‘Beauty And The Beast’ Tour Announces New Cast

Disney’s Olivier Award-winning stage musical Beauty and the Beast has announced new dates and casting for its UK and Ireland Tour.

Olivier Award nominee Matt West will direct and choreograph the re-imagined and re-designed new production. He will also lead a team that includes composer Alan Menken and lyricist Tim Rice.

The tour will open at The Bristol Hippodrome on Wednesday 25 August 2021. Tour stops after Bristol include Liverpool, Edinburgh and Cardiff, with the show heading for Dublin in the autumn of 2022.

The new tour had previously been delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Courtney Stapleton (Six the Musical) and Emmanuel Kojo ( Girl From the North Country) will play Belle and the Beast respectively.

The supporting cast includes Tony Award nominee Gavin Lee ( Mary Poppins) as Lumiere, Tom Senior ( The Pirates of Penzance) as Gaston, Sam Bailey ( Blood Brothers) as Mrs. Potts, and Nigel Richards (The Phantom of the Opera) as Cogsworth.

Martin Ball (Les Misérables) will play Maurice alongside Samantha Bingley ( The Secret Garden) as the Wardrobe, Emma Caffrey ( Curtains) as Babette, and Louis Stockil ( Miss Saigon) as Le Fou.

reports that, among the re-imagined features for the 2021 production, is an exuberant tap dance accompanying ‘Be Our Guest.’ This sequence was specifically designed with Lee in mind, given his previous tap performances in Mary Poppins and Sponegob Squarepants.

All tour dates and information are available on the Beauty and the Beast website.

Words by Katie Heyes

Originally published at https://www.indiependent.co.uk on May 6, 2021.