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THE BEAST RETURNS:
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Opening Friday, March 17: The “tale
as old as time” returns to theaters in
a new live-action film. This Beauty
and the Beast is not an adaptation of
the hit 1994 Broadway stage version,
but a new re-imagining of the story,
as told in the beloved 1991 ani-
mated film musical version. Advance
reviews say it’s quite good, but some
parts of the story and some songs
had more “magic” in the animated
version.
The title characters (Belle and the
Beast) are played by Emma Watson
and Dan Stevens. Kevin Kline plays
Maurice, Belle’s eccentric, but lov-
able father (Kline’s father was
Jewish, but he was raised in his
mother’s Catholic faith). Other major
supporting actors include Emma
Thompson, Ewan McGregor and
Stanley Tucci.
Josh Gad, 36, plays LeFou, the
long-suffering aide-to-camp to Gaston
(a rival for Belle’s hand). Disney says
that LeFou is an explicitly gay charac-
ter in this version and that, of course,
has attracted some controversy. Gad
told People: “What I would say is
that this film is one of inclusiveness.
It’s one that has something to offer
everyone.”
However, like beauty, “explicit”
appears to be in the eye of the behold-
er. LeFou dances with another man at
the end of the film — which Gad says
is “subtle, but incredibly effective” [in
showing he’s gay]. The Variety review-
er differed: “Josh Gad plays Gaston’s
worshipful stooge as maximally silly
and fawning, but I must have missed
the memo where that spells ‘gay.’”
The bedrock of the animated version
and this version are the great songs.
The original film songs, all of which
appear in this version, were written by
composer Alan Menken, now 67, and
lyricist Howard Ashman (1950-1991).
Four new songs, written just for this
film, were penned by Menken and lyri-
cist Tim Rice.
It’s worth noting that nobody
deserves more credit for the revival
of the animated musical film than
Menken and Ashman — and now
those animated hits (The Little
Mermaid, Beauty and Aladdin) are
spurring the revival of live-action
musicals. Meanwhile, Menken has
another hit now running on Broadway
— a musical version of the film
A Bronx Tale (1993). It opened in
Gad
Menken
Scher
November to great reviews and has a
score that is much more rock and roll
than the Beauty score.
OVER ON NETFLIX
Abstract: The Art of Design is a six-part
original Netflix documentary series that
premiered in January. All episodes,
including the fifth one, about Paula
Scher, 68, were posted at the same
time. I didn’t know about Scher — but I
should have, and you should, too. She’s
called by many “the greatest living
female graphic designer in the world.”
It’s impossible to briefly summarize her
work — a sampler would include iconic
record covers and famous graphic work
for New York’s Public Theater. Almost
as good: Scher is a very lively interview
subject. Her husband is famous design-
er Seymour Chwast, 85, who was her
teacher before they married. They are
a really cool Jewish couple — but they
never collaborate. They agreed that they
wouldn’t still be together if they did. •