Jillian Butterfield remembers her first encounter with the music and characters of “Beauty and the Beast” that would later come to comprise her world. As a little girl in 1991, she went with her mother to the movie theater to see the Oscar-winning animated Disney film. Although her dream at the time was to become an Olympic figure skater, she remembers being enchanted.
“It’s amazing where life takes you,” she said in a recent phone interview from her hotel room in Fort Worth, Texas. In two hours, she would undergo her almost-daily transformation into a heroine from her childhood and take the stage at Bass Performance Hall.
Butterfield is playing the coveted role of Belle in the fourth national tour of the smash-hit Disney production, which will stop in Salt Lake City at Kingsbury Hall Jan. 30-Feb. 1 for five performances.
“Every time I step onto the stage, it feels magical,” she said. “I’m still pinching myself that this is really my life, that I get to play this character in such a gorgeous production.”
This is the San Diego native's first time playing Belle, a role she won last year after deciding, at the last minute, to attend the open call in New York City. Even though she had previously convinced herself she was taking some time off from the rigors of auditioning, the lure of this show proved too much. After five callbacks, she learned she’d won the role. The national tour started in September 2014 and will continue through the coming year.
The production features the movie’s memorable songs, such as “Beauty and the Beast” and “Be Our Guest” by Alan Menken (music), Howard Ashman and Tim Rice (lyrics); plus most of the additional seven songs that were written for the Broadway stage.
“One of my favorite songs isn’t even in the movie. It’s called ‘Home,’ where Belle sings about how the Beast may have locked her up but he can never take away her home because it’s in her heart,” Butterfield said.
“It’s songs like these that help audiences see more depth and dimension to my character than the film has time for. You may feel you get to know her better,” she said, adding, “I love and admire the person Belle is, and I love the message of this musical.”
And what’s not to love? Belle is the independent, bookish beauty who learns to look beyond the exterior of a prince-turned-Beast and ultimately fall in love. In doing so, she shatters the spell cast upon not just the Beast but also all the servants in his castle.
“One of the best reasons to see this story live, even if you've seen the movie a dozen times, is because of the spectacle — the color, the costumes, the choreography — it’s a roller coaster,” Butterfield said. “The whole original Broadway team came together to reimagine this show from staging to costumes — there are lots of new things for people to see.”
The costume department alone is an army with hundreds of moving parts. For the big number “Be Our Guest,” over 26 costumes fill the stage, ranging from forks and plates to salt shakers and sugar cubes. Bringing animated creativity to the live stage is no small feat.
Much of the credit goes to Ann Hould-Ward, who won a Tony Award for the original production’s costume designs in 1994 and continues to push the envelope with her creative redesigns seen in this production. The Tony was a nod to such creative animation-to-stage transformations as a mantel clock with an actual working clock on the actor’s face, a teapot, an ottoman, a dustpan, candlesticks, and corkscrews — all working together to create eye-popping appeal and big laughs.
Directed by Rob Roth and choreographed by Matt West, this tale may be “as old as time,” but, as Butterfield put it: “It feels new each time I step out onto the stage.”
If you go …
What: “Disney's Beauty and the Beast” national tour
When: Jan. 30-Feb. 1
Where: Kingsbury Hall, 1395 E. Presidents Circle
How much: $35-$75
Phone: 801-581-7100
Web: kingsburyhall.utah.edu/performances/disneys-beauty-and-the-beast