- Audio CD (23 Dec 1999)
- Number of Discs: 1
- Format: Soundtrack
- Label: Disney
- ASIN: B00000DT8E
- Other Editions: Audio CD | Audio Cassette
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 223,116 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
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Track Listings
| 1. Act I: Prologue (The Enchantress) - Wendy Oliver | |||
| 2. Act I: Belle - Susan Egan/Burke Moses/Kenny Raskin/Sarah Solie Shannon/Paige Price/Linda Talcott... | |||
| 3. Act I: No Matter What - Tom Bosley/Susan Egan | |||
| 4. Act I: No Matter What (Reprise) / Wolf Chase - Tom Bosley | |||
| 5. Act I: Me - Burke Moses/Susan Egan | |||
| 6. Act I: Belle (Reprise) - Susan Egan | |||
| 7. Act I: Home - Susan Egan | |||
| 8. Act I: Home (Reprise) - Beth Fowler | |||
| 9. Act I: Gaston - Kenny Raskin/Burke Moses/Sarah Solie Shannon/Paige Price/Linda Talcott... | |||
| 10. Act I: Gaston (Reprise) - Burke Moses/Kenny Raskin | |||
| 11. Act I: How Long Must This Go On? - Terrence Mann | |||
| 12. Act I: Be Our Guest - Gary Beach/Beth Fowler/Heath Lamberts/Barbara Marineau/Brian Press/Stacey Logan... | |||
| 13. Act I: If I Can't Love Her - Terrence Mann | |||
| 14. Act II: Entr'acte / Wolf Chase - Original Cast | |||
| 15. Act II: Something There - Susan Egan/Terrence Mann/Gary Beach/Beth Fowler/Heath Lamberts | |||
| 16. Act II: Human Again - Gary Beach/Barbara Marineau/Heath Lamberts/Stacey Logan/Brian Press... | |||
| 17. Act II: Maison Des Lunes - Burke Moses/Kenny Raskin/Gordon Stanley | |||
| 18. Act II: Beauty And The Beast - Beth Fowler | |||
| 19. Act II: If I Can't Love Her (Reprise) - Terrence Mann | |||
| 20. Act II: The Mob Song - Burke Moses/Kenny Raskin/Gordon Stanley... | |||
See all 23 tracks on this disc
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Way back in 1991, many of us saw the single-handed salvation and revival of the old-fashioned American-style Broadway musical comedy. True, it was in the form of a feature-length Disney cartoon but Beauty and the Beast had it all: a wonderful, tuneful score (including a huge hit title-song); off-the-wall choreography; a great opposites-attract love story with an ultimately happy ending; comic subplots; colourful period costumes; a romantic location in small-town France, and an irresistible cast, including Angela Lansbury as the voice of a teapot. Alan Menken's songs, with lyrics by Howard Ashman and Tim Rice, literally introduced the characters ("Belle" and "Gaston") and carried them gracefully through the old fairy tale with its new animated twists.
Disney understandably decided to transpose this cinematic miracle to the Broadway stage in 1992. Beauty and the Beast at the fabled Palace Theatre has done as much as anything to revive New York's theatre district; it led to a similar animated film-to-stage transfer of The Lion King, which allowed for the magnificent restoration of the 1902 New Amsterdam Theatre, which was the cornerstone of the clean-up of 42nd Street, which in turn transformed Times Square and "Broadway" into the world's number-one tourist destination. However, on stage, Beauty and the Beast was flat, and most of that lack of fizz is, alas, captured on compact disc. The good songs are all here, such as "Be Our Guest", but the performances of them are mostly perfunctory--the exception being the vocal renderings of Susan Egan as Belle, the Beauty. Further, the Disneyfication of the Broadway musical seems to extend to faceless and interchangeable (read: cheap to hire) players, a practice that extends to The Lion King. The only "names" in the original Beauty and the Beast cast were Beth Howland as the teapot and Tom Bosley, a mere shadow of his former Fiorello, as Belle's father. Even worse, unlike The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast was not reinvented for the stage. It's my theory that the kids who made up the live audience (and many of their parents) were filling in the blanks from repeated viewings of the cartoon on video. If you're willing to do the same when only listening, this CD might do, but why, when the movie soundtrack album is available? --Robert Windeler
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
This is my second favourite musical of all-time (after The Lion King) and despite beeing slightly dissapointed by the London production of the show, the Stuttgart and Broadway productions which I have seen more recently, do the music and spectacle of this fabulous story justice. The CD contains all the songs from the movie, but the 3 minute segment of Be Our Guest in the movie is doubled on stage to create one of the most magical scenes in a musical ever. If I Can't Love Her is one of my favourite songs of all time and is only beaten, probably by Circle of Life, and shivers go down my spine every time I hear it (this also happens with the fabulous "Home"). The Broadway CD is probably the best introduction to the musical, but more recent recordings include more material, the most up-to-date CD is the Stuttgart CD, which, if you don't mind listening to it in German, has the best orchestration out of all the CDs. The addition of the song "A Change In Me" came last year but is not featured on any of the recordings, not even on the recently relased Spanish version, which is a shame because (despite slightly resembling a famous Whitney song for a few seconds on several occasions), it ranks highly with the other famous songs of the album.
Although, often the London recordings of shows can be better than those of Broadway. The London Cast CD cannot compare with this version
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Everytime I listen to this I go straight back three years when I saw it in Southampton and was utterly carried away.
Beauty and the Beast is one of the best disney classics and the best musical it has ever animated. It translated fantasically into a theatrical production and they could add a lot more to this medium.
Many of the songs are different from the animation and they don't spoil it - they fit in perfectly with the rest of it. It is worth most definatly buying this album as well as the soundtrack to the movie. It has a very different perspective to the story, a great way of celebrating and reliving both the movie and the play.
Format:Audio CD
Disney's animated movie "Beauty and the Beast" is my all time favorite of that genre. And this is coming from a guy who owns all the Disney Classics on VHS and is working on DVD. When they first announced plans to turn their movie into a Broadway show, I was thrilled. And it works so well.
All the songs from the movie are here, just as wonderful as in the movie itself. What I love about this soundtrack is the new songs, however. They add so much more to the characters and overall story. Belle's "Home" is such a powerful cry of despair after agreeing to stay in the castle. And the Beast's songs "How Long Must This Go On?" and "If I Can't Love Her" allow him to express emotion and make him a sympathetic character from act one before he starts showing it to Belle.
And I must mention my favorite of the new songs. Gaston's marriage proposal "Me" is an absolute riot. Makes me laugh every time I hear it.
I've listened to this CD so much; sometimes it feels like there's something missing when I watch the movie. Ironically, "Human Again" isn't one of my favorites. I wished they'd picked one of the other songs to add to the movie for the re-release instead of that one.
Any fan of Disney's Beauty and the Beast, stage or screen, will love this recording. It's a must own.
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