New Staging of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast to Play U.K. and Ireland

A re-imagined production of the Disney musical Beauty and the Beast will play the U.K. and Ireland in 2021. Performances will begin at Curve, Leicester May 25, 2021, with additional engagements set for Dublin, Bristol, Liverpool, and Edinburgh.

Though featuring new designs and contemporary theatre technology, the staging will reunite the 1994 Broadway musical’s creative team: director Rob Roth, composer Alan Menken, lyricist Tim Rice, bookwriter Linda Woolverton, choreographer Matt West, set designer Stan Meyer, costume designer Ann Hould-Ward, and lighting designer Natasha Katz.

“Many of these elements hadn’t been invented when we first developed the show,” Roth explains. “So we are creating something brand new from this beloved ‘tale as old as time.’”

Disney Theatrical President Thomas Schumacher revealed plans for a new Beauty and the Beast in April of last year—at the time, he said the staging was eyeing Broadway. Later that year, plans shifted to an international production.

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The creative team also includes the new addition of dance arranger David Chase, as well as Menken’s longtime collaborators Michael Kosarin and Danny Troob as musical supervisor and orchestrator, respectively. John Shivers will serve as sound designer, with Darryl Maloney as video/projections designer, David H. Lawrence as hair designer, and Jim Steinmeyer as illusions designer.

Casting (via Pippa Ailion Casting) will be announced later.