A Newly Imagined Beauty and the Beast to Return to the U.K. with Original Creative Team

Beauty and the Beast is heading back to the stage! Reimagined and redesigned in a completely new production staged by the original award-winning creative team, the show will embark on a U.K. and Ireland tour next spring. Performances will begin at Curve, Leicester on May 25, 2021. Rob Roth (previously credited as Robert Jess Roth), who was Tony-nominated for helming the original production , will again direct, leading a team that includes 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.

“Beauty and the Beast is a testament to the genius of my late friend and collaborator Howard Ashman, but the show's richness comes from the combination of Howard's style and that of the brilliant Tim Rice, with whom I expanded the score to give voice to the Beast," said Menken. "As the show returns to the U.K., I cannot wait to see how Rob Roth and this glorious creative team bring the whole universe of Beauty and the Beast to life once again." The show will include new dance arrangements by David Chase, allowing original choreographer Matt West to revisit his work. Longtime Menken collaborators Michael Kosarin and Danny Troob will serve as musical supervisor/vocal arranger and orchestrator, respectively.

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 hit in March 2017.

Thomas Schumacher, the President of Disney Theatrical Productions, previously spoke on Show People about developing plans for a new incarnation of the musical: "We’re working on a revival of [Beauty and the Beast] with the entire original team but with a completely new design for every element: new dance arrangements, whole new staging ideas. It’s really fun for that team to be able to dive back in.”

Casting, dates, venues and additional details will be announced later.