Disney’s Beauty and the Beast – The Broadway Musical

Ayo, I’m such a sucker when it comes to Disney.

So naturally I wanted to go to this musical la.

Well, being true to who we are i.e. doing things last minute, we bought tickets only after the show opened on the 24th June.
In fact, we visited the box office on the 25th and enquired on available seats. By then the best seats were already taken.

WAaT?!

Hmm… Of course they were. What did I expect right?

Nonetheless, we still managed to get the center block even though we had to settle for the very last show on 3rd July.

This is my second visit to the Plenary Hall, Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre (KLCC) for a musical. The first was for Chicago, The Musical.

Why oh whyyyy did they choose KLCC? Sighhh…


I’m going to start with my wish list for this show:
No. 1: Location – Istana Budaya
No. 2: Music – Full orchestra
No. 3: Personnel – More people for ensemble

It would have been a bigger better performance had they done it at Istana Budaya – a proper theatrical stage and hall.

The “Be Our Guest” scene was limited in terms of props and ensemble. It should have been a whole explosive mass of colours and food and dishes, plates, forks, spoons and such but since the stage was so small, the whole scene felt a bit lackluster.
The classic “Beauty and the Beast” song sung by Mrs Potts was a magical moment in the animation between Belle and the Beast. But here again due to limited space, not much dancing could be done.

The music sounds kinda weird too. Where was the big orchestral boom?

They tried to make it sound grand and majestic but without the proper string, wind and brass instruments, it just does not work. Going through the program book and finding the list of musicians, there were a grand total of 7 of them. No wonder! Explains a lot!

Other than the songs taken from the Disney animation, there were several extra songs unique to the musical. I like most “No Matter What”.

“… No matter what they say

You make me proud

I love the funny way

You stand out from the crowd… ”

Credits where they are due, the performers’ voices were clear, crisp, melodious and very effective in line delivery. Comic anecdotes were brilliantly done and plentiful. With what little stage space and equipment that they had, they were quite creative at using them and rather effective actually especially when depicting the forest.

Character-wise, each was natural and owned their characters. You believe that they are what they played. Bravo to them for that.

I absolutely love how the actors portrayed the obnoxious Gaston and Lumiere who could literally light up his hands at will since they are candles. Must have been fun having that prop!

All in all, it was a good show.