I was watching the Beauty and the Beast show at the Disney-MGM Studios last weekend and I couldn't help but to wonder why this show isn't getting a much needed update. Granted, I used to love this show. It introduced me to Beauty and the Beast. But after seeing Disneyland's Snow White, California Adventure's Aladdin, and now Animal Kingdom's Finding Nemo, Beauty and the Beast just pales in comparison. Watching it again, all the show's flaws just became so glaring. It doesn't even really tell the story of Beauty and the Beast. It's really just an excuse to perform a bunch of musical numbers from the movie. But the thing with that is they're really not even performed. Belle and Gaston are the only characters who actually sing, everyone else just lip syncs to recorded audio. The show doesn't really explain anything. How Belle meets Beast. Their relationship. They didn't even show Belle leaving. At the end, Beast says "You came back." She didn't go anywhere! And Gaston lives? What's up with that?! And why on earth does "Beauty and the Beast", the film's most important scene, turned into nothing more than a happy ending dance at the end. Belle's supposed to dance with the Beast, not the prince. The only number that really stood out for me was "The Mob Song." Other than that, the show really just feels hollow.
A lot of the same problems can be pointed at Voyage of the Little Mermaid as well. But The Little Mermaid is much harder to work with and the show has its own charm with the puppets and water effects. And Ariel performing "Part of Your World" makes the show worthwhile. I could sit there all day and listen to her sing... sometimes I do. Plus, the fact that its a 15-minute show that goes on all day tells you that it's not trying to be legitimate theater. But that's what Beauty and the Beast tries to pass itself off as. Being shown just 4 times a day, there is so much more you can do with it.
With Beauty and the Beast now off Broadway, Disney has a great opportunity to do something with their MGM show. It's quite simple. Take the Broadway show, remove anything that wasn't in the movie (which is a lot), make some cuts here and there, and boom, you have a great 45-minute show on the level of California Adventure's Aladdin. They'll probably have to make some changes to the stage but nothing major. I just don't see why they couldn't do that. It's not hard at all! The Hollywood Pictures Backlot at California Adventure is basically a mini-MGM Studios. If that can have a great stage show, why not the real thing? If they can tell the story of Aladdin in 45 minutes, why not Beauty and the Beast? Right now, there are high school productions of Beauty and the Beast around the country that are better than what they have at MGM. I think that's an embarrassment.
Yes, it's a popular show. But it's popular because people love the story and the music, not because the show is great. People will not mind if you take it away for a while to improve it. If Disney can shut down Space Mountain and the Haunted Mansion to make them better, they can do the same for Beauty and the Beast. This is arguably Disney's greatest story ever, it's time it got the respect it deserves!
