Original subtitles

Tale as old as time True as it can

be Barely even friends Then

somebody bends Unexpectedly

Just a little change

Small to say the least

scared. Neither one prepared.

Beauty and the Beast.

Ever just the same.

Ever a surprise.

Ever as before.

Ever just as sure.

feel as old as time tune as old as song

bittersweet and strange finding you can

change learning you were wrong certain

as the sun rising in the

Thank you.

And on shows like Star Wars The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels. But before my

career took me to a galaxy far, far away, I was just a young girl growing up

in Orlando, Florida. And I loved Disney.

Yes, shout out to Orlando.

And I was inspired to one day become an actress because of the

iconic...

animation studio films like Beauty and the Beast.

Yes.

No, I don't know about you all, but I will never forget the first time I saw

Beauty and the Beast in the theater.

It literally took my breath away, and it was unlike anything that I had ever seen

before. It was truly a core life memory.

But guess what?

Because today, We are about to make another core memory right here in this

room at this panel as we celebrate the 35th anniversary of this classic

film.

And wait, there's more.

And the acclaimed Broadway show that it inspired.

Now, Beauty and the Beast was released on November 22nd, 1991, and it was

directed by Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise.

Now, it had an all-star cast, including the incredible Disney legend Paige O

'Hara as Belle, Robbie Benson as Beast, Richard White

as Gaston, Jerry...

and technologists.

Now portions of the film were animated at Disney Animations Florida Studio

which was once called Disney MGM Studios at Walt Disney World.

Now Beauty and the Beast was nominated for six Academy Awards and it was the

first animated feature in the history of the Oscars to be nominated for Best

Picture.

Yes.

for Best Song, Beauty and the Beast, and Best Original Score.

Now today we have an incredible lineup of some of the talented actors,

musicians, filmmakers, and artists who brought this incredible story to life.

Now please help me welcome to the stage, and we're kicking this thing off in the

biggest way, so I want to hear the biggest round of applause you can

possibly give me for each panelist. First up...

He supervised the animation of Belle, as well as many other beloved heroines like

Ariel, Jasmine, Mulan, and Tiana.

Please welcome to the stage, Mark Henn.

In addition to the Beauty and the Beast, he's produced beloved Disney animation

films, including The Lion King, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and Atlantis,

The Lost Empire.

Please welcome...

Next up, she's a star of film, Broadway, opera, and she's a Disney fine

artist. Is there anything that she can't do?

Please welcome the voice of Belle Hers-

producer composer who has created the soundtrack of our lives writing music

for films like Beauty and the Beast The Little Mermaid Aladdin and so so much

more please welcome to the stage

Okay, y'all, I can't believe I'm up here on this stage.

This is amazing.

Welcome and congratulations.

35 years.

How are you feeling in this moment right now?

I feel quite old. A lot older, yes.

Oh, my gosh. Well, okay, we're going to dive into all the things.

That video that we watched at the beginning, I mean, I teared up the first

time I saw it. It was incredible.

But, Dawn.

It took a lot to get to that moment, to get in production, to get to that point.

Can you take us on the journey?

Yeah, I think a lot of times people feel, oh, it's Disney and these ideas

come fully formed, dropped from heaven into our brains, and it's so not true.

This is a picture of us in London. I first got the call on Beauty and the

Beast when I was working on Roger Rabbit. We just finished that.

Thank you.

It's my sister over here.

And we worked with a terrific director, Richard Purdom, in London. This is a

picture of us on the left. You can see Tom Stito on the floor with Dick Purdom,

legend Andreas Deja, Glen Keane, Gene Gilmore, a character designer, and a

young Don Hahn in that picture in London.

And then we went on a research trip. We did 20 minutes of the movie. We went to

Shombard in the Loire Valley, and the Beast and Gaston fight on these parapets

later. We used them as inspiration for that.

So we did a lot of work, and then that 20 minutes we showed to our executives,

and they said, well, this isn't working. We threw it all out, changed directors,

and started over.

So the creative process is painful, and it takes a long time.

But we were so fortunate because that's the time when...

Howard Ashman and Alan Menken became available.

Wow. Now, Paige, I mean, where do we even start? Can you tell us about some

of your first memories of becoming Belle?

I mean, what was it like from your perspective creating this now iconic

character?

Well, you know, my five-year-old self here in my mind, falling in love with

Disney at that time, and I've always been a huge fanatic for the animation

films. And Mary Poppins is my favorite film.

Thank you. Of course, other than Beauty and the Beast.

But when I first heard about it, of course, I'd seen Little Mermaid, a huge

hit, brilliant.

Thanks to you and Howard, that film would have never happened.

I don't think you guys know that whole story, but this man made the resurgence

of animation happen.

But I just remember reading about it in the New York Times, and I called my

agent, and I said, you have got to get me an audition for this. And she got me

in there, and I auditioned with 500 other actresses.

a reel-to-reel tape recorder in this little room with Albert Tavares and me,

and that was it.

And I did several auditions after that, and being cast in it was literally life

-changing. It really was, to be honest.

Wow. In a wonderful way.

Yes. Yes, well, I can say this. I think you've changed

all of our lives as well, so thank you.

Thank you.

So, Don, tell us a bit more about the casting process, you know, with Paige

and, you know, the fellow stars of the film. I mean, the cast was incredible.

It was. We went to New York to cast the movie, and that's partially because of

Howard and Alan, because we wanted to go to a Broadway cast, and singers and

those kinds of performers exist in Hollywood, but not to the level that

they exist in New York. We could go see a hundred bells there if we needed to.

And I remember it because Paige walked in and she had this kind of Judy Garland

quality to her voice.

And we kept calling you back and saying, oh, maybe that was just that day. And it

just got better. And the thing, and Howard actually taught us this, we

weren't looking for singers. We were looking for actors that can sing.

We weren't looking for singers that can act.

And Paige is the consummate actress. And I mean, I can point out a million scenes

in the movie where that is so obvious.

But that was the key, is this beautiful voice and a person who could act

anything that we threw at you, including real tears, and sing on top of it.

It's all true.

It's true.

Now, Mark, how did you approach animating a heroine like Belle?

Well, as Don said, it's all about acting.

Animators in my position were kind of collectors of information.

So you're hearing the track, the page laid down. You're looking at the

storyboards. You're getting information from the directors.

And we'd take all this information and put it together to create a performance.

And as you can see there, that was a younger version of me.

And I was at the Florida studio at the time, and I was leading Belle from the

Florida studio.

But it is, it's really about making acting choices, understanding who Belle

is, you know, again, getting a lot of inspiration from Paige's track, and just

kind of putting that all together.

I actually was going to ask, how much did Paige's performance and the

performance of the other actors impact your animation?

Well, it always has a big impact.

Again, you're listening to it. You listen to it repeatedly, listening for

phrasing, listening, of course, for, you know, the acting and the emotion behind

it. And so that's, you know, that's the most important thing. Because to me, it

is an acting job, acting with a pencil instead of me being on stage myself.

Absolutely. He is as much Belle as I am. And we shared this well, for sure.

Actually, thank you for bringing that up, because as a voice of an animated

character myself, it takes a team. You know, for me, it's Ahsoka Tano. I say

Team Tano.

It's Team Belle. It's Team Beauty and the Beast.

Add Linda Wolverton to that list, too. And Howard.

You know, there's a lot of Howard and Belle, too. Yes.

Well, speaking of incredible cast members, you know, Alan, the incredible

Disney legend, Angela Lansbury.

You know...

She was perfect for Mrs. Potts. But is it true that she originally turned down

the role?

Well, yeah, okay.

First of all, there's Angela and Sherry Orbach, two absolute legends.

And they were both amazing, absolutely amazing to work with.

But yes, originally, Howard and I would do our...

to demo our songs and we would play the characters.

And that would be like a blueprint for the performances and also for what we do

with the orchestrations and what we do with the development of the song.

And they sent the demo of Beauty and the Beast to Angela and they came back and

said, well, Angela said, this is not for me.

Which...

Oh, wait a second, which demo did you send?

We said, yours, of course.

And I said, you know, tell us all this time, true as it can be.

I said, no, no, no.

Send Howard's demo.

Tell us all this time.

I said, thank God.

And then Angela said, oh, I get it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And Angela agreed to do it.

And, oh my God, so, both Angela and Jerry, just amazing.

And Angela, I remember that day of that recording session.

Have any of you seen the Howard documentary?

Yes.

Produced by?

Angela had just flown in for that session, and Angela and Jerry were both,

because of Be Our Guest and Beauty and the Beast.

at the same session and howard was there but i think it was clear to all of

us quietly he was not well and um they could not have been

more wonderful with him and the heart that they

put through can i just do one thing when i was about to come off on stage you

know on stage from there i thought Could you imagine if you could actually

announce and have walkout Howard?

Could I?

Yes. I love that idea.

Absolutely.

He's the star of the whole thing. I think we all would have to give it up

for his brilliance.

Every second of Beauty and the Beast has his heart in it.

And I hope in some ineffable way, you know, moments like this, his spirit

knows that we are here.

He's here.

And the effect he's had.

Thank you.

Thank you.

You know what? I don't think any of us have a dry eye in the house.

So, you know, let's have a funny transition because... Paige, what's up

next actually is quite funny. And we have a behind-the-scenes video. I love

all the behind-the-scenes sneak peeks of how you crafted one of Belle's iconic

lines. Let's watch this video and take a look.

Maybe 1,887. Take one.

Gaston, you are positively primeval.

Gaston you are positively primeval Gaston you are positively

primeval Gaston you are positively primeval

Gaston you are positively primeval Gaston you are

positively primeval

You're positively primeval.

That's the way to go.

Oh, Lord.

It's crazy.

Now, I love to hear the directors and everyone cracking up in the background.

How did you think to deliver the line that way?

Well, I owe it to my idols that I studied my whole life in comedy. Those

two are Carol Burnett and Imogene Coca.

Yeah, that's not bad. Not bad. I used to study their comedy.

We never meant for these videos to be seen. These were shot for animators, so

we had a little home video that actually used magnetic tape, which some of you

younger people in the audience, that was actually coded with kind of a brown

thing. Anyway, we shot it for Mark so that he could study Paige's expressions

and that kind of thing. So this was never meant to be seen, and thank God we

shot it.

It was fun to pick on Richard White.

Richard and I were friends for many years before this film happened. We sang

at Houston Grand Opera together. We sang at the Cairo Opera House.

We were good buddies, so picking on him was really easy.

He's still great and still sings like he used to. Do we have a second?

One other very iconic line and the story behind it, which is new and a bit

alarming.

And she was singing, remember the story? She was singing, new and a bit alarming.

I couldn't get it right. And Howard was on there. Howard was, at this point, put

me in the studio. He was on the phone from, I guess, bed.

And he said, tell Paige, on alarming's sake, try Zand.

It's just you know that simple note and you

know, yeah, but it goes to your point about acting first Because she's acting,

and then that impacts the song.

Well, so we actually have a rarely seen, rough version of that scene. So let's

watch. I didn't know this.

Hello, Belle.

Bonjour, Gaston.

Gaston, may I have my book, please?

How can you read this? There's no pictures.

Well, some people use their imagination.

Belle, it's about time you got your head out of those books and paid attention to

more important things.

Like me.

The whole town's talking about it. It's not right for a woman to read.

Soon she starts getting ideas and thinking.

Gaston, you are positively primeval.

Why, thank you, Belle.

What do you say you and me take a walk over to the tavern and take a look at my

trophies? Maybe some other time.

What's wrong with her? She's crazy. She's gorgeous.

Please, Gaston, I can't. I have to get home to help my father.

goodbye that crazy old moon he needs all the help he can get don't talk about my

father that way yeah don't talk about her father that way my father is not

crazy he's a genius

that

really

was the perfect reading of that line.

It's very cool to see the behind the scenes.

Now Mark, I want to go back to what we already kind of briefly talked about,

but now that we've seen the footage, did you watch all the footage? Like how much

of Paige's performance in the studio is in the animation?

Well, like I said before, it's a lot of information from various sources,

storyboards, directors, as well as pages, performance.

As I mentioned, I was working at the Florida studio at the time, and Andreas,

who was animating Gaston, he was in California.

So we had to work out the logistics for working cross-country, which really

isn't that difficult, because what you find is in a... characters where you

have multiple characters, somebody's going to lead the action.

So depending on the scene, maybe it's Gaston is kind of the lead, Belle

reacting to him, vice versa. Sometimes it's Belle acting out first and then

Gaston gets added in. So it's really not too difficult to work out all the

logistics. But again, it's all about the acting, you know, listening to how

Paige's performance, you know, the highs and lows, the phrasing and all that kind

of thing.

But also, I mean, I think a lot of us in this room were around in the 90s, the

previous century.

Keep in mind, this was before video chats.

You know, this was when there was a landline and beepers.

And you couldn't just pick up a video chat with someone. No, we had clay

tablets.

Sent by mule, right? Yeah, across the country.

Sorry, back to you.

Okay, well, I am loving this behind-the-scenes footage and the

stories. Now we have one more really fun look behind the scenes to share.

Don, can you set this one up for us? Well, Mark, you mentioned the

inspiration of storyboard artists, and this was their head of story.

on Beauty and the Beast, Roger Allers. Now, in a bittersweet way, we lost Roger

earlier this year.

Roger Allers is a brilliant story person, worked on Mermaid, worked on so

many of these films, and directed Lion King later.

We captured him pitching Be Our Guest for the very first time on video,

and it's because we were shooting some early stuff for the ABC program 2020,

and they were following us around for a full year.

to show people what the art of animation was.

And to capture what the art of a storyboard artist was, we filmed Roger

pitching his storyboards on Be Our Guest, and we have that for you to take

a look at.

In a performance worthy of Robin Williams, storyboard supervisor Roger

Allers raced through the picture layout, changed the boards, and mimed how the

song, called Be Our Guest, will turn into an extravaganza of dancing saucers

and spoons, led by a singing candlestick, serving up a banquet for

the beauty.

With a little imagination, those pencil sketches on a storyboard start to come

to life.

It's a performance.

I think people, you don't realize what a performance and how much energy comes

from that story group that inspires all of us.

This is so cool. This is so cool.

Now, okay, Alan, when you and Howard would step into a story like this,

we've already talked about it a little bit, but I really want to expand on...

what you're looking for when it comes to actors, because obviously they need to

have incredible voices.

I mean, Paige is a Broadway star, so they need to sing, but the acting has to

come first. Why is that so important to you?

Well, each song... How long do you have?

What? How much time do you have? Go ahead.

And then also I want to know, because...

not only do they need to act, but then how do you decide what moment becomes a

song? I didn't get to the first question yet.

I'm just so excited.

Sorry. Are we in a hurry?

Okay, well.

First of all, yes.

It's voice talent for an animated film, first of all.

And each song is designed for an iconic kind of...

performance, iconic kind of character that really captures the tone and the

style of the song, of the culture it comes from. All of the

dynamics of that song are carried by that voice.

So that's going to be the most important thing, first of all.

As far as song moments,

any musical is part of a structure.

You're telling a story through a protagonist that goes through a journey,

and you're looking for how you can continue to move the story inexorably

forward, capturing the moments that you need to capture that are usually the

emotional turning points.

But you also are balancing certain elements.

You want to have a song like a Beauty and the Beast that's really...

a montage but also it's mrs potts singing it to her son jip and telling

him this timeless story but then you know you want to have that big piece of

animation where you can have a production number like be our guest and

then you have a number like gaston which is pure comedic extravagance i mean the

thing with that one howard was expert at beating up his villains

And he really was. I mean, he was just slapping, you know, lyrically slapping

Gaston all over the place.

I use antlers in all of my decorating.

We take that, you know, for granted.

But I go, he put the lyric in front of me. It's like, I use antlers in all of

my decorating. It's brilliant.

Every last inch of me is covered with hair.

Or he's talking about who's got the cleft in his chin.

And he's really capturing the dynamic between LeFou and Gaston and Gaston's

vanity and all of that. So again, in each song moment, you have to have the

right voice and you have to have exactly the right approach to that moment and

how the moments all interact with each other musically.

And then I have the blessing of being able to score it, so I'm taking those

themes throughout the film and also tying that together.

And I got to say, Howard twisted my arm about scoring these films. We started

with Mermaid.

I had never scored a film before. And he said, you have to do this. You have to

do this. I go, I don't know what I'm doing.

But, you know. Thank God he did not talk you into it.

So it's... Yeah, it's a... It's a big question, but yes.

Well, it's... It sounds like, and I never had the chance to meet him, I've

heard so much about Howard Ashman, and it just sounds like he was a really

great friend.

And... Well, more... It was just... Howard was just such a brilliant

creator of these...

of the interface between sung songs and sung material and telling

a story.

He had the essence of what was classic going all the way back to the earliest

days of Disney, and yet at the same time being entirely contemporary.

And he had such a depth of knowledge of the theatrical genre.

He would come in and say things like, oh, you know, Gaston, he's like...

Milus Gloriosus in Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. And we would

all go, yes, Milus Gloriosus. And then we would go home at nighttime and had to

look up who that was.

Yeah. It's true.

It's so true.

Now, Alan, you went on to write the music along with Tim Rice for the

legendary stage production of Beauty and the Beast.

Which was the...

production of Disney Theatrical Group and premiered on Broadway in 1994.

But let me read off a few statistics about the power of this show.

Broadway audiences loved the production immediately, leading to an extraordinary

13-year run, and today it still ranks as one of the longest running shows

in the history of Broadway.

The production was nominated for nine Tony Awards, winning for best

costume design.

Now worldwide, there have been productions in 17 countries.

It's been seen by more than 38 million people and translated into 17

different languages.

Now we can't talk about Broadway.

without bringing out the original Belle in Broadway's Beauty and the Beast.

She received Tony Award and Drama Desk nominations for Best

Actress. She then went on to voice Megara in Disney Animations. Hercules,

she's going to be inducted as a Disney Legend.

Congratulations. Thank you so much.

Thank you, thank you. Aren't you loving her outfit? I'm dying. It's so good.

I told Susan she could borrow it after I'm done.

Okay, now Susan and Alan, we have to talk about Broadway.

So the show was the Broadway debut for both of you and for Disney.

So tell us about what it was like to be a part of this historic production.

What was it like taking it from the film to the stage, Alan?

That was the first... First of all, we faced a lot of cynicism.

100%. Yeah.

And we got some rough reviews, by the way. Yeah, you want to hear mine?

Ben Brantley, New York Times.

Poor little Susan Egan. Apparently acting wasn't a prerequisite for the

role. No!

David Richards. Oh, it's David Richards. Wait a second.

Okay, wait a sec.

In the review... But we're not at all bitter.

Wait, wait, wait.

It's been 32 years. We should get over it. Oh, no, I remember all my bad

reviews. But anyway, in the review, he was ridiculing a lot of things about the

show. And he's mentioning one, I think, stage move.

And he said, oh, my God, the astonishments rarely cease.

Meaning, oh my God, look at that.

And The Astonishments Rarely Cease was over the marquee of the show for like

14 years.

That is exactly right. But of course there was an important review before the

Broadway review, and it was the review of the film from Frank Rich.

And Frank Rich, this was for the animated feature, and it said the best

Broadway show of this year.

was an animated feature from Disney called Beauty and the Beast. Right,

right. So, I had been trying to talk Disney for years.

I was talking to Michael Eisner about, oh, we should, you know, I played in

various shows of mine. He said, Broadway is not good business for Disney.

Frank Rich's article, I said, bing!

Light bulb went off.

Maybe this is a good idea. And then Rob Roth.

had a wonderful concept, directed the original production.

In adapting it, you're looking for certainly how do you expand it. One of

the major expansion points was the Beast.

We were never able to give Robbie Benson as the Beast a song to sing in the

animated, which I think made sense. I don't think it would have really worked

in the animated in that context.

But that was the main new element was having the beast sing.

That was a big part. And it was exciting because the movie's 90 minutes and the

play's two and a half hours. So you had an hour more material to create. So they

already loved this character.

I mean, it's because of everything you did. But then getting to come out and

they already love that blue dress.

They're responding to the blue dress. And then to get to share new ideas from

you. Also, in the medium of film, whether it's animation or live action,

you have close-ups. And you see the character's face and you go, oh, he's

noticing this or thinking this or feeling that.

On stage, it's a different medium. And it's more of an opportunity to express

that. in songs. Songs that are in scents can be the close-up. And Human Again.

Yes, thank you.

The best song in the show.

Human Again was one of the gems that Howard and I wrote, and we could never

figure out how to get it. It was just such, it was like a nine-minute number.

And it also involved a lot of plot elements.

As you're developing an animated musical, story changes are happening

right and left.

But we were able to get that song in for the Broadway show, which was immense.

And it is the essence of the whole story. It really is. What it means to be

human. Can I change?

Can I become human again? And what does that mean? And the transformative powers

of love.

We got to listen to that. Terry and I, the Beast and I, we would sit up in the

library after our scene and we would just face upstage and get to listen to

this cast sing that song in three, four time.

And it just, it warmed my heart every single night. It's beautiful. Now,

Susan, is that one of the advantages that you had as playing one of the few

human characters in the story?

So Michael Eisner used to call me the bag lady because I had a basket.

and nobody else on stage, they either couldn't bend over or they didn't have

hands. So whenever something fell, like a prop, I would just, in the middle of

the scene, go and get it and put it in my basket.

And then at the end of the play, they would come find the props.

Yeah.

But it's like, poor Gary. He had candlestick hands. Like, there was

nothing he could do.

And then Beth and...

Beth was like in a teapot costume, also like, yeah, useless.

Things you don't think about until you're in the costume.

Okay, well, we have one more person here who can definitely understand that.

She's joining us from the current North American tour.

first produced Beauty and the Beast to launch in North America in over 25

years, which reunites members of the show's original creative team, including

Alan Menken and writer Linda Wolverton and director choreographer Matt West.

The production is currently playing at the Hollywood Pantages Theater in Los

Angeles. Yes, so please go check it out.

It's now through September 6th or now.

I don't know.

There's a teleprompter, so don't trust me on dates.

It's in Los Angeles through September 6th, and then it will be in the

Sagerstam Center for the Performing Arts in Orange County from September 22nd

through October 11th. So please welcome to the stage, currently starring as

Belle, Kira.

Now, Kira, it's in your name.

I mean, you were born to play Belle.

Were you, I have to know, were you named after Belle?

I wish I was that cool.

It's a family name, but I'm so grateful to have it, yeah.

Well, welcome.

I mean, okay, speaking of, whether you were named after her or not, you are a

part of this legacy.

What does it feel like to be continuing the legacy right now? I don't know why

I'm here today. I'm like sitting on this stage with these...

absolutely iconic creators of this story, which is the reason everybody is

sitting in this room today. We all love this story after 35 years.

So it is truly just my goal to get out of the way and let the story tell

itself. It's so fun.

Belle is so grounded. She's so kind, but she's fierce and she stands up for

herself. And that's something that I try to embody in my life. So I really just

try and let the story speak for itself.

You know what? I just have to shout out a second. To all the kids who felt

awkward, I was the kid who beat to my own drum.

Belle really helped me. Belle made me feel seen.

And I think we all related to Belle in that way.

So thank you. As an 11-year-old girl who needed to feel seen, thank you.

Okay, so...

It's a tale as old as time.

This story is timeless.

Why is it still resonating with fans after 35 years?

And Kira, I'll start with you, but anyone else that wants to chime in?

What I see and experience at every stage door in every city across America that

we've been in is there's a generational connection. We get so many people who

come to the show with their children who say, this was the first Broadway show I

ever went to, and now I'm bringing my kid to their first show.

And I always ask this question whenever anybody says it's their first show. I

say, would you come back and try another one?

always gotten a yes so i think what's so awesome about disney being in theater is

it brings people to the theater who have never sat in a theater and watched a

musical before and they always want to come back and try another one so

disney's bringing people fans theater fans and i'm like yay um yeah i know

it's it's wonderful um but i also think this story

there's a character in this story that everybody has in their lives. Everybody

has a Gaston, or they have a Mrs. Potts, or they have a Belle, or they feel like

they are a Belle.

And I think for 35 years, people have continued to connect with these

characters that were so well-written and so fleshed out.

I just went and watched the film last week. I'd go back and revisit it. It's

just brilliant.

How has this incredible musical impacted Broadway and just theater in general?

I mean, Alan, Susan, Kira.

So I sort of have a theory from 94.

You know, they didn't know if people would come and they didn't know who

would come. And they were sort of telling us and warning us, the

executives, if there's kids running up and down the aisles, you know, just

expect it. That may happen. And it never happened. They were enraptured from

the... beginning because they knew that film and they had played that VHS tape

backwards and forwards.

And it is exactly what Kara is saying, that it brought people to the theater

for the first time and it wasn't just the kids, it was also the parents. And

so it created these theater goers.

What's interesting is when I first moved to New York in 1992, theater was kind of

dying out. It was some British musicals and some revivals. And Beauty and the

Beast was a shot in the arm.

And it brought families. And then I pontificate that two years later, Rent

brought the teenagers.

And then that was it.

That was it. Now Broadway had a new golden era and all kinds of shows

followed. Following in Disney's footsteps, taking their film IP and

creating musicals like Hairspray and Legally Blonde. And, you know, everybody

was going to get in on it because Disney was smart to go there first.

Okay, well, since we have three Bells on stage,

I know, right? How cool.

Paige, I want to start with you.

Tell us what's your favorite part about playing Bell.

Well, you know, it's things like you were talking about, that Bell has

enabled people who feel like they're out of place to feel like they're special

and that it's really okay to not be okay, and that's really not the problem.

You just have to...

Enjoy who you are and embrace that person.

I do these events and it's constantly, I have a lot of women that come up to me

and start crying and they said, I felt like such an idiot when I was growing up

and I was a bookworm and people made fun of me all the time and I saw your movie

and now I realize it's really cool to be different.

And so that part just resonates and it's there forever.

Susan, what do you love? I think we all relate to that. I mean, finding that

inner sort of outcast that doesn't quite fit in.

And then I also just love her journey. The Beast's journey is so clear, right?

But Belle also has a journey. She has a preconception about the town. She thinks

the Beast is going to be one way. And then things even change for her, and her

own heart opens up. And it just, through the fear and through the challenge and

through the uncertainty, she just takes it moment by moment.

makes a choice and the choice is always upward aimed and it tells us that like

even in the midst of all of the things that we might be going through just

breathe in that moment and make a choice and then just make the next choice and

then and then she got a yellow dress so they were all the right choice

such such wisdom can you just narrate

can I like wake up to that every morning

Kira, what about you? When I first saw Susan on Broadway, I was sitting and my

husband and I and Michael were sitting in the chair and I said, I feel like I'm

watching my little sister on stage.

I just fell in love with Susan.

I just did. It was so cool.

I'll never forget that night. That's when we met.

The ultimate compliment.

I love you. Oh my gosh. I just got chills.

Kira, what about you? What do you love about playing Belle?

I can't follow that.

Honestly,

what you were saying rings so true. I'm very much in the process of still doing

this every single night.

And something that I love about it is the moment to moment. She really gets a

chance to be very present exactly where she is. She's not mad. She's just right.

She thinks through things very well. She doesn't do things out of malice. She

just... knows who she is and believes in herself and knows that there is a

greater life for her out there.

And it's just amazing to get to live in this world. But for me, it's soaking in

the music every single night. I get to listen to that score every single night

and just be taken away into my fairy tale land.

It's the most beautiful thing I've ever experienced in my life.

I have to say that just like Ariel in Mermaid or

Jasmine in Aladdin, Howard, again, I've got to keep coming back to Howard, had

the gift of taking both the iconic and the totally contemporary and

combining them in the character in a way that makes them just speak to a modern

audience in a really deeply...

emotional and also familiar way in a timeless way i i just watched the film

last week and it it holds up it it resonates no matter what age uh and i

found myself crying and changed all over again so thank you and susan and kira

speaking of music you have a special treat for us

I'm going to let you take the stage, and we're actually going to step aside for a

moment. So you may not know this, but the North American tour of Beauty and

the Beast opened last night at the Pantages.

This one here did two shows yesterday, went to the party for 45 minutes, then

got in a car to come down here to be with all of you and all of us today.

But some months ago, I got to see this magnificent production in Nashville,

where I live. And Kira Bell was so gracious to let me sing a little song

with her. And I thought, what better way to do it? You want to do it again? I

think we're going to sing again.

Yeah. Let's do it. Let's do it.

What song is it? It's a mystery. Do you guys know what it is?

Tale as old as time.

True as it can be

Barely even friends

Then somebody lands Unexpectedly

Just a little change

Small to say the least

Neither one prepared beauty and the beast.

Ever just the same.

Ever a surprise.

Ever as before.

Ever just a show.

picture moment

okay

one more one more

one more just for them all right let's hear it one more

time for Don

On behalf of Walt Disney Animation Studios, thank you all for joining

us today.

Enjoy D23, the ultimate Disney fan event.