Disney's Beauty and the Beast Heads to the London Palladium in June

The tale as old as time is going to London. A new staging of Disney's Beauty and the Beast will play the London Palladium beginning on June 24. The musical is set to run through September 17 as part of its U.K. and Ireland tour. Olivier Award nominee Matt West directs and choreographs this new production.

Courtney Stapleton and Shaq Taylor will lead the cast as Belle and The Beast, respectively. Gavin Lee plays Lumiere with 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 ensemble features Richard Astbury, Sarah Benbelaid, Jake Bishop, Pamela Blair, Liam Buckland, Jasmine Davis, Matthew Dawkins, 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.

Beauty and the Beast features a score by composer Alan Menken and lyricist Tim Rice, book by Linda Woolverton, scenic design by Stan Meyer, costume design by Ann Hould-Ward, lighting design by Natasha Katz and sound design by John Shivers. Darryl Maloney is the video and projections designer, David H. Lawrence is the hair designer, Jim Steinmeyer is the illusions designer. Casting for the production is by Pippa Ailion Casting. Longtime Menken collaborators Michael Kosarin and Danny Troob are musical supervisor/vocal arranger and orchestrator, respectively.

This new Beauty and the Beast has new dance arrangements by David Chase, allowing original choreographer Matt West to revisit his work. The musical is reimagined in new designs which use the latest theatrical innovations. Among the many new features is an exuberant tap dance within the legendary production number "Be Our Guest," created expressly for Lee.

The original West End production of Beauty and the Beast opened at the Dominion Theatre in April 1997 and won the Olivier Award. It debuted on Broadway in 1994 and earned nine Tony nominations, including Best Musical.