WEST VALLEY CITY — Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast” is not, strictly speaking, a "tale as old as time" — the animated film version will turn 25 in November. And though the stage version, which has some differences from the movie, premiered on Broadway a few years later, in 1994, it too has been around for quite some time.
So when it comes to Hale Centre Theatre's upcoming production of the musical, which runs Aug. 5 to Oct. 1, director John Sweeney said the theater is working to make it stand apart.
"Oddly enough, we're making the musical fresh by actually revisiting some of the elements that make the movie so amazing," Sweeney said. "There are many places where the musical actually strays from the film, and so what we're doing is trying to incorporate things from the film into the live musical, which I think will be a surprise to people."
The theater is planning to accomplish this in part through the use of puppetry, which enables it to bring to life elements of the film that may have been considered too complex to stage at the time the musical was created, Sweeney said.
"Typically in the musical, there's a part for the rug in the castle, but in the movie, there is actually a dog that is also turning into an enchanted object, he's turning into a footstool, so we have the dog and the footstool come alive in our production," Sweeney said. Philippe the horse and other elements will also be brought to life through puppetry, he said.
The story of "Beauty and the Beast" follows an intelligent and adventurous young woman named Belle as she seeks to save her father, who has been taken prisoner by a Beast in an enchanted castle, and to avoid the advances of a local man named Gaston, whose interest in her is limited to her beauty. Over time, Belle learns there’s much more to the Beast than meets the eye.
Karina Gillette will play Belle in one of the production's two casts.
"I love Belle; I love that she's strong, and I love that she's smart," Gillette said. "I think that she is such a good example of what a woman can be in a difficult world. … I think she's a very well-crafted character."
Her character sings more in the stage version than she does in the movie, Gillette said, including two new songs. "Home" focuses on "finding the strength in yourself to make whatever situation that you're in a good situation," she said, and in "A Change in Me," Belle "realizes that people can change you … and how judging a person based on a first interaction is not always the wisest decision.”
“I love the additional songs in the show," Gillette said. "(The film version of) 'Beauty and the Beast' already has some depth … but I feel like in the stage show, there's so much heart and purpose in each moment, in each relationship."
Playing the role of Gaston will be brothers Adam and Quinn Dietlein.
"It's just so fun to be able to do a show with my brother," said Adam Dietlein, who performed as Gaston in the first international tour of Disney's "Beauty and the Beast" from August 2014 to July 2015. "We have a great relationship as brothers, and he's just been really humble in his approach. He sees how I do something, he tries to emulate it, and then ultimately makes it his own. And I'm by and far not the perfect cookie-cutter Gaston, but there are some things that I learned on tour and things that I'm still discovering that we've been able to grow together."
Sweeney said HCT’s production will give audiences a chance to reconnect with a well-loved story in a way that may feel more familiar than they expect.
"If they want to relive the magic of the cartoon from 25 years ago, I think they'd want to come and see our storytelling and remember why it is they fell in love with the story in the first place," he said.
Content advisory: A song is performed in a tavern but with empty mugs, and there is some mild violence on par with what is seen in the G-rated Disney film version.
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