The legendary fantasy of Beauty and the Beast has been told many ways down through the centuries - from an oral narrative tale in ancient Greece to a voluminous 362-page account by a French author in 1740 to a variety of melodramas and pantomimes in the 19th century to Walt Disney's record-breaking animated film in 1991.
Now, Disney's version itself has been adapted for not one but two completely different productions - as a spectacular Walt Disney's World on Ice show (opening next week at the Delta Center) and as a full-scale Broadway musical (see related story on Page W3).The all-new $6 million ice show - with an 18-year-old Bountiful skater in the chorus - is being produced by Kenneth Feld with the latest in state-of-the-art sound and lighting technology and the familiar, Oscar-winning score by Howard Ashman and Alan Menken.
- TICKETS: The World on Ice production is scheduled for five days and nine performances from Wednesday, March 16, through Sunday, March 20.
All seats are reserved, and prices are $9.50, $11.50 and $13.50, with discounts of $1.50 for children 11 and under for some specified performances.
Dates and times are:
- March 16, 7 p.m. (with all seats discounted $3.50 for this opening-night "KSL-TV Family Night" performance).
- March 17, 7 p.m.
- March 18, 4 and 7:30 p.m.
- March 19, 11 a.m. and 3:30 and 7:30 p.m.
- March 20, 1:30 and 5:30 p.m.
There is no service charge for tickets purchased in person at the Delta Center box office.
Tickets are also available at all Smith'sTix outlets with a service charge of $1.25 per ticket.
Those charging tickets by telephone (467-8499 or, toll-free, 1-800-888-8499) incur a service charge of $2.50 per ticket, up to a maximum of $6 per order.
For tickets ordered by mail, a service charge of just $1 covers the entire order. Send a self-addressed envelope with check or money order payable to Delta Center, Walt Disney's World on Ice, in care of:
Delta Center
301 W. South Temple
Salt Lake City, UT 84101
For further ticket information call 325-7328 or (toll-free) 1-800-358-7328.
For group rate information, call 325-2587.
- WILL YOU-KNOW-WHO be there?
Some of Disney's most famous characters weren't seen, even as cameo "guest stars," in the 1991 animated film, which stuck pretty close to the story line followed in French film director Jean Cocteau's 1946 classic, "Le Belle et la Bete."
But for the ice show, Mickey Mouse and his familiar Disney colleagues - Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Daisy Duck, Goofy, Chip 'n' Dale, Baloo and Scrooge McDuck - will open the production and introduce audiences to the story, then will return in a fantasy finale to celebrate the breaking of the spell when Belle meets her handsome prince.
- THE CAST of skaters will include Maradith Feinberg, 24, who takes to the ice as Belle with a lyrical style reminiscent of Peggy Fleming; Victor Baryshevtsev, Russian singles skater, as the village bully Gaston; comedy skater Joey Daysog of San Jose, Calif., as Le Fou; Craig Horowitz, an accomplished skater and actor, and Russian pairs skaters Olga Neizvestnaya and Sergei Zaitsev.
Utah skater Angela Lawson has had a varied entertainment background.
In addition to her current career as a figure skater, she spent two years with the Woods Cross High School dance company and two years with the Chatelles.
Her skating began by chance.
Lawson's mother would swim in a Bountiful recreation facility that has an adjacent skating rink - so Angela would skate while her mom swam.
And she quickly picked up the sport.
"I have loved ice skating since day one. I like to show off!" she said.
She placed first in the Utah Winter Games and first in the Phoenix Fiesta Skate and also earned her fifth level in freestyle and passed her fifth test in figures for the United States Figure Skating Association.
After a brief career with Leary Ice Productions, Lawson successfully auditioned for Walt Disney's World on Ice in Salt Lake City, and she was signed up for the "Beauty and the Beast" tour.
"It's a wonderful experience to be able to perform for a large crowd and to travel as well," she said.
The 18-year-old skater maintains close contacts with her family and credits her mother with her success on the ice.
"She always knew what to say to motivate and inspire me," she said.
Looking ahead to when her skating career comes to an end, Lawson plans to obtain an undergraduate degree from Utah State University in Logan. In her spare time, she enjoys in-line skating, water skiing, hiking, biking, aerobics, archery and going dancing with friends.
Some other facts about the World on Ice production:
- This new show marks the debut of an extraordinary new sound system, including the placement of individual, independently controlled speakers out over the audience. The end result is a sound customized to each section of each different arena along the production's tour. Also new this year is a water vapor fog system that creates fog instantly.
- The tape-recorded score, containing all of the beloved songs from the animated screen version, will also feature the voices of Angela Lansbury, Robby Benson, David Ogden Stiers, Jerry Orbach and Paige O'Hara.
- One song that Ashman and Menken wrote for the film, but which ended up "on the cutting room floor," is "Human Again." It's been added to the score for the ice show.
- The show's three-year U.S. tour (to be followed by tours to Japan, South America, Central America, Europe and Asia) includes 82 cities, with an average distance of 399 miles between stops.
- The longest single trip of the 1993-94 season will be the 1,416 miles from Salt Lake City to Milwaukee, Wis., and the shortest trip is the 13 miles separating the Oakland Coliseum and San Francisco's famous Cow Palace.
- It takes seven 48-foot-long semitrailer trucks to transport the scenery, props and various lighting and sound systems. Once the trucks arrive, it takes eight to 10 hours to set everything up and four to six hours to take it all down.
- Studios and shops all over the country were utilized in bringing all of the elements together. Backdrops were created in Lorton, Va., not far from Walt Disney's World on Ice corporate offices in Vienna (also the site of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus headquarters, which Feld also heads) . . . costumes designed and crafted in New York City . . . props constructed in Sarasota . . . initial choreography created on a rink in Culver City, Calif., and - finally - rehearsals on another rink in Lakeland, Fla.
- Feld is known for his attention to detail, not only in his legendary circus productions but also this, the 12th edition of Walt Disney's World on Ice. Exhibit A: Intricate hand detailing is featured on Belle's lavish ballgown.
- THE HISTORY of "Beauty and the Beast" goes all the way back to ancient Greece, where second century mythologist Apuleius taught that one could not always see the love that is within. He used the characters of Psyche, a beautiful young woman, and an invisible Cupid, to demonstrate his theory. Psyche comes upon a deserted palace where ghostly voices greet her, unseen musicians offer a serenade and invisible hands serve a sumptuous feast.
Psyche cannot see her host, but after they marry the spell is broken and he is revealed as the handsome Cupid.
The story had been recounted by an old woman in a robbers' cave, leading historians to believe that Apuleius based his version on an even older wives' tale.
Fast-forward 14 centuries later to 1550. That's when Italian author Giovan Straparalo penned the first version of the story as modern readers know it. In this narrative, a king's eldest son is born a "Pig Prince" who must marry three women in order to rid himself of the curse. A similar tale, "Mouton," by Madame d'Aulnoy, appeared in the early 1700s. Its English translation in 1721 was called "The Royal Ram."
During the next 150 years, various versions of the tale popped up in French and English publications, and the story was known in many European and Asian cultures. Many pantomimes and melodramas also were produced based on the story.
In 1946, acclaimed French film director Jean Cocteau brought the story of "Beauty and the Beast" to the silver screen in a version titled "La Belle et la Bete." It was an instant success and spurred other film interpretations. The concept was brought to the smaller screen in 1987 through the popular television series "Beauty and the Beast," using subterranean New York City as its unusual setting.
Disney's full-length animated treatment premiered in 1991 and became an instant success.