The musical version of Disney’s classic French fairytale Beauty and the Beast premiered in Mumbai on Wednesday evening at NSCI, Worli.
Beauty and the Beast is one of Disney’s most popular properties, which ran for 13 years on Broadway and won several awards. One of the longest running Broadway shows of all time, it has been produced in 28 countries and now comes to India for the first time.
This one retains the original script but is developed in India by a bunch of talented technicians and actors.
Everyone knows this lovely story where a small-town girl, Belle ends up a prisoner to save her father from a beast who is actually a prince, cursed by a sorceress until he can learn how to love.
The seating at NSCI, Worli, which is an indoor stadium, was re-designed keeping the musical in mind. So wherever you sit, you get a clear view of the entire extravaganza plays out in front of your eyes for 130 minutes. Just as you take your seat, Amitabh Bachchan’s voice introduces to the story.
The sets are spectacular and every time the story moves forward, the smooth transition of the sets transports you scene by scene to different locations.
Show director and the Creative Head of Live Entertainment, Disney India, Vikrant Pawar deserves a pat on his back for putting this amazing show together with local resources in India. It’s smooth, glitch free, sticks to the prime story and above all it’s entertaining. The choreography by Terence Lewis matches international standards. What deserves a special mention is the art direction by Varsha Jain. It’s because of the art and design team that you feel that this could just be Broadway.
Most Indian audiences are used to Bollywood, where most actors can either act or dance or may be sing a line or two. The actors in Beauty and the Beast do all of it right in front of you, with no chance of retakes.
Stage actor Meher Mistry plays the lead Belle, and she is there from the first frame to the last one. Mistry effortlessly performs, making sure you don’t take your eyes off her. Edwin Joseph plays the Beast, with the kind of costume he has to carry around all the time, you can only imagine what an arduous task it must be for him to jump around through the show and even break into a dance every now and then. The supporting cast of Hitesh Malukani, Varun Narayan, Nisha Shetty, Kyla D’Souza perform brilliantly and lift the show with their individual performances.
The musical version of Beauty and the Beast is no Lion King but it does the job and delivers the story as it is. If you know the story then you will realize there are slight changes which don’t take away from narrative, but if they were indeed taking creative liberties, the makers could have cut the duration too, perhaps by reducing the songs.
Indian audiences are getting used to shorter forms of entertainment, which they find in international TV shows and on YouTube. Beauty and the Beast is perfect but the question is, whether an Indian audience is ready for it ? Youngsters with cell phones are fickle with very short attention span. The second you are not able to hold their attention, they pick up their phones and open Whatsapp or update their status on Facebook and you have lost them, which of course is not how it should be but there is no running away from this fact.
Beauty and the Beast is a family entertainer, high on energy and something a lot of people haven’t ever seen. It pretty much offers what a Bollywood film would offer you like song, dance and action that too live with talented young actors. Trust me, the sets of this musical will make Bhansali’s and Barjatya’s production design look tacky.
Kudos to Disney India for getting this delightful show to Mumbai. Bollywood was in full attendance at the premiere, enjoying the musical. I spotted Tabu, Raveena Tandon, Vidya Balan, Soha Ali Khan, Farah Khan, Mandira Bedi, Emraan Hashmi, Kunal Khemu, Imtiaz Ali, Siddharth Anand, Nikhil Advani, Sujoy Ghosh, most of them with their kids.
Welcome to Mumbai Beauty and the Beast and thanks for the entertainment.
(Beauty and the Beast will run in Mumbai from 23rd November to 1st December 2015 at NSCI Worli and the tickets prices range from Rs 1000 to Rs 5000.)
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