Disney Theatre Group. Festival Theatre. 10 May 2025
Joy.
There it is! A one-word review.
Perhaps one could add bliss, fulfilment, laughter and awe.
And, finally, the name Disney.
Especially in this era of austerity and insecurity, we are blessed to have a brilliant Australian arm of Disney touring a blockbuster musical of such mighty calibre.
This veteran critic is unashamed to deliver a hands down rave review of its 2025 production of Beauty and the Beast.
It features no big familiar national stars, just a really discerning Australian casting. The name of Shubshri Kandia has yet to be a drawcard from the marquee.
And here she is, strong and charming in the role of Belle, the village beauty who falls into the dark fairytale world of the angry prince cursed into the shape of a beast to live in a grim castle in the midst of the wolf-scary woods.
The original tale is ancient and French, written in 1740 by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve and Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont and rewritten by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont in 1756 . It was the Disney team who brought Belle into the contemporary light, and with a stage book from screenwriter Linda Woolverton and music from the great Alan Menken, re-envisaged Belle’s manifestation of beauty as also including an inner quality of learning and strength. Hence, today’s Belle is a voracious bookworm, and her ideal world is not jewels and wedding rings but a library and a compassionate relationship.
We now see this Disney delivery of the fantasy fairy tale as jolly good surrealism with the colourful classic Dali-esque dream concepts, as the clock dances with the candelabra and the dear old teapot wheels her teacup son, Chip, around on a tea trolly.
Fertile imagination thrives forever as do the universal battles of good versus evil.
Disney brings them to life yet again with good old Tim Rice’s lyrics and a cream of talented Disney creatives enabling top production values. Every incarnation of this work is just that bit smarter and more bedazzling than the last with the ongoing developments in stage technology: clever illusions; astounding lighting; not so much stage sets as stage worlds; and oh, the flowers.
Hence, the effusion of adjectives which come to mind as one beholds this show.
Entertainment at its best. Quality and style in every step. Oh, the costumes. Oh, the choreography. Oh, the brilliant Busby Berkley dance scene. The stuff of visual swoons.
Of course, Alan Menken’s music swirls from the skilful orchestra, loud but never overwhelming. Always balanced so the voices ring clear.
Trained voices, great hoofers - Rohan Browne is a delicious Lumiere, Gareth Jacobs is comic delight as Cogsworth, the clock. There’s Jayde Westaby, Alana Tranter, Rodney Dobson, gorgeous Hayley Martin, lithe Adam de Martino, young Jared Bicketron as Chip and, of course, tenor Brendan Xavier beneath the hair and horns of The Beast.
Not to be forgotten, he who brings the house down to whoops of delirious acclaim as the hilariously horrible Gaston, is one Jackson Head.
Tickets are not cheap but selling out fast as the word spreads that this show is super special.
Samela Harris
When: 10 May to 6 Jul
Where: Festival Theatre
Bookings: ticketek.com.au
