Over 200,000 Queenslanders have already been our guest!
As the Brisbane season of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast draws to an end, more than 200,000 Queenslanders have already experienced the magic. With only one week remaining this is the last chance for audiences to see Disney’s classic musical romance before it leaves for Melbourne.
This reimagined production of Beauty and the Beast has become the highest selling season of any show at QPAC in a decade and the third highest selling of all time behind Phantom of the Opera (1996) and The Lion King (2014). A combined total of 1.1 million Queenslanders have seen a Disney production at the Lyric Theatre since 2012.
Produced in Australia by Disney Theatrical Group (Aladdin, The Lion King, Mary Poppins, Frozen), this new production received five stars from The Courier-Mail, The Guardian, Time Out Sydney, and The Daily Telegraph, whose review described it as “a remarkable reimagination”. With an incredible Australian cast, fabulous new sets, costumes and cutting-edge technology, the show-stopping production number ‘Be Our Guest’ also includes a brand-new tap finale featuring Lumiere, Belle, and all the enchanted objects of the castle and regularly receives a mid-show standing ovation.
QPAC Chief Executive John Kotzas AM celebrated the fact that Disney’s Beauty and the Beast season had made it into the record books and said the production ticked all the boxes for Queensland audiences.
“We know our audiences love musical theatre and Disney always over-delivers on outstanding production values with refined storytelling that taps into nostalgia,” Mr Kotzas said.
“We’re committed to partnering with the very best producers, arts companies and artists to ensure we deliver a diverse and engaging annual program of live performing arts experiences that draw in audiences. Disney’s Beauty and the Beast has been a highlight of the 2024 program as is evidenced by these impressive audience numbers."
“It’s fantastic to see Disney Theatrical Group’s new production of Beauty and the Beast filling the hearts of Queensland audiences at the Lyric Theatre night after night,” said Kylie Watson-Wheeler, The Walt Disney Company Australia and New Zealand’s Senior Vice President and Managing Director.
“Our cast, crew, orchestra, creatives and management team are thrilled to have surpassed our previous long-held record in Queensland. We love bringing our shows to QPAC, and we’re excited to continue to produce world-class musicals around the country for everyone to enjoy.”
The production will travel to Melbourne next, opening at Melbourne’s Her Majesty’s Theatre in June 2024.
About Disney's Beauty and the Beast
Based on the 1991 film – the first animated feature ever nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture – Beauty and the Beast opened on Broadway in April 1994 and garnered nine Tony nominations and one win. It played for more than 13 years on Broadway (before closing in 2007) and remains to this day one of the top 10 longest running shows in Broadway history. The 2017 live-action retelling of the animated classic starring Emma Watson quickly became the highest grossing live action film musical of all time, a record beaten only by The Lion King live-action release in 2019.
The original Australian production of Beauty and the Beast opened in Melbourne at the Princess Theatre in 1995 starring Rachael Beck in the role of Belle, Michael Cormick as the Beast, a young Hugh Jackman as Gaston, and the late Bert Newton as Cogsworth. The production played for over two years across Melbourne and Sydney and won the 1996 ARIA Award for Best Australian Soundtrack/Cast/Show Release.
The structure and tone of the story and score – as conceived for the 1991 film by its executive producer and lyricist Howard Ashman with a continued evolution for the Broadway adaptation three years later – made Disney history. Only once before – in Menken and Ashman’s previous film musical The Little Mermaid – had a Disney film been structured like a stage musical where the songs are integral to plot and characterisation rather than only ornamental or digressions. This Menken/Ashman innovation is credited with the 1990’s Disney animation renaissance that went on to create such film classics as Aladdin, The Lion King and Hunchback of Notre Dame and helped re-introduce the book musical form to popular culture.
This new stage production of Beauty retains the lush period sound of the Oscar-winning and Tony® award-nominated score - which brought classics including "Be Our Guest" and "Beauty and the Beast", as well as "Change in Me", added to the musical production in 1998 and retained thereafter. New dance arrangements by David Chase, have allowed original choreographer Matt West to re-visit his work. Long-time Menken collaborators Michael Kosarin and Danny Troob are musical supervisor/vocal arranger and orchestrator, respectively.
Completing the design team, Tony® award winner John Shivers is sound designer, Darryl Maloney is the video and projections designer, and David H. Lawrence is hair designer. Jim Steinmeyer is the illusions designer, as he was on the original 1994 production.
Beauty and the Beast will be produced in Australia by The Walt Disney Company and Disney Theatrical Group, under the direction of Andrew Flatt, Thomas Schumacher, and Anne Quart.
For more information please visit www.beautyandthebeastmusical.com.au
About Disney Theatrical Group
Disney Theatrical Group, a division of The Walt Disney Studios, was formed in 1994 and operates under the direction of Andrew Flatt, Thomas Schumacher, and Anne Quart. Worldwide, its ten Broadway titles have been seen by more than 200 million theatregoers and have been nominated for 62 Tony® Awards, winning Broadway’s highest honor 20 times.
DTP proudly returns to Australia with Beauty and the Beast, its seventh presentation following The Lion King (2003 and 2013) Mary Poppins (2010 and 2022), Aladdin (2016) and Frozen (2020). Those six seasons have played over 12 years and have been seen by more than 7.5 million people. Prior to that, Beauty and the Beast was presented here in 1995 in partnership with Kevin Jacobson and Michael Edgely.
The company’s inaugural production, Beauty and the Beast, opened in 1994, playing a remarkable 13-year run on Broadway and produced in replica productions around the world over four decades.
In November 1997, Disney made theatrical history with the opening of The Lion King, which received six 1998 Tony Awards including Best Musical and Best Director, Julie Taymor, who became the first woman in Broadway history to the win the award. Surpassing 25 landmark years on Broadway, it has welcomed 112 million visitors worldwide to date and has nine productions currently running worldwide. The Lion King has played over 100 cities in 24 countries on every continent except Antarctica and its worldwide gross exceeds that of any film, Broadway show or entertainment title in box office history.
Elton John and Tim Rice’s Aida opened on Broadway next, winning four 2000 Tony Awards. It was followed by Mary Poppins, a co-production with Cameron Mackintosh, which opened in London in 2004 and went on to enjoy a six-year Tony-winning Broadway run. Tarzan®, Tony-nominated for its 2006 Broadway premiere, went on to become an international hit with an award-winning production enjoying a ten-year run in Germany. In January 2008, The Little Mermaid opened on Broadway and was the best-selling new musical of that year.
Disney Theatrical Group opened two critically acclaimed productions on Broadway in 2012, winning seven Tony Awards between them: Peter and the Starcatcher and Newsies, each of which enjoyed a two-year run and launched North American tours, with Newsies playing a record-breaking Fathom Events in-cinema release.
Aladdin, Disney Theatrical Group’s 2014 hit, continues its smash Broadway run. It has launched nine productions around the globe and been seen by more than 17 million guests. Disney Theatrical Group’s newest hit, the 2018 Tony-nominated Best Musical Frozen currently has four productions around the world.
Other stage ventures include the Olivier-nominated London hit Shakespeare in Love, stage productions of Disney’s High School Musical, Der Glöckner Von Notre Dame in Berlin, King David in concert and the upcoming world-premiere of Hercules in Hamburg, Germany. Disney Theatrical Group has collaborated with the nation’s preeminent theatres to develop new stage musicals including The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Freaky Friday and Hercules.
As a part of the recent acquisition of 21st Century Fox, Disney Theatrical Group also heads the Buena Vista Theatrical banner, which licenses Fox titles for stage adaptations including Anastasia, Moulin Rouge! The Musical and Mrs. Doubtfire.
With dozens of productions currently produced or licensed, a Disney musical is being performed professionally somewhere on the planet virtually every hour of the day.
