far from over.

As audiences were flocking to movie theaters for Walt Disney Studios’s 2017 live-action remake, which featured new Menken/Rice songs, the Disney Theatrical Group team began meeting to discuss fresh ideas for reviving the stage production. In July of 2025, a re-imagined production premiered in Chicago before embarking on a multi-year North American tour, starring Fergie L. Philippe and Kyra Belle Johnson. Several original creative team members joined this production, including lighting designer Natasha Katz, costume designer Ann Hould-Ward, and the original choreographer Matt West, who directed and choreographed this new production.

Like Belle with her favorite books, audiences and artists are eager to revisit the “tale as old as time” again and again.

The Denver Center for the Performing Arts (DCPA) NewsCenter is the organization’s editorial platform for stories, announcements, interviews, and coverage of theatre and cultural programming in Colorado. We are committed to producing accurate, trustworthy, clearly sourced journalism that reflects our mission and serves our community. This article originally appeared in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast study guide. Reprinted by permission.