THE SKINNY
Disney made one of my favorite animated movies, Beauty and the Beast, into a Broadway show several years ago and it’s now playing at the Oriental Theater in downtown Chicago.
THE STORY
I had the pleasure of seeing the show recently with my nieces and nephews and had a great time. The show-stopping performance was of my favorite song, “Be Our Guest, sung by the character, Lumiere. During the show, however, my 4-year old niece, Caroline, sitting beside me, asked several times, “Is that the real Belle?” “Is the wolf real?” “Is Garçon real?” To which I responded, “Yes.”
THE SCORE
The idea of taking a cartoon and making live-action theatre performance out of it is a no-brainer to us adults (in fact it’s big business), but to a small child, this was a bit of a traumatic event. On the one hand, my niece would have liked to meet the “real Belle,” but was afraid of going near the stage for fear of being bitten by the “real wolf.” This experience was a poignant reminder to me that not all people experience events the same way. Each looks at is with their own lens of experience.
I think this is also an example of the dangers of extending a brand. Does the animated version of Beauty and the Beast now have less impact with my niece because she’s seen the live-action version? Has Disney “moved her cheese” or diluted the brand such that she won’t appreciate their animated films the same way anymore? Will she still want to own a Belle doll now that she’s seen the real Belle? Would she rather have a photograph of the woman playing Belle? Only time will tell, but I’m pretty sure the hundreds of other kids in the theatre that day were processing some of the same questions my niece was asking.
