Beauty & the Beast - UK Tour & Palladium

I'm so intrigued by this production, I hope nothing else happens to prevent or postpone it!

I can't wait to see production shots! The design of the original was just spot-on perfect! The enchanted objects, the huge castle - back in the 80s and 90s sets were so big and opulent. I hope they don't cut it down this time and that they do something new and interesting. But I can't imagine a show beginning on tour to have the same scale as the original.

Bizarre that they’d put Bristol & Cardiff in the same block. They normally spread them out to encourage repeat visits.

They will do a Leicester season at some point. They will have developed a relationship with Curve and will want to honour that.

What is even more odd, in that case, is the 'launch' page on the official website, the one in blue, clearly states, "...we have been able to reschedule the engagement to Christmas 2022." Perhaps I'm being old fashioned, and I know it seems to gets earlier every year, but to me Christmas actually means Christmas, rather than late November / early December.

If it was to open in London after Dublin, I would have thought it would want to be in London for most of November and December and not move theatre during the busiest time. Cannot see it going into London in 2022.

Also is the London Palladium availability hindered by the Michael McIntyre Show that happens around Christmas and is filmed at the London Palladium?

We saw a Christmas recording of his show on the 10th Nov 2019.

I think it's slightly weird and invasive to transcribe someone else's emails and then release them to damage their career.

I don't support the behaviour of the big "untouchable" producers like Rudin who think they can do what they like, but I don't want to shoot down those who perhaps got their careers because of him and are caught in an awkward place.

Yes, and of course I don't agree with allowing that behaviour. I just don't like this digging-up-dirt society we've become where everyone jumps out and goes "GOTCHA! YOU'RE CANCELLED!"

Although maybe that's the way to get rid of these larger problems, who knows? It just seems like Roth might be shouldering a burden that should lie with Rudin.

Presumably ingratiating himself with powerful people was the only way he could get work. He can’t direct for toffee.

He was basically a Disney in-house theme park director who struck lucky (though to hear him tell the story he was the driving force behind Disney deciding to produce on Broadway) and essentially stuck an extended theme park show on the New York stage (the set designer and choreographer were part of the resident theme park team). He was dropped from Aida after the out of town tryout (when it was called Elaborate Lives) and had one more Broadway show with Lestat, which ran for about two months. He's made a lot of money from being in the right place at the right time - rather than having any particular artistic vision. Why else would he have been returning to the same show 25 years later in what is almost certain to be a copy cat revival - I'd guess it's because he can't do anything else (other than criticise Tony award winning actresses and suck up to bully-boy producers).

I do think the original Beauty and the Beast really "hit the mark" in terms on putting an animated movie on stage. It seemed to tweek the story just enough, expand the scenes and characters just enough, and incorporate just the right set and costume designs.

With a new director now coming on board it'll be interesting to see which way it goes. Also, as this production is conceived as a tour rather than a sit-down west end production, I don't expect the enormous "castle" sets of the original. But it still has a Disney budget, so I'm intrigued.

I think Disney's biggest missed opportunity so far has been The Little Mermaid. That one never quite found its feet (fins?), but if they had gone with a more straightforward adaptation like they did with Beauty and the Beast, rather than trying to reinvent it too much, I think it could have worked.

That show is long dead.