Courtney Stapleton, Emmanuel Kojo, Gavin Lee & More Cast in the U.K. Return of Beauty and the Beast

These talents will be bringing new life to this tale as old as time! As previously reported, Beauty and the Beast is heading back to the stage. Courtney Stapleton and Emmanuel Kojo will play the title roles in a U.K./Ireland tour, which will begin on August 25 at The Bristol Hippodrome.

The cast will also include two-time Tony nominee and Olivier nominee Gavin Lee in the role of Lumiere, Tom Senior as Gaston, Sam Bailey as Mrs. Potts, Nigel Richards as Cogsworth, Martin Ball as Maurice, Samantha Bingley as Wardrobe, Emma Caffrey as Babette and Louis Stockil as Le Fou.

The full company will also include Jake Bishop, Pamela Blair, Liam Buckland, Jasmine Davis, Autumn Draper, Daisy Edwards, Alyn Hawke, George Hinson, Jennifer Louise Jones, Brontë Lavine, Thomas-Lee Kidd, David McIntosh, Aimee Moore, Sam Murphy, Ashley-Jordon Packer, Emily Squibb, Grace Swaby, India Thornton and Rhys West.

Olivier Award nominee Matt West will direct and choreograph the production, stepping in for Rob Roth (previously credited as Robert Jess Roth), who was Tony-nominated for helming the original production and has stepped down from this revival. The creative team will also include composer Alan Menken, lyricist Tim Rice, bookwriter Linda Woolverton, choreographer Matt West, scenic designer Stan Meyer, costume designer Ann Hould-Ward and lighting designer Natasha Katz.

Stapleton’s previous credits include Dear Evan Hansen, Six, Les Misérables and Bat Out of Hell. Kojo is best known for performing in Oklahoma!, Girl from the North Country, Show Boat and The Scottsboro Boys.

Singing teapots and candlesticks, an evil spell and an unlikely love story come together in Beauty and the Beast, which is based on the Oscar-winning animated feature and includes all of the movie's original songs by Menken and Ashman, plus additional gems by Menken and Rice.

The West End production opened at London's Dominion Theatre in 1997 and won the 1998 Olivier Award for Best Musical. The Broadway production bowed at the Palace Theatre in 1994 and ran for 13 years. It transferred to the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre in November of 1999. A live-action film version, starring Emma Watson and Dan Stevens, was a huge box office hit in March 2017.