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Thirty years after its initial premiere on Broadway, Disney has announced a reimagined tour for Beauty and the Beast in North America. Little information is known about the upcoming tour, but it is currently planned to set off on the road in June of 2025. The Chief Creative Officer for Disney Theatrical Group, Thomas Schumacher, made the initial statements regarding the upcoming tour and what can be expected from the newly reimagined show.
“We’ve heard from audiences for three decades now that Beauty and the Beast has touched them in a profound way – these characters, songs and this sweeping story… How proud we are, then, to bring this refreshed and human take on the show – with the scale and spectacle the title deserves – to longtime fans and an entirely new generation. This Beauty is for them.”
Presently, the show is expected to launch in Schenectady, NY at Proctors before heading to Chicago for opening to public audiences in July, 2025. It is expected that the Disney company will announce at least a two year tour schedule for the classic tale as old as time. Fans have already begun speculating that Disney is relaunching the show due to recent failures at box offices with the company’s animated movies. An official casting also has yet to be announced, but it is expected to be released later this year with rehearsals set to begin early next year.
Much of the original creative team for the musical has reunited in light of this news including the original composer Alan Menken, lyricist Tim Rice who worked on the live action Beauty and the Beast (2017), and Director and Choreographer Matt West who worked on the original Beauty and the Beast 1994 Broadway and 1997 West End productions. With the original gang back together, fans should have high hopes for Disney’s Beauty and the Beast reimagined tour next summer.
The original 1994 production was nominated for nine Tony Awards, and ran on Broadway for 13 years before closing on 29 July, 2007. The musical had 56 previews and nearly 5,500 performances. It is the sixth longest running show in Broadway history and has had runs in the United Kingdom’s West End and Australia. After recently concluding a tour in the UK last year, Beauty and the Beast is currently touring Australia in Sydney, Brisbane, and Melbourne with new tickets for the Australian tour being announced soon.
Currently, Disney’s Beauty and the Beast has a run time of 2 hours and 30 minutes including a 20 minute interval. The run time, as well as several songs from the musical, could likely be some of the changes that Disney has its eyes set on changing. Fans are also sceptical of how much the costumes will be likely to change as some have even said that certain costume pieces are outdated. Either way, the reimagined tour is likely to be a success as the last Disney produced North American Beauty and the Beast tour ran for nearly eight years and captivated more than 5.7 million audience members across the nation.
Janine has always been a part of music and performing. The first show that inspired her to go into theatre was the Velveteen Rabbit which she saw as a child, and Drew works to keep that magic alive in her work. When Drew was accepted into an internship program for audio engineering at a recording studio, she jumped at the opportunity. That was at the start of 2020, and so much has happened since then, both in her career and in the world. Since then, Drew has taken several opportunities to work at recording studios, concerts, festivals, and even large theatres while spending some time on tour. Drew's favorite by far though, has been the chance to work on Broadways and West End shows, as this was a dream come true. Drew is honoured to get to share these experiences from being inside the entertainment industry.
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