Inside the New Beauty and the Beast Tour with Linda Woolverton and Matt West

More than 30 years after the animated Disney film premiered, and nearly 25 years since the last national tour, Beauty and the Beast is back on the road in a bold new production. Book writer Linda Woolverton and director and choreographer Matt West, who created the original Broadway choreography, sat down with The Broadway Show’s Beth Stevens to talk about what it means to return to a story they know so well.

“It feels like going home,” said West. “We're family,” added Woolverton. “We've been with this show for so long and it's been a joy every time. And so to come back and reimagine it and rethink it to the degree we're doing it is such a joy.”

This refreshed version includes updates to design, lighting, choreography and even the script. “I wanted to look at every aspect of it,” said West. He also revealed a major dance surprise: “‘Be Our Guest’ is now big tap number, which I've always wanted to do, so I've put it in. David Chase did the new dance arrangements.”

Woolverton, who also wrote the original screenplay, continues to evolve Belle’s journey. “We really wanted to conjure up a new kind of Disney heroine that wasn't a princess but was a heroine who took action in the world and was a thinker and a reader,” she said. That spirit remains at the center. “The heroine is a contemporary girl, so it lends itself to being updated as we go along and learn new things and grow ourselves and put that into the show.”

The show’s themes of growth, forgiveness and redemption still resonate. “You know this show points out that love is love is love is love,” said West. “These two unlikely people come together and forgive and understand and grow together and end up together.” Woolverton added, “He made a terrible mistake when he was young and suffered a lot, and everyone in the castle suffers for it. But you can come back through love. It's the redemptive power of love that I think really touches people about this story.”

For West and Woolverton, the impact of the show is clear in the people it inspired. “Many in our cast have shown me pictures of them at the Palace Theatre on Broadway when they were five and six,” said West. “And now here they are doing it with us. It's surreal.” As for who they hope will see this new version, their answer was simple. “People from four to 104,” said West. “Everyone can be your guest,” Woolverton added.