Disney’s Olivier Award-winning stage musical Beauty and the Beast is returning to Bristol. The show, which has been re-imagined and re-designed in a completely new production, will be at the Hippodrome this autumn as part of a UK and Ireland tour.
Beauty and the Beast originally opened at the Bristol Hippodrome in August 2021, enjoying a sold out season and thrilling audiences. The acclaimed musical will return to the city with performances beginning from Thursday, September 29 for a strictly limited season until Saturday, November 12.
The tour is currently playing at the Birmingham Hippodrome, and includes a season this summer at the London Palladium, before returning to Bristol. Spectacular new designs and state-of-the-art technology fuse with the classic story, as the timeless romantic tale is brought to life on stage.
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Among the many new features is an exuberant tap dance within the legendary production number Be Our Guest. Olivier Award nominee Matt West directs and choreographs the new production, leading a team that includes composer Alan Menken, lyricist Tim Rice, bookwriter Linda Woolverton, scenic designer Stan Meyer, costume designer Ann Hould-Ward and lighting designer Natasha Katz.
The team collectively received five Tony nominations and a win for Hould-Ward’s costume design, when Disney first debuted Beauty and the Beast on Broadway 28 years ago. This new production retains the Oscar-winning and Tony-nominated score, which brought classics including Beauty and the Beast, as well as Change in Me, added to the musical production in 1998 and retained thereafter. I
t also has new dance arrangements by David Chase, allowing original choreographer Matt West to re-visit his work. The original West End production of Beauty and the Beast opened at the Dominion Theatre in April 1997, playing over 1,100 performances to more than two million people.
It won the 1998 Olivier Award for Best Musical and enjoyed a successful UK and Ireland tour in 2001. Based on the 1991 film – the first animated feature ever nominated for an Oscar for best picture – Beauty and the Beast opened on Broadway in April 1994 and garnered nine Tony nominations and one win.
It played for more than 13 years on Broadway, closing in 2007. It remains to this day – 28 years after it opened – among the top 10 longest running shows in Broadway history.
The 2017 live-action retelling of the animated classic quickly became the highest grossing live action film musical of all time, a record only beaten by The Lion King live-action release in 2019. Tickets for the Bristol Hippodrome show will go on sale at 10am on Friday, March 18. You can sign up for pre-sale tickets here and more Hippodrome shows can be viewed here.
