Beauty and the Beast (a.k.a. the Show that Will never Go Away)

Other than the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spetacular, Beauty and the Beast is the second longest running show at the Studios. We like to think of it as the Grandmother of the Broadway show. Whether that's true or not, who knows.

As the Broadway show was opening, we saw an interview with one of the performers from New York and he commented on how hot the costumes and make up were. You should have heard the moans and groans in our green room. The general consencus was, " They have an air conditioned theater, they should come to Florida in near 100 degree August and do the show, then you'll know what heat is."

One of my all time favorite bloopers came from B&B. If you remember the mob scene from the show when Gaston comes out and yells, "Kill the Beast before he Kills Your Children !!" This particular time the tech didn't get his mic on in time and all the audience heard was Gaston yelling, "Kill your Children".

Side note, in light of all of the pop star, "did they sing life, or didn't they". I can assure you that yes, our performers sing live. I won't say they're never tracked, sometimes there is a techincal glitch or hicup and the tech has to run the tracked music to get through the show, but it is very, very rare. For a while, we never had to buy AA batteries for ipods, cd players, ect. The lav mic's batteries were changed every two to three shows, but the batteries still had some life to them. They just didn't have enough to trust an entire show on them. So at several of the stages, the techs would have box of half dead batteries free for the taking. Ahhh the good ole' days.

For a while each of the shows had some kind of pre-show entertainment. For B&B it was and acapella group called Four 4 A Dollar. Over time they had aquired a huge fan following. Te four guys even when on to compete in international competitions. At one time the placed third against performers from around the world. But cut backs came in 2008 and they ended thier over ten year run at the mouse. They continue perform under thier non-Disney name of Return to Zero.

Backstage, as with most theaters, they had thier fare share of shananigans. The ballgowns are preset on the floor so that the dancer can just step into it. Belle's dress sets up higher that the pink ones. One day one of the guys crawled up under the dress and hid. As Belle was ready to step into it, all she sees is this face coming up out of it. She screamed and about had a heart attack. It took her a few moments to recover, but being the trooper that she was, she didn't miss her enterance.

At Disney there are wedding proposals practically everyday. My favorite one to date is the one between two cast members at B&B. The soon to be Bride was a dancer and the future Groom was a performer at the show. His fiance's dance partner taught the future groom the Waltz and wardobe did some hasty alternations to a Ballroom jumpsuit. The techs gave him a mic and the animal handler held back a cage of pigeons from the show's finale. During the Waltz, the soon-to-be bride's dance partner disappeared off into the wings and the future groom stepped out onto stage. The bride knew what was going on for the first time and she started to cry. After everyone's bows, the two stepped down stage center, he knelt on one knee and proposed. Of course she said yes. The birds were released and the entire audience gave them a standing ovation. There was not a dry eye in the house. I wasn't there, but i saw it on video in the Hunchback of notre dame greenroom the next day and I still teared up.

So I guess dreams do come true for cast members. . . .