The fifth time’s the charm. Isn’t that the saying? Disney’s Beauty and the Beast (1993, Houston tryout) is back in town for its fifth U.S. tour (the show’s 30th anniversary) courtesy of Broadway at the Hobby, and it’s the best one yet.
Tweaks from original writer Linda Woolverton, Tony Award-winning costumer Ann Hould-Ward, Broadway-pro lighting designer Natasha Katz, and refreshed and re-thought-out direction and choreography from Matt West (all veterans of the 1994 Broadway production) have transformed the beloved musical into something a little bit special. The sets and projections by Stanley A. Meyer are brand new, and the minimalism is strikingly effective.
The wolf attacks are actually scary, the 2-D digital backgrounds bespeak painterly vistas with trompe-l’oeil depth, and the whole atmosphere of the show resembles a pop-up fairy tale picture book. It looks great. Never has so much been accomplished with so little. (Not money, of course. Convincing stage magic from master Jim Steinmeyer costs a prince’s fortune, and the Disney wizards have gone for broke.)
Even the character of Gaston’s toady Lefou (Julian Marcus De Guzman) has been toned down for the better. He’s still a cartoon, but so much less annoying than previous versions. Thank you, creative team. Although the reduced orchestra sounds tinny and over-amplified, and the additional Alan Menken songs for the musical are nothing to write home about – lyricist Tim Rice (Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita, The Lion King) replaced the incomparable Howard Ashman after he died in 1991 – there’s always the Beast’s operatic “If I Can’t Love Her” to set you humming.
This is family entertainment the Disney way, if a tad under populated. A chorus line of 12 doesn’t fill a tavern or serve up a convincing phantasmagorical dinner scene for “Be Our Guest,” no matter how many times the hard working dancers change costumes. But West’s tap dance extravaganza, a new number for this tour, works overtime to entertain us and eventually succeeds with giant forks and spoons rolled on stage, dinner plates rimmed with lights, everybody hoofin’ up a storm, and a streamer cannonade at the finale. It would be a great end to Act I. But no, it goes on. What the little ones in the audience thought I couldn’t say, but I bet they were nodding off. It’s a long first act. Act II is more streamlined.
The cast is fresh and young with Kyra Belle Johnson and Fergie L. Philippe as the eponymous Beauty and Beast. They make a feisty sparring couple, she of indefatigable force and he, well, beastly at first, until tamed by love. Belle, too, is ultimately tamed, which is the moral of this story: don’t judge a book by its cover; there’s more underneath a person then the exterior. It’s a lesson everybody approves of, whether they honor the maxim in daily life or not. It’s a good one for the kiddies who I suppose are seeing their first live show. Beauty is a great place to start them on their stage journey with all its magical wonders.
Stephen Mark Lukas, with biceps for days, is a dashing preening Gaston; Danny Gardner is the slightly naughty chandelier Lumiere; Javier Ignacio is the comically fussy mantle clock Cogsworth; Kathy Voytko is all sympathy as teapot Mrs. Potts; Cameron Monroe Thomas is the slinky feather duster Babette; Holly Ann Butler is the haughty chifferobe Madame; Kevin Ligon is Belle’s oddball father; and either Levi Blaise Coleman or Kenoa Edgar was little cup Chip. (I couldn’t be sure which actor it was, but one of them was adorable. And somehow through stage magic he was stuffed into his tea trolley which had an opening you could see through to the other side. Where they hid that child’s body is the oldest illusion in the book, but I’ll be damned how they did it.)
On Broadway, Beauty ran for 13 years (!), regardless of what the opening night critics said of it, which wasn’t very kind. Its popularity was and is enormous, witness the full house at the Hobby. The musical ushered in, as Variety might say, the “Disneyfication of Broadway. After Beauty showed the way, Disney Theatrical produced The Lion King, Tarzan, Mary Poppins, The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Frozen, with many more in the future pipeline. Disney vaults run deep.
Beauty’s come home again to its original starting place. It’s not the Music Hall this time, but it looks great at the Hobby.
Beauty and the Beast continues through January 18 at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday through Saturdays; 2 p.m. Saturdays; and 1 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. Sundays at the Hobby Center, 800 Bagby. For more information, call 713-315-2400 or visit houston.broadway.com. $48-$398.
This article appears in Private: Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2026.