This ‘Beast’ Rings a Belle

As Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast” returns on tour, it’s hard to say which is the better show: the one on stage, or the one in the lobby, where a little boy lets out a Beastly roar on the grand staircase and a little girl heads for her seat in a Belle ball gown, a magic rose clutched in her hand.

Such were the sights Tuesday night as the stage version of the beloved animated film returned to the Southland for the first time since its 1995-96 run at Century City’s Shubert Theatre. It plays through July 23 at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa.

The touring production’s scale is a bit diminished from the Shubert version, with the opulent, Busby Berkeley-like “Be Our Guest” number looking especially reduced and cramped. But in most other respects, the show’s stagecraft--with its abundant use of pyrotechnics--and winning ways remain largely intact.

“Beauty and the Beast” sticks much more closely to its source than the subsequent Disney staging of “The Lion King,” which boldly re-imagines the original’s look and sound. For “B&B;,” performers are cast for their ability to look and sound like their animated counterparts, and the costumes and cartoon-like sets are meant to look like animation come to life--as if the film’s evolution into real life were yet one more transformation underway in the Beast’s enchanted castle.

In the title roles: Susan Owen and Grant Norman, veterans of “Phantom of the Opera” companies.

Owen sings with a chipper, fluttery soprano that opens, at carefully selected moments, to a rousing, clarion belt.

What’s more, she conveys the vim and verve that make Belle--who is brave, brainy, selfless and unafraid of being different--among animation’s most appealing role models for girls.

Norman has the tall, imposing physique needed to complement the horns, tusks and fur that transform him into the Beast, as well as a pleasant bass-baritone singing voice that he uses to especially good effect on the Beast’s big new solo and Act 1 closer, “If I Can’t Love Her.” He gives the show its heart, as he makes the transition from petulant adolescent trapped inside a hideous body to gentle, brave, giving young man.

Ron Wisniski is suave as the human candelabrum Lumiere, and Janet MacEwen is motherly as Mrs. Potts, singing the title song with the requisite Angela Lansbury warble.

Still, one big problem remains--as always--with this stage rendition. At two hours and 45 minutes, it’s too long for even the most patient of young children. With the exception of the Beast’s big song, the half dozen new Alan Menken-Tim Rice songs are extraneous and unmemorable, as is “Human Again,” the Menken-Howard Ashman song left out of the movie.

BE THERE

“Beauty and the Beast,” Orange County Performing Arts Center, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. Tuesdays-Fridays, 8 p.m.; Saturdays, 2 and 8 p.m.; Sundays, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Ends July 23. $21-$61. (714) 740-7878 or (213) 365-3500. Running time: 2 hours, 45 minutes.

Susan Owen: Beauty

Grant Norman: Beast

Chris Hoch: Gaston

Michael Raine: Lefou

Ron Lee Savin: Maurice

Ron Wisniski: Lumiere

A Disney Theatricals production. Book by Linda Woolverton. Music by Alan Menken. Lyrics by Howard Ashman & Tim Rice. Director Robert Jess Roth. Choreographer Matt West. Musical director/conductor Brent-Alan Huffman. Set Stanley A. Meyer. Costumes Ann Hould-Ward. Lights Natasha Katz. Sound Jonathan Deans. Production stage manager Dan W. Langhofer.