In Brief

** 1/2 Various artists, “Beauty and the Beast: A New Musical” original cast album, Walt Disney Records. The six new songs by Alan Menken and Tim Rice that were added for the Broadway production overlap easily with the music from the Menken-Howard Ashman film score. This serviceable, undemanding, Disney-style music suggests that the show has more to do with visual effects than aural enchantment. The only surprise is Menken and Ashman’s “Human Again,” a brightly attractive waltz that was dropped from the film.

New albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor), two stars (fair), three stars (good) and four stars (excellent).